Academic year/semester: 2025/26/2

ECTS Credits: 5

Available for: Only for the faculty’s students

Lecture hours: 3
Seminarium:0
Practice: 0
Laboratory: 0
Consultation: 0

Prerequisites: No required previous studies. IMPORTANT: Students can choose whether ONLY MSc courses, or ONLY vertical studio courses! Exceptions we can make on individual decisions based on special requests, maximum for less than 50% of the courses - please contact our international coordinator.

Course Leader: Zoltán Horváth

Faculty: Ybl Miklós Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, 1146 Budapest, Thököly út 74.

Course Description:
The course offers an opportunity for those interested in ancient Egyptian civilization to obtain a more detailed view of the developments of tomb architecture from the Predynastic to the early Ptolemaic Period. Students may learn about the wide range of environmental, political, socio-cultural and technological conditions the internal dynamics of which have shaped the evolution of ancient Egyptian mortuary architecture for more than four thousand years, from the early pit burials, through the mastabas of the Old and Middle Kingdoms as well as the New Kingdom royal and private rock-cut tombs on the West Bank of ancient Thebes, up to the characteristic temple-tombs of the Late Period.

Competences:
Developing knowledge in understanding Egyptian civilization and mortuary architecture.

Topics:
Topics:
1. week: Introduction: major properties of the landscape and a brief historical overview. Ancient Egyptian language and scripts. Religion and key foundation myths.
2. week: Afterlife beliefs and funerary culture. Biculturalism.
3. week: Functional components of an ancient Egyptian tomb. Evolution of burial customs from the very beginnings to the formation of the unified Egyptian state.
4. week: Early Dynastic royal tombs at Abydos and Saqqara.
5. week: The Step Pyramid Complex at Saqqara.
6. week: From stepped to true pyramids: Meidum, Dahshur and Giza
7. week: The „standardized” pyramid complex during the 5th and 6th dynasties. The architectural development of private burials from the archaic mastabas to the rock-tombs of the First Intermediate Period.
8. week: Archaism and Innovation: Middle Kingdom royal and private burials.
9. week: New Kingdom burials. The Valley of the Kings and the royal memorial temples.
10. week: New Kingdom tombs of the nobles on the West bank of Thebes. The Memphite necropolis during the New Kingdom. Private burials of the Third Intermediate and the Late Period.
11. week: The latest royal tombs preserved. Tanis. Temple-tombs. Egyptianizing burials in Nubia.
12. week: End-term paper
13. week: Evaluation and feedback about coursework

Assessment: final mark, based on end-term paper

Exam Types:

end-term paper

Compulsory bibliography: none

Recommended bibliography: B.J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, London 1989 M. Lehner, The Complete Pyramids, London 1997 L. Manniche, City of the Dead: Thebes in Egypt, London 1987 N. Reeves – R.H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings, London 1996 A. Dodson, The Tomb in Ancient Egypt. Royal and Private Sepulchres from the Early Dynastic Period to the Romans, London 2008

Additional bibliography: none

Additional Information: none