Skip to main content
Book cover

The Palgrave Handbook of African Education and Indigenous Knowledge pp 39–62Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Ancient Africa Education: Egypt and Nubia

Abstract

This chapter focuses on pre-Hellenistic Egypt and Nubia, c. 3200–300 BCE. There is currently no comprehensive study of ancient Egyptian and Nubian education. This is partly due to a dearth of evidence (notably, there is no evidence for an indigenous Kerma writing system and Meroitic remains enigmatic), but also due to the general lack of formal educational institutions upon which we can focus our inquiry. The notable exception is scribal schools, which have largely been the focus of previous education-related studies. A recent scholarly trend focusing on settlement archaeology, however, has allowed scholars to better understand ancient Egyptian (and to a lesser degree Nubian) households, which provides a window into daily life and informal systems of knowledge production and maintenance. This chapter investigates formal and informal systems of education in ancient Egypt and Nubia, including literacy/scribal training, moral and social education, and specialized education such as scientific training.

Keywords

  • Ancient Egypt education
  • Ancient Nubia education
  • Egyptian informal education
  • Ritual practice
  • Performative education
  • Didactic texts

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-38277-3_2
  • Chapter length: 24 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   219.00
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • ISBN: 978-3-030-38277-3
  • Instant EPUB and PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   279.00
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • ISBN: 978-3-030-38279-7
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Free shipping worldwide
    See shipping information.
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Hardcover Book
USD   279.99
Price excludes VAT (Canada)
  • ISBN: 978-3-030-38276-6
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Free shipping worldwide
    See shipping information.
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Learn about institutional subscriptions
Fig. 2.1

(Source https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/eg/web-large/DP234742.jpg)

Fig. 2.2

References

  • Allen, James P. 2005. The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, James P. 2014. Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Baines, John. 1983. “Literacy and Ancient Egyptian Society.” Man 18 (3): 572–599.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baines, John. 2004. “The Earliest Egyptian Writing: Development, Context, Purpose.” In The First Writing: Script as Invention and History as Process, edited by Stephen Houston, 150–189. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baines, John. 2007. Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baines, John, and C. J. Eyre. 2007. “Four Notes on Literacy.” In Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt, 63–94. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barth, Fredrik. 1967. “Economic Spheres in Darfur.” In Themes in Economic Anthropology, edited by Raymond Firth, 149–174. London: Tavistock Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basso, Keith. 1996. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, Catherine. 1992. Ritual Theory Ritual Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha, Homi. 1996. “Culture’s in-Between.” Questions of Cultural Identity, edited by Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, 53–60. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleeker, C. J. 1967. Egyptian Festivals: Enactments of Religious Renewal. Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breasted, James Henry. 1909. A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryan, Betsy. 1984. “Evidence for Female Literacy from Theban Tombs of the New Kingdom.” Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 6: 17–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brunner, Helmut. 1957. Altägyptische Erziehung. Weisbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Judith. 1988. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal 40 (4): 519–531.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cribiore, Raffaella. 2001. Gymnastics of the Mind: Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Cruz, M. Dores. 2011. “‘Pots Are Pots, Not People:’ Material Culture and Ethnic Identity in the Banda Area (Ghana), Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 46 (3): 336–357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deitler, Michael. 1990. “Driven by Drink: The Role of Drinking in the Political Economy and the Case of Early Iron Age France.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9: 352–406.

    Google Scholar 

  • Depuydt, Leo. 2010. “Ancient Egyptian Star Tables: A Reinterpretation of Their Fundamental Structure.” In Writings of Early Scholars in the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Rome, and Greece: Translating Ancient Scientific Texts, edited by Annette Imhausen and Tanja Pommerening, 241–276. New York: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donnat Beauquier, Sylvie. 2014. Ecrire à ses morts: enquête sur un usage rituel de l’écrit dans l’Egypte pharaonique. Collection Horos. Grenoble: Jérôme Millon Editions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorman, Peter. 1988. The Monuments of Senenmut: Problems in Historical Methodology. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, Émile. 1965. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Translated by J. W. Swain. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, David. 1996. “Sorghum, Beer and Kushite Society.” Norwegian Archaeological Review 29 (2): 65–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emberling, Geoff, Rachael J. Dann, and Abbas Sidahmed Mohamed-Ali. 2015. “In a Royal Cemetery of Kush: Archaeological Investigations at El-Kurru, Northern Sudan, 2014–15.” Sudan & Nubia 19: 54–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epron, L., F. Daumas, and H. Wild. 1966. Le Tombeau de Ti. 3 volumes. Mémoires publiés par les membres de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale 65. Cairo: l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, Henry George. 1976. Varia. Egyptian Studies I. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, Florence. 1984. “The Root Meaning of Ʒḫ: Effectiveness or Luminosity?” Serapis 8: 39–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 1960. Wahrheit und Methode: Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik. Tübingen: Mohr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardiner, Alan H. 1935. Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum. Third Series: Chester Beatty Gift. London: British Museum, printed by Order of the Trustees.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardiner, Alan H. 1938. “The House of Life.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 24 (1): 157–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardiner, Alan H. 1946. “The Instruction Addressed to Kagemni and His Brethren.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 32: 71–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gert, Bernard, and Joshua Gert. 2017. “The Definition of Morality.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall 2017 edition, edited by Edward N. Zalta. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/morality-definition/.

