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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization by University of Pennsylvania

4.6
stars
2,686 ratings

About the Course

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....

Top reviews

SE

Oct 6, 2022

This was an excellent course in the history of ancient Egypt. I have always been fascinated by their culture & this course taught me many things that i was not aware of. I really enjoyed this course.

AR

May 20, 2023

The course was very interactive and offers a tons of activities. The teacher was very nice and the teaching was very easy to understand. The assignments were a bit challenging but very interesting.

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651 - 675 of 817 Reviews for Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization

By Rebecca C

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Dec 26, 2019

A very informative course with a lot of amazing detail included. Highly recommend to others with an interest in Ancient Egypt. Associated reading texts were great and the videos were filled with additional interesting information, however some of the links on the additional reading pages are no longer active.

By Heidi W

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Mar 12, 2021

This course was great although the professor is a bit, well, not the most exciting of speakers. The quizzes seem to include some things that are not in the video lectures and don't seem to be in the suggested readings either. Perhaps they were more clearly covered in the textbook(s) which I did not purchase.

By Elizabeth S

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May 25, 2020

Very good course! Easy to follow with the videos and the examples used were great! Recommend paying attention to the forum questions even if you are not paying for the certificate fully; it helps to recap the information at the end of each week. Could easily take this course while doing multiple others.

By Alisse S

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Aug 16, 2017

Wonderful bounty of information, but organization of course in short, segmented videos, all titled the same name, were hard to follow. If there were bullet points or video topic names covered, it would have been much easier to organize note taking. Overall, though, incredible class with in-depth detail.

By Annewsa G

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Jun 30, 2017

The knowledge I acquired was very insightful and all inclusive. It clears your fundamental concept of the politics, cults, myth, and ritual of ancient Egypt. The lectures cover diverse topics and attention to the lectures are enough to understand the course to the point of repeating them to others.

By Patrick Q

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Mar 10, 2021

There are some updates to do with ramps to build the pyramids that simply did not exist. It would have been preferable that Egyptologists make use of true experts such as: architect and geophysicist to understand how the pyramids were really constructed. Otherwise the course is nice as a whole.

By Daniel S

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Feb 17, 2019

I love the course, the content, and Dr. Silverman's book. I only have one minor "complaint." The good teacher is very hard to follow in his script reading. His lecture isn't fluid, and he seems to show little passion for the subject. This makes a huge difference in presentation, in my opinion.

By James S

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Feb 19, 2021

I thoroughly enjoyed the course. My only issue is that in certain videos the subtitles do not properly align with what is being said - this is particularly true for week 5. Apart from that this is a fantastic introduction to Ancient Egypt that anyone with an interest would enjoy.

By Angela G

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Jun 25, 2020

I love the setting for the lectures, but I wish I could have seen more the Penn collection. I love that the information is clear, concise and for the most part chronologically organized. Thank you for an informative and entertaining way to learn about ancient Egyptian cultures.

By Eric M

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Jun 7, 2023

This is an old-style course -- there's a lot of formal information delivered in a formal style. If you have an interest in studying Egypt as an egyptologist this is the perfect intro course for you. If you want entertainment, look elsewhere. Although the pix are great.

By paul g

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Mar 22, 2021

If this course is enhanced at some point, it would be very instructive for the Professor to closely examine the characters and drawings in several hieroglyphs and stela and point out the specifics of how modern interpreters came to the understanding of how to "read" them.

By Judy B

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Aug 26, 2019

Pretty interesting topics and content. Delivery was a little hard to get through - sometimes the volume was hard to hear (with all volume turned up). Speaker is very, very, very monotone and dry, which sometimes makes it hard to concentrate. Overall, a great overview.

By Nabeel M

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May 18, 2021

fantastic content and very good spread of information. There were the odd sentences in the scripting that weren't completely clear in the information they were conveying but this only happened two or three times in the entire six weeks. A completely worthwhile course.

By Jeannine C

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Jun 10, 2017

The videos were short and the content was informative, very to the point. The consistent tone of the instructor helped make listening to the information more easy to assimilate in my opinion. I would like to see a more advanced class on this topic with this professor.

By Griffin E

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Jan 26, 2022

Not the most engaging or thrilling course of all time, but one that I still certainly enjoyed. Ancient Egypt is a fascinating civilization. I took the course to enjoy learning more about them and that's exactly what I got. Good length too -- not too short or long.

By Peter

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Apr 19, 2020

Interesting material, it would have been 5 stars but the delivery is a bit dull and you can tell it is being read as you can hear the flipchart being turned. The collections you are introduced to are fascinating and there is much information and lots to see.

By Ingeborg B

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Jan 6, 2017

It was not quite easy to listen to professor Silverman in the lectures and remember the details later. But I very much appretiated the suggestions for further reading. All in all the course helped me to get further in my studies on Ancient Egypt.

By Amber B

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Aug 20, 2017

I had fun with this course and definitely learned a lot from it. It seemed easier than it should have been for being labeled an intermediate course, I felt it should have been more in depth for that ranking. Overall good course if a bit basic.

By Rosario R N

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Aug 3, 2020

I really enjoyed the course and I´ll be more than happy to take other courses with the University of Pennsylvania. During this course I have clarified many concepts of Ancient Egypt civilization that before were not clear for me. Thank you

By josh

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Oct 28, 2020

Really fun and engaging class. I really liked Dr. Silverman's presentation and layout. I wish the course had more course work, like smaller assignments, as the only requirement for grading was end of week quizzes. Very rewarding experience.

By Heather L

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Dec 9, 2016

A very good basic introduction to Ancient Egypt. But, if you have already taken a similar course or read several books on the topic, you won't find anything new. The instructor knows his stuff but doesn't seem very passionate or engaging.

By Sanjeet A

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Feb 11, 2017

A good introduction to the history and culture of the ancient Egyptian people. If you are truly interested in the subject, further independent research is absolutely required to gain more than a perfunctory understanding of the topic.

By Victoria E

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Jun 11, 2020

This was a great course and introduction to Ancient Egypt. The chosen topics were interesting and helped to put the information we were provided into context. Looking forward to starting the second course in the series.

By Fontaine E

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Jun 11, 2022

Very interesting content, at least for a beginner like me. Maybe the media could be a bit more dynamic : it seems tje professor appearing in the videos is reading a text, which makes him sound a little "artificial".

By Brett B

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Jul 4, 2019

Very informative. Video commentary is a little dry but the further reading section offers a lot. I find it is necessary to purchase the recommended book in order to really get a good understanding of the course.