Discussion lists
Updated 1 May 2013
The biggest problem with discussions on mailing lists and newsgroups is the reliability of the opinions expressed there. Such lists are sometimes moderated but are rarely if ever peer-reviewed. A number of them contain items by well-meaning persons whose primary occupation lies elsewhere than Egyptology, and this has to be remembered by new list readers.
It is a sad fact of life that most professional Egyptologists do not bring themselves to contribute to these discussions--this is partly a matter of time at their disposal, but also the matter that far too many professionals will not make the effort to add their very useful opinions to these fora.
Readers should remember than many lists offer a digest function, so that one receives a collective email once or twice a week, rather than emails arriving in your inbox every few minutes.
The Egyptologist's Electronic Forum list (EEF) is a moderated list set up just for Egyptologists. It is efficiently managed and contains much sensible and timely news and other information. Mainly visited by non-specialists, there are a number of professionals on it. Many important digital resource links are maintained from the hole page.
An extensive site run by Nicole Hansen which has a number of fora. It seems to often bear interesting news from Egypt.
The Chicago ANE list was the first one on the Internet for the likes of Egyptologists and those interested in the Ancient Near East, starting in 1993. Its founder left Chicago in 2005, and the list was officially declared dead in 2006. It has now been replaced by a Yahoo group
Initial examination indicates it is mainly the preserve of ANE people.
A source of news run by Jack Sasson on a regular listserver. It covers the whole ANE and not just Egypt. To subscribe send a blank email to listserv [at] unc.edu, and write (as subject and in first line): subscribe agade
A moderated list dedicated to the Egyptian language and script. It primarily has a didactic aim (providing assistance with self-study of Middle Egyptian), but occasionally more advanced topics come along, and it has some professionals present.
"The AEL discussion list came into existence on February 6th 1997 and provides a dedicated forum for the discussion of the ancient Egyptian language(s) and texts. Topics that have already come up include: learning/teaching egyptian, useful text books, hieratic, coptic, grammar, phonology, meanings of words."
www.rostau.org.uk/AEgyptian-L/
I should say that I do not myself belong to this list so I cannot really speak from experience.
"MEROITIC is a mailing list on topics and issues of interest in Sudanese Archaeology from the A-group through the Meroitic Period. Discussion is encouraged on all topics ranging from current digs to linguistics to virtual temples. It is intended to provide a medium for discussion among scholars and students actively engaged in research and study of this very specialized field. Subscription is open and unmoderated."
www.africa.upenn.edu/Listserv/meroiticlist.html
To subscribe send the message "subscribe MEROITIC your name" to listproc[at] lists.cudenver.edu .
I should say that I do not myself belong to this list so I cannot really speak from experience.Similarly, I don't know whether these subscribe links are still working.
"This list is an open forum devoted to anthropological, linguistic, and archaeological discussions about the ancient Sudanese cultures of Napata and Meroe, and their relationships with other communities and civilizations of Africa and beyond."
tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Meroe/
I should say that I do not myself belong to this list so I cannot really speak from experience.Similarly, I don't know whether these subscribe links are still working.
A site with fora and discussions; in German.
"Die "Ägyptologie Community" ist ein Projekt mehrerer Ägyptenseiten aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum. Hier kannst Du mit Leuten kommunizieren, die sich auch für das Thema Ägypten interessieren. Dazu stehen Dir verschiedene Services zur Verfügung."
"Professional Egyptology; all aspects of Egyptian history and culture. An organ of the Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Institute of Egyptology in Cairo.
It is our intention to present new material from our research and archaeological projects in a form which will be of both scientific and general interest. We think of it as a virtual museum where everyone can come, browse about, and find some things which they like and have not seen before. Of course, as all museums, we are delighted when a visitor donates something to the collection; here on Flickr that means posting your own photos."
There exist some USENET newsgroups created to handle all aspects of Egypt, modern or ancient. Newcomers should be warned that as these groups are not moderated, anything goes, and many of the discussions range rather wider than Egypt. A personal opinion is that they have become disappointing and hijacked by a few vocal groups. I have not looked at them for a long time and have ceased to check them for the purposes of this page.
There are also the archaeology newsgroups. sci.archaeology has frequent articles about ancient Egypt. This again is unmoderated, and is prone to items of a somewhat questionable nature. To improve the quality of material, a moderated group sci.archaeology.moderated was created in April 1996.
Newsgroup alt.culture.egyptian
Newsgroup soc.culture.egyptian
Newsgroup sci.archaeology
Newsgroup sci.archaeology.moderated
Access to newsgroups is very localised, and if you are not sure how to get them, contact your local system administrators. It is worth pointing out that as of 2011, the use of newsgroups is much in decline, as they were really a product of the era before the World Wide Web. What they do can now be done much more easily by web pages, fora, and web-logs.