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Egyptology Reading Room: Home

About the Egyptology Reading Room in the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University

Egyptology at Yale University

Egyptology at Yale University is a well-established discipline within the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. It offers an undergraduate major and a graduate program with instruction in the history, archaeology, language, and material culture of ancient Egypt and Nubia from the Prehistoric Era through the Coptic Period. In addition to the courses offered in New Haven, Yale professors, students, and research affiliates conduct an ambitious program of field work in Egypt and Nubia, focused primarily in the regions of Luxor, Mo‘alla, Kharga Oasis, and Coptic monastic sites in Middle Egypt and the Wadi Natrun.

In 2008 a new Egyptology Reading Room (ERR) was created within Sterling Memorial Library (Room 329B).

view of the new reading room

The establishment of this new Reading Room was funded in part by the William K. and Marilyn M. Simpson Endowment for Egyptology.

Due to the limited space the books selected for the new Reading Room present only a small fraction of the Egyptological and Coptic publications currently held by the Yale Library. The collection in the ERR tries to gather the most important publications for teaching and for research purposes.

The books are divided into two main sections:

1. An assortment of the most important reference books for the various fields of Egyptology, including Philology, Archaeology, Architecture, History, Religion, and Coptic Studies.

2. The most relevant journals and series within Egyptology, assembling important archaeological series dating back to the late nineteenth century, as well as recent periodicals.

For more information see the User Guidelines.

All books kept in the Reading Room are non-circulating.

The reading room is open during the regular opening hours of Sterling Memorial Library. Questions about the room's collection should be addressed to Robin Dougherty, Librarian for Middle East Studies.


About the hieroglyphics at right: Excerpt from the "Satire of the Trades," an ancient Egyptian literary text extolling the scribal profession and underlining the need for education. The text was originally composed in the early Middle Kingdom, about 2000 BCE, but was widely copied as a school exercise throughout the New Kingdom.

Hieroglyphic inscription over the front door of SML

I shall make you love writing more than your mother,
I shall make its perfection enter before your eyes,
for it is indeed the greatest of all professions.

Hieroglyphic inscription over the front door of SML