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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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601 - 625 of 817 Reviews for Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization

By Nikhil1993 R

Oct 27, 2019

Excellent

By Antonio N L

Feb 3, 2018

Excellent

By Antonio G

Dec 31, 2017

very good

By Grace

Aug 24, 2023

非常有意思的课程

By jorge c

Jul 6, 2020

NOTA DEZ

By Jovan S

Oct 7, 2019

Great!!!

By 秦铭蔚

Aug 4, 2019

great!!!

By Matias P

Jun 21, 2019

Nice! :)

By Roohi N

Jun 1, 2022

awesome

By Omar O

Dec 16, 2022

thanks

By kohn

Nov 19, 2016

Great

By Akshaya

Jun 13, 2020

Nice

By Hyejin P

Dec 5, 2018

good

By 王佑誠

Jan 6, 2018

good

By kholuodmohamed

Jul 21, 2022

👍

By Farzad S

Mar 22, 2023

.

By Darlene S

Jun 11, 2022

By Anastasia V

May 6, 2022

G

By elaine c

Feb 7, 2017

G

By Tarık T

Dec 4, 2022

This is a nice introduction to Ancient Egypt and there is a lot of good information. The length of the videos are very good but you do not need the introductory clip and the music every time. It gets boring after listening to it 10 times.

I would like to make a few additional suggestions

1- The speaker Prof Silverman is certainly a world expert in this field, but he is simply reading from a script in the most uninteresting and driest possible way. It is simply boring to listen to him but individuals who love to learn more about this topic will endure anyway. Is there a way to make the speeches more interesting and lively?

2- I think there needs to be more substantive information and more data presentation as to how we know what we know. It is critical to mention where the information is obtained during the videos, not as recommended reading at the end. XYZ publications demonstrate that xxxx was recognized as the king in yyy tomb. etc.

3- It is also helpful to provide more context by referring to what is happening in different parts of the world at the same time. Especially for middle and new kingdoms and certainly afterwards, Egypt's history is much more connected to the surrounding countries.

In summary, I would like to say I enjoyed this course and I am glad to have taken it. Thank you.

By Benjamin B h

Jul 19, 2021

Overall the course was really great, flexible and an easy way to learn about Egyptian History. We are living in a time where a lot of the current idea's are being challenged in regards to Ancient Egypt, in the most part I thought David did a great job of just sticking to the facts, but also pointing out where things are current beliefs or assumptions based on the evidence at hand. Example he states the Pyramids were 'most likely built the the Egyptians' in the first Dynasty under its 2nd King - Khufu. I like this approach, I think we need to be open minded and flexible so we can go where the evidence takes us, not try and manipulate which evidence is put forward and mock other ideas that might seem somewhat far fetched. So the ancient astronaut theory is extreme and somewhat far fetched, but not impossible. I don't believe that the Pyramids were built by Ancient Astronauts but the current evidence to support them being built by Khufu is in no way air tight and convincing. Therefore the AA theory has space to breed and grow, so I guess my point is perhaps David should just say he doesn't believe that theory and there is no solid evidence to support it.

By Mischa R

May 23, 2021

This course was a lot of fun. Professor Silverman visibly enjoys talking about this subject and he is very knowledgable. The course is a good overview of Ancient Egyptian culture, detailing the most important aspects. It is clearly an introduction to Ancient Egypt, not an all-encompassing course.

The book Ancient Egypt by professor Silverman et al was extremely useful throughout the course, and I highly recommend finding a copy or consulting an online resource. Each week corresponds to 1 or 2 chapters from this book, so it's the ideal companion guide.

My only points of criticism are the tests. Each test contains at least 1 question that I did not find the answer to in the videos or accompanying book, and it's a bit unclear to me where we would've found the answer to these questions. Nevertheless, this is fairly limited and the tests are perfectly doable if you've followed along.

By Susan E B

Oct 22, 2017

As I was going through the course, it struck me that I was hearing almost the same thing I studied in my courses in the early 1970's in which the material for the sphinx and Giza pyramids was based on determinations by "scholars" from the 1880's and early 1900's. I was also surprised that no consideration was given for more recent re-interpretations of the timeframe for the sphinx, in view of studies done on the possible water erosion, possible reshaping of the head and so on. To me, these theories are worth mentioning as possibilities; thus, I felt some disappointment.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the course overall and enjoyed seeing so many different artifacts that helped define different eras in the history of Egypt. I also enjoyed learning about the dig in which the university is involved. Thanks!

By Val R

May 31, 2020

Very good material, very well presented and paced. The opportunity to see the artifacts in the Penn museum is well worth your time. The instructor is engaging and knowledgable without being tiresome, and many of the same concepts or reinforced from lesson to lesson so you get a better idea of how all this information fits together.

I took off one star for the quizzes (note that they cover both the videos and supplemental readings, which of course if fair, but it doesn't tell you that). You cannot see what answer you gave when you check your score, so you're left guessing. A layout showing your answer vs. the correct one woud be a helpful learning reinforcement.

Also question #9 on the Week 6 quiz has two possible correct answers, according to the video.

By Richard F

Dec 29, 2021

A very clear introduction with a highly knowledgeable guide. He is not the most enthusiastic guy and could seem quite boring, but he is highly informative. The quiz questions don't work all that well. The spacing is odd at times. The balance of questions is very hard to predict. Also I wasn't able to check up on my mistakes, so as to find the correct answers, but this might be my incompetence. Somehow I wasn't able to access the discussion until I had posted my own contribution, which meant that what I had to say did not take account of what others had already said. However, these problems apart it was a good introduction to the subject.