Description

Below there are three essay questions. Please choose ONE of the following questions to write. our essays should be approximately 1000-1200 words in length (excluding citations/bibliographical information). Make sure that you have a clear thesis, and supplement your analysis with specific evidence.

Outside sources are not required and you should make use of both your assigned readings and lecture material. Any quotes, paraphrases and ideas from any source must be cited.

1. Compare EITHER: the First Intermediate Period to the Second Intermediate period OR Middle Kingdom Egypt to the New Kingdom. Which period had greater influence upon Egypt and Egyptian society as a whole? Defend your answer.
2. Was the “Amarna Revolution” really a religious revolution? Did Akhenaton’s cult of the Aten really break from Egyptian religious traditions or was it an extension and enlargement of existing traditions
3. The Middle and New Kingdoms are in part characterized by an explosion of different and new forms of literature. Thinking about the primary sources that you have read from these periods, do you think they reflect the ages in which they were produced? If so, in what ways? If not, do those sources reflect a broader “timelessness” of Egyptian civilization? Again, if so, in what way

Books that should be referenced are:

1. A Story of ancient Egypt by Marc Van De Mieroop
2. The Literature of Ancient Egypt by William Kelly Simpson