Oudheidstudies

The master's in Hebrew and Aramaic Studies is delivered by internationally-acclaimed experts at Leiden University. You will benefit from a broad range of relevant adjacent disciplines for the study of ancient languages and civilisations – many of them rarely taught elsewhere – as well as from the famous library resources. Leiden University’s Chair of Hebrew and Aramaic actively contributes to scholarship in the field, and classes regularly reflect ongoing research.

Tailor the programme to your interests

The programme can be tailored towards your specific needs and is known for its close attention to individual interests. Languages and primary sources constitute the backbone; they equip you with a lasting set of tools. You may focus on the literature and culture of Ancient Israel against the backdrop of the world of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible/Ancient Judaism, from its emergence in around 1200 B.C.E. until its disappearance as a political entity in 135 C.E.

Within the limits of the programme, you may also expand your scope by putting a stronger focus on cognate languages: a great variety of pre-modern forms of Aramaic, Phoenician, Ugaritic, and other small corpus idioms, and their contribution to the region's wider cultural history. Electives from other fields offer additional possibilities for specialisation (e.g., Linguistics, Ancient History, etc.).

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The master’s programme in Egyptology at Leiden University provides you with a multidisciplinary study of the languages, literatures and cultures of Ancient Egypt. Join an acclaimed programme that has its roots in the 19th century when Leiden’s National Museum of Antiquities acquired its famous collection of Egyptian antiquities. The one-year Egyptology master’s programme covers a wide range of focused, in-depth topics, including most of the linguistic and cultural history of Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman and Coptic Egypt.

Our staff members cooperate with fellow researchers from universities and research institutes from various countries on project topics covering: Egyptian art history, Egyptian archaeology, Egyptian religion, Coptic Egypt, Social and economic history of Ancient Egypt and the origins of the alphabet. These wide-ranging research activities form an integral part of the educational programme.

Visit excavations in Egypt

Consolidate what you learn in class by experiencing it first-hand during an intensive course on archaeology as practiced in Egypt today. You will visit excavations and research projects in Egypt and learn about the department’s own field and research projects, including excavations at Saqqara and the Dakhla Oasis.

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The master's in Assyriology, a specialisation of the Classics and Ancient Civilizations programme, at Leiden University provides you with a multidisciplinary study of the languages, literatures and cultures of ancient Mesopotamia and Anatolia.

The master in Assyriology is a one-year programme that gives you the opportunity to study with internationally acclaimed academics immersed in the latest research and engaged in actively expanding our knowledge of the field. Your teachers are not only experts in languages and cultures of the ancient Middle East, but also active researchers engaged in innovative projects that constantly build bridges between cutting-edge research and the courses in your programme. The programme offers basic and advanced language and script training in the three major languages that were written in cuneiform (Akkadian, Sumerian and Hittite). We encourage all our students to work with original clay tablets, kept at the Netherlands Institute of the Near East in Leiden.

You will be able to tailor your study programme to your personal interests by creating your own combination of courses from the Assyriology programme or from other programmes within the Faculties of Humanities and of Archaeology. We encourage all students to consider applying for a study visit abroad. As a student of Assyriology you can join research programmes at one of our partner universities.

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