The Ancient World (AW-UH)

Taking the arrival of Alexander the Great in Central Asia as its pivot point, this course explores relations between the various steppe and oasis cultures in Central Asia and the Mediterranean world from the Achaemenid period up to the early Middle Ages. These relations are characterized by a broad spectrum of different forms of contact and exchange. Direct contacts were established, for example, by military campaigns, diplomatic exchanges, migrations or colonization. Less direct forms of cultural transmission resulted from complex transcontinental trade flows. The course will focus on the consequences different forms of communication with the Mediterranean had on Central Asian art and material culture. Students will consider topics such as urbanism, architecture, iconography, and historiography as well as specific aspects of material culture including ceramics, arms and costume.

Archaeologists 'read' information from artifacts, architecture, and the environment to understand people's lives in the past. Archaeology can tell us about the development of the world's first cities and empires, the beginnings of farming, ancient exchange networks, and other important changes across human (pre)history. This course offers a rich introduction to the ways archaeologists study the past and what these analyses reveal about pre-Islamic Western Asia. Students will be introduced to new ways of seeing the past through a series of hands-on laboratory sessions and activities. The material records of ancient Western Asia, especially Southern Arabia and Central Asia, will serve as case studies for exploring how scientific methods like high-powered microscopy and neutron activation analysis can answer fundamental questions about the past. The semester's coursework culminates in the completion of an individual research project and paper.

The present cannot be separated from the past. This idea is reflected most recently in the destruction of the confederate statues in the US, and in the assaults on museums, places of worship and archaeological sites in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. None of these events occurred in a vacuum, but the intrinsic past-present linkages contextualizing them are not always evident. This course considers how the 'Near East' today has been shaped by the discipline of archaeology, so closely tied to 19th century European colonial and imperial ambitions in the region. By illuminating through diverse voices how the past reverberates in the present in the Near East, students will be better equipped to challenge the scholarly frameworks that shape so much of our thinking today. Employing a seminar style format, we think through confronting issues including how terminology shapes our understanding of a region, its people and its material cultures.

The Bible and archaeological research provide distinct, and sometimes conflicting, narratives of the history of ancient Israel, Palestine, Jordan and their surrounding neighbors in the ancient world. But how can archaeology help us understand the premodern development of the Middle East? In this seminar we will discuss archaeological research from the southern Levant including the northern Arabian Peninsula as it relates to the Bible and its ancient Near Eastern background. Moving chronologically from the Neolithic period into Roman Arabia, students will critically explore the relationship between biblical and archaeological scholarship and the impact of science on archaeology. Emphasis is placed on archaeological evidence, material culture, and historical sources for understanding the development of Abrahamic religions, pre-Islamic languages and culture, ancient Israelite funerary and household practices, pilgrimage and cults, Arab and Nabataean trade at the crossroads of the Arabian Peninsula, and the imperialism of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Rome each interacting within the southern Levant-northern Arabian political spheres.

A study of the holy cities, Jerusalem and Mecca, is fundamental to a rich understanding of the history, archaeology, anthropology, religion, geography, and politics of the Middle East. But how are historical cities such as Mecca and Jerusalem constructed as sacred places? What are the rituals within both centers, and what kind of behavior are expected for these heritