Climate played a crucial role in shaping ancient Egyptian society. This course explores how environmental change influenced religion, economy, politics and everyday life along the Nile. We examine periods of stability and crisis, considering how ancient responses to drought, flooding and catastrophe were understood and managed. By linking past and present, the course invites reflection on climate, resilience and long-term human adaptation.

DELIVERY MODE

• Hybrid (F2F & Online simultaneously)

SUGGESTED READING

• Bunbury, J. (2022), On the shifting river Nile in the time of the pharaohs, the Life Scientific Podcast
• Morris, E. (2019), Ancient Egyptian exceptionalism: fragility, flexibility and the art of not collapsing, in N. Yoffee (ed), The evolution of fragility: setting the terms, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, pp. 61-87
• Nguyen, L (2021), Forever changes: Climate lessons from ancient Egypt, YaleNews

COURSE OUTLINE

• The Gift of the Nile: Egyptian environment and society
• From Droughts: The end of the Old Kingdom
• To Floods: The late Middle Kingdom
• Climate change: Ancient lessons for the modern world

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Understand the connection between land and society in ancient Egypt.
2. Have a good knowledge of periods of climate variability in Egyptian history, and the methods used to manage the landscape.
3. Draw connections between ancient and modern experiences of, and responses to, climate change.