Egyptology

Egyptology represents the scientific study of Ancient Egypt and Egyptian antiquities and is a regional and thematic branch of the larger disciplines of Ancient History and Archaeology. A practitioner of the discipline is known as an "Egyptologist".

Egyptology investigates the range of Ancient Egyptian culture (language, literature, history, religion, art, economics, and ethics) from the 5th millennium BC up to the end of Roman rule in the 4th century AD.

Modern Egyptology (as opposed to an antiquarian interest in the land of Egypt) is generally perceived as beginning in the year 1822, when Jean-François Champollion announced his general decipherement of the system of Egyptian hieroglyphics for the first time, employing the Rosetta Stone as his primary aid. With subsequently ever-increasing knowledge of Egyptian writing and language, the study of Ancient Egyptian civilisation was able to proceed with greater academic rigour and with all the added impetus that control of the written sources was able to engender.