“The Battle of Kadesh has gotten interest from a really broad swath of society for a long time,” said Laurel Bestock, an associate professor of archaeology and Egyptology and Assyriology who teaches the course. “It’s particularly fascinating because it looks really well documented. And then as soon as we try and get closer to it, we realize how much we’re missing — how much we don’t know about the perspectives of anyone other than the king in this battle.”

In the battle reconstruction, Bestock encouraged students to take creative liberties to fill in those knowledge gaps. But the performance’s witty dialogue and modern-day pop-culture references were underscored by months of rigorous academic research into how wars were fought from 3000 to 1000 B.C.E.

For the past two months, students in the course formed separate committees dedicated to finance and logistics, scriptwriting, choreography, costumes, props and outreach. 

“We would have meetings outside of class with our committees to come up with everything we needed, then every Thursday, instead of having lecture, the committees would present what they’ve worked on,” explained Brown senior Christopher Bianco, who played the commander of Ramesses’ Amun division.

From the fabric that the costumes committee bought, dyed and sewed, to the narration scripts that lent historical context to the crowd, the result was a performance that was entirely student-led. 

“We’re actually doing real research and classwork, but having the battle as a vehicle for learning about Egyptian warfare has been really cool,” Bianco said. “It’s all so hands-on and a very engaging way to learn.” 

It’s also an engaging way to learn for Bestock, who said the battle has looked different every time it’s staged because of the unique ways students connect to the source material. 

“The students do different things with it each time,” she said. “This is one of the joys of teaching … seeing what new students and their new generations brings to this material opens up new questions. It’s really fun for me as a human being, but it also sparks my interest as a scholar and feeds me as I continue to develop new research projects myself.” 

Even though the course doesn’t focus solely on the battle, its reconstruction has reached legendary status on campus. Part of that is due to its frequency.

“It’s never been repeated more than once per generation of undergraduates,” Bestock said. “So if you’re at Brown and you see this class, you should take it when it’s offered.” 

That’s exactly what students did this year — almost all of the students enrolled on the recommendation from their friends or mentors, regardless of their original academic interest in the subject. 

That was true for Jared Yee, a member of the Class of 2027 who’s pursuing concentrations in international and public affairs and economics. Yee is also a Marine Corps veteran, and said one of his fellow student-veterans, who is studying archaeology and knew about the course, convinced him and two other student-veterans to sign up. 

“This has been an incredible class — not just because it culminates with a battle reenactment, but because I have learned an enormous amount,” Yee said. “I originally had no interest in ancient Egypt, and suddenly it’s become one of my favorite periods of history to study.”