History of the Nile

One of the advantages of having done my graduate work at the University of Washington is that it opens the door to a number of events right here in Seattle that I wouldn't otherwise have known about.  Even aside from Husky football games.

Since the year after I graduated from law school, the Alumni Association together with the UW history department has presented annual (or more frequently than annual) series of lectures.  The first few years were devoted to ten lectures each academic quarter by Professor Giovanni Costigan, a professor of the old school, one for whom teaching was more important than research.  And he was an amazing teacher and lecturer.  His two-hour lectures often ran overtime by as much as a half hour, as he made an effort to share all his enthusiasm about whatever subject was under discussion with his audience.

Even as his lectures went well past their scheduled ending time, few in his audience were tempted to leave.  He was that good.

Professor Costigan was a jewel, one that in my opinion was never out-shone by later speakers.  But a number of other professors, especially in the early years, were also very good, very enthusiastic lecturers.

In the past twenty years or so, it apparently has been more difficult for the history department to find professors willing to sacrifice an evening a week for any extended period of time from their own professional work and research.  So it has been necessary, apparently, to ask a different professor to give a lecture each week about a subject of his own expertise.  Some of the lectures have been very good, but the results have been uneven.

This year, the department is offering a series of four lectures on the subject of "rivers" -- each lecture presented by a different speaker.  The four lectures will discuss the Nile, the Ganges, the Rio Grande, and the Columbia -- an interesting mix.  I attended the first lecture last night by Professor Joel Walker, whose topic was entitled "River of the Gods: The Nile and Ancient Egypt."

If the other three lectures are as well presented as Dr. Walker's, I'll be very happy.  

Professor Walker discussed the geography and geology of the Nile basin; the hydrology of the Nile river system (what makes the river rise and fall seasonally?);  the effects of the Nile on the economy of ancient Egypt; and the central place of the Nile in the religion of Pharaonic Egypt. In answer to post-lecture questions, he also described briefly the effect of modern dams on the river, and the effects of the growing water shortage on the international politics of the region.  He wasn't optimistic about the future.

Dr. Walker had a very short time to cover his topics, covering some three thousand years of Egyptian history in a little over an hour, but he presented his main points clearly and in some detail.  He was a good speaker, one who obviously had organized his talk in considerable detail, but who managed to deliver it in a relaxed and casual manner, giving it a feeling of having been ad libbed.  His specialty is the ancient history of the Middle East (Hebrew, Persian, Arab, Turkic, Ottoman), up through the early Christian era; he was careful to deny any particular expertise in ancient Egyptian history.

But he knew more than enough to serve as a highly effective speaker for last night's lecture.  I'm eager to hear the remaining three speakers, and I look forward to next Wednesday's talk on the Ganges.