  • Goody, Jack. 1982. Cooking, Cuisine and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Grajetzki, Wolfram. 2009. “Women and Writing in the Middle Kingdom: Stela Louvre C 187.” Revue d’Égyptologie 60: 209–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffith, Francis Llewellyn. 1911. Karanog. The Meroitic Inscriptions of Shablul and Karanog. Philadelphia: University Museum Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haaland, Gunnar. 1998. “Beer, blood and mother’s milk: The symbilic context of economic behaviour in Fur society.” Sudan Notes and Records 2: 53–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haaland, Randi. 2007. “Porridge and Pot, Bread and Oven: Food Ways and Symbolism in Africa and the Near East from the Neolithic to the Present.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 17 (2): 165–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haikal, Fayza. 2008. “Private Collections and Temple Libraries in Ancient Egypt.” In What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? edited by Mostafa el-Abbadi et al., 39–54. Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrington, Nicola. 2014. Living with the Dead: Ancestor Worship and Mortuary Ritual in Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Marvin. 1985. Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helck, Wolfgang. 1984. Die Lehre des Djedefhor und Die Lehre eines Vaters an seinen Sohn. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodel-Hoenes, Sigrid. 2000. Life and Death in Ancient Egypt. Scenes from Private Tombs in New Kingdom Thebes. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janák, Jíří. 2013. “Akh.” UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 1 (1): 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janssen, J. J. 1992. “Literacy and Letters at Deir el-Medina.” In Village Voices. Proceedings of the Symposium: Texts from Deir el-Medina and Their Interpretation, edited by R. J. Demaree and A. Egberts, 81–94. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jéquier, Gustave. 1911. Le papyrus Prisse et ses variants. Paris: Librairie Paul Geuthner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kees, Hermann. 1977. Totenglauben Und Jenseitsvorstellungen Der Alten Ägypter: Grundlagen Und Entwicklung Bis Zum Ende Des Mitteleren Reiches. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, David, and Eugene Milone. 2005. Exploring Ancient Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of Archaeoastronomy. New York: Springer.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Köhler, Christiana. 2010. “Theories of State Formation.” In Egyptian Archaeology, edited by Willeke Wendrich, 36–54. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, Geoffrey T. 1989. The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb, Commander-in-Chief of Tutankhamun, I: Reliefs and Inscriptions. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lichtheim, Mariam. 1973. Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. 1. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Paul, and Ian Shaw, eds. 2000. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neugebauer, Otto, and Richard Anthony Parker. 1960–1969. Egyptian Astronomical Texts. 3 volumes. Brown Egyptological Studies 3, 5, and 6. Providence: Brown University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nunn, John. 2002. Ancient Egyptian Medicine. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Otto, Eberhard. 1942. “Die Beiden Vogelgestaltigen Seelenvorstellungen Der Ägypter.” Zeitschrift Für Ägyptische Sprache Und Altertumskunde 77: 78–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parkinson, Richard. 2002. Poetry and Culture in Middle Kingdom Egypt: A Dark Side to Perfection. Athlone Publications in Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pirenne, Jacques. 1959. “Âme et vie d’outre-tombe chez les Égyptiens de l’Ancien Empire.” Chronique d’Égypte 34 (68): 208–213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perdue, Leo. 2008. The Sword and the Stylus: An Introduction to Wisdom in the Age of Empires. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reisner, George. 1919. “Discovery of the Tombs of the Egyptian XXV Dynasty.” Sudan Notes and Records 2: 237–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shubert, Steven Blake. 2007. Those Who (Still) Live on Earth: A Study of the Ancient Egyptian Appeal to the Living Texts. PhD diss., University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, William Kelly. 2003. The Literature of Ancient Egypt, 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Small, Jocelyn Penny. 1997. Wax Tablets of the Mind: Cognitive Studies of Memory and Literacy in Classical Antiquity. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Stuart Tyson. 1995. Askut in Nubia: The Economics and Ideology of Egyptian Imperialism in the Second Millennium BC. London: Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Stuart Tyson. 2003. “Pharaohs, Feasts, and Foreigners: Cooking, Foodways, and Agency on Ancient Egypt’s Southern Frontier.” In The Archaeology of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires, edited by Tamara Bray, 39–64. New York: Plenum Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, Rosalind. 1992. Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Török, Lazlo. 2008. Between Two Worlds: The Frontier Region Between Ancient Nubia and Egypt 3700 BC - 500 AD. Probleme der Ägyptologie 29. Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Troche, Julia. 2018. “Letters to the Dead.” UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 1 (1): 1–12. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6bh8w50t.

  • Ullmann, Martina. 2007. “Thebes: Origin of a Ritual Landscape.” In Sacred Space and Sacred Function in Ancient Thebes. Oriental Institute Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 61, edited by Peter Dorman and Betsy Bryan, 3–36. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wegner, Etienne. 1998. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wendrich, Willeke, ed. 2012. Archaeology and Apprenticeship: Body Knowledge, Identity, and Communities of Practice. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wengrow, David. 2006. The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in North-East Africa, c. 10,000-2,650 BC. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiliams, Ronald. 1972. “Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 92 (2): 214–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zába, Zbynek. 1956. Les Maximes de Ptahhotep. Prague: Académie Tchécoslovaque des Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA

    Julia Troche

Authors
  1. Julia Troche
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julia Troche .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA

    Jamaine M. Abidogun

  2. Department of History, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Toyin Falola

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Troche, J. (2020). Ancient Africa Education: Egypt and Nubia. In: Abidogun, J., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Education and Indigenous Knowledge. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38277-3_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38277-3_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38276-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-38277-3

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)