Ancient Mediterranean Studies
Course Atlas for Spring 2008
ANC MED 101 – Introduction to Ancient Mediterranean Studies
Instructor: Gopnik, TuTh 1 - 2:15 Max: 30
This course offers an introduction to the great range of ancient cultures that flourished around the Mediterranean Sea thousands of years ago. We will read the poems, stories and letters written by ancient Egyptians, Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks and Romans to learn how these cultures adapted in many different ways to the rich Mediterranean environment. We will also examine the abundant art, architecture and artifacts that these cultures left behind them as material testimony to how they led their lives. Themes covered in the class will include the growth of the first cities, states, and empires; the development of writing and the first written histories; and the impact of the exchange of ideas and materials across the Mediterranean.
ANC MED 201 Introduction to Mediterranean Archaeology
Instructor: Blakely, TuTh 10 - 11:15 Max: 30
The cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world are often viewed as Frogs around the pond defined by their interaction as much as their unique identities. In this course, we focus on the material evidence for how these cultures, reaching from the Levant to the Pillars of Hercules, interacted with each other, sharing everything from raw materials and food to myths and technologies. Units include Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, Greece and Rome, as well as the island cultures of Palestine,Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily, the Phoenicians, and the world of nautical archaeology.
ANC MED 202: Literature and Traditions
Instructor: B. Lawatsch Melton
TuTh 10:00-11:15 MAX: 16
The Classical Tradition and the American Founding
This course explores the classical tradition in Colonial America and the United States. A central theme is the connection of the classical legacy to the American quest for self-definition and cultural independence, the formation of the Republic and American civic identity. We will examine texts both ancient and American as well as visual/archaeological evidence, such as architecture, sculpture, and film, and place them in the context of their time. Throughout the course we will also discuss the extent to which the ideas expressed in the classical tradition continue to carry meaning, and under what guise we might encounter them today.
Readings may include excerpts from the Homeric epics, Thucydides, Polybius, Aesop, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Tacitus and Plutarch, Andrew White’s Voyage to Maryland, Cotton Mather, Jane Turell, William Livingston, The Federalist, the correspondence of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton as well as Joseph Addison,’s Cato, the U.S. Constitution, and Tindall/Shi’s America. A Narrative History.
Particulars: Class participation and discussion emphasized; mid-term and final exams, response to readings, 1-2 short presentations and one 4-6 page paper.