PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Can’t get enough of Ancient Egypt? You’re not alone.

Beginning October 31, anyone in the world with access to a laptop, tablet, or smart phone can take this course: Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization with Dr. David Silverman, the Eckley Brinton Coxe, Jr. Professor of Egyptology, University of Pennsylvania, Curator-in-Charge of the Egyptian Section at the Penn Museum, and one of the world’s foremost Egyptologists—via the online open learning platform, Coursera. The course, produced by the University of Pennsylvania, is available in English and subtitled in English. The cost of participating: free ($49 for those who choose to earn a certificate of completion).

With several weeks to go before the new course begins, more than 20,000 people have already signed up. After the course kicks off, it will be offered anew each month—giving ever more learners fresh opportunities to fit the program into their schedules.

Open House for Ancient Egypt Online Students
Students who are taking Penn’s online Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization course on Coursera and are within commuting distance to the Penn Museum in Philadelphia are invited to an end-of-course Open House with David Silverman on Saturday, December 10, 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, free with Museum general admission. Activities will include short talks by Museum Egyptologists, gallery tours, a workshop about mummification, book signings—and Egyptian-inspired lunch offerings in the Pepper Mill Café.

The Online Course
Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization features five lecture modules, each running about an hour, beginning October 31. After the course concludes, online students will be notified by Coursera when they can sign up for Wonders of the Ancient World, which builds upon the first course, and launches in early 2017.

In these complementary Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Dr. Silverman presents an in-depth investigation of the more than 3,500 years of Ancient Egyptian civilization. In each class, he uses many objects to illustrate the subject matter he discusses. A substantial number of these items are drawn from the Ancient Egyptian Galleries of the Penn Museum. While a few other MOOCs have focused in whole or in part on Ancient Egypt, none have had access to a vast collection like that at the Penn Museum, where artifacts have been obtained primarily from its own scientific excavations.

The Ancient Egypt MOOCs have been nearly two years in the making. Development involved Dr. Silverman in months of research and writing to produce scripts for each of the classes, and select the hundreds of images to be used for illustration. The film crew from School of Arts and Sciences Online Learning organized multiple day-long shoots in the Museum galleries, coordinating around the Museum’s public access and event schedule.

A prolific author, speaker, and exhibition curator, Dr. Silverman developed the course with an eye to answering the many questions he has encountered over the years. “I wanted to offer a course that tapped into the deep fascination that so many people—myself included—bring with them as they explore the art and culture of the ancient Egyptians,” he noted. “My hope is that through this course many questions will be answered—and new questions will arise. Ancient Egypt’s culture and achievements are worthy of a lifetime of study and exploration.”

As the course description notes, each hour-long videotaped lecture focuses on a different subject: History and Chronology; The Pharaoh and Kingship; Gods and Goddesses; The Pyramids and the Sphinx; Mummies and Mummification. Part two of the course explores Principles of Egyptian Art; The Basics of the Language of Ancient Egypt – Hieroglyphs; Magic; Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and the Religion of the Aten; and The Burial of Tutankhamun and the Search for his Tomb.