Course Goals

Welcome to Civilization/Humanities USU 1320, "An Introduction to the Origin and Development of Civilization Focusing on Egyptian Civilization." Dr. David F. Lancy, Professor of Anthropology at Utah State University, developed this course. It was a team effort and contributors include Megan Andrew-Hobbs, Eddie Loo, Kevin Reeve, Kathy Daugherty, Micah Schicker, David Debry, Shane Thomas, Annette Grove, Kathryn Summers, Becky Tomlinson, and Buck Hedges. This course is constantly evolving to better meet the needs of students like you!

Let's begin with a brief quotation from the Egyptian Book of the Dead:

We now return our souls to the creator,
As we stand on the edge of eternal darkness.
Let our chant fill the void
in order that others may know.
In the land of the night
The ship of the sun
Is drawn by the grateful dead.

And now you know where Jerry Garcia got the name for his band!

The six main goals for this class include the following:

1. To assist you in learning some of the high points of world civilization.
2. To relate aspects of ancient to modern civilization.
3. To assist you in approaching an expert level of understanding of Egyptian Civilization.
4. To enhance your computer and media literacy. As you will see, the course uses a lot of modern information technology.
5. To enhance your written communication ability.
6. To encourage you to plan your future around lengthy and repeated visits to the wonderful monuments of ancient civilization.

This course is not meant to be an "inoculation" with "ancient civ virus" so you never have to worry about it again. It is more like a gourmet buffet, designed to whet your appetite. In practicing what I preach, we will virtually "visit" dozens of sites which your Instructor has been privileged to visit over the last 15 years in gathering material for this class.

Please read on to learn how this class is structured and the topics you will be discovering over the course of the semester.