Wonders of Ancient Egypt: A Free Online Course from the University of Pennsylvania

From David Sil­ver­man, a pro­fes­sor and cura­tor of Egyp­tol­ogy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia, comes a free online course, Won­ders of Ancient Egypt. The course descrip­tion reads:

Colos­sal pyra­mids, impos­ing tem­ples, gold­en trea­sures, enig­mat­ic hiero­glyphs, pow­er­ful pharaohs, strange gods, and mys­te­ri­ous mum­mies are fea­tures of Ancient Egypt­ian cul­ture that have fas­ci­nat­ed peo­ple over the mil­len­nia. The Bible refers to its gods, rulers, and pyra­mids. Neigh­bor­ing cul­tures in the ancient Near East and Mediter­ranean wrote about its god-like kings and its seem­ing­ly end­less sup­ply of gold. The Greeks and Romans describe aspects of Egyp­t’s cul­ture and his­to­ry.

As the 19th cen­tu­ry began, the Napoleon­ic cam­paign in Egypt high­light­ed the won­ders of this ancient land, and pub­lic inter­est soared. Not long after, Cham­pol­lion deci­phered Egyp­t’s hiero­glyphs and paved the way for oth­er schol­ars to reveal that Egypt­ian texts dealt with med­i­cine, den­tistry, vet­eri­nary prac­tices, math­e­mat­ics, lit­er­a­ture, and account­ing, and many oth­er top­ics. Then, ear­ly in the 20th cen­tu­ry, Howard Carter dis­cov­ered the tomb of Tutankhamun and its fab­u­lous con­tents. Exhi­bi­tions of this trea­sure a few decades lat­er result­ed in the world’s first block­buster, and its revival in the 21st cen­tu­ry has kept inter­est alive.

Join Dr. David Sil­ver­man, Pro­fes­sor of Egyp­tol­ogy at Penn, Cura­tor in Charge of the Egypt­ian Sec­tion of the Penn Muse­um, and cura­tor of the Tutankhamun exhi­bi­tions on a guid­ed tour of the mys­ter­ies and won­ders of this ancient land. He has devel­oped this online course and set it in the gal­leries of the world famous Penn Muse­um. He uses many orig­i­nal Egypt­ian arti­facts to illus­trate his lec­tures as he guides stu­dents as they make their own dis­cov­ery of this fas­ci­nat­ing cul­ture.

You can take Won­ders of Ancient Egypt for free by select­ing the audit option upon enrolling. If you want to take the course for a cer­tifi­cate, you will need to pay a fee.

Won­ders of Ancient Egypt will be added to our list, 1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Harvard’s Dig­i­tal Giza Project Lets You Access the Largest Online Archive on the Egypt­ian Pyra­mids (Includ­ing a 3D Giza Tour)

Pyra­mids of Giza: Ancient Egypt­ian Art and Archaeology–a Free Online Course from Har­vard

A 3,000-Year-Old Painter’s Palette from Ancient Egypt, with Traces of the Orig­i­nal Col­ors Still In It