Semester:
Offered:
Peter Der Manuelian (Department of Anthropology and of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations)
First-Year Seminar 30G 4 credits (fall term) Enrollment: Limited to 12
Note: Circumstances permitting, field trips to the Peabody Museum, the MFA, Harvard’s Visualization Center (Giza Pyramids in 3D), and the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, will bring the HU–MFA Expedition to life.
Mysterious pyramids, colossal royal statues, tiny gold jewelry, decorated tomb chapels, temples, settlements, fortresses, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. This was the excavation legacy in Egypt and Sudan of the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Expedition. Led by Egyptologist George Reisner (1867–1942; new biography just published), this expedition revolutionized archaeological method, and put Harvard Egyptology on the world stage, all during British control of the Egyptian government, French control of Egyptian antiquities, and Egyptian yearning for independence. This course explores 20th century and modern archaeology and Egyptology, racism and decolonization in cultural heritage, Harvard and MFA history, museology and artifact repatriation. Students will access unpublished archival documents at Harvard and elsewhere, and will research important expedition sites, staff members and momentous discoveries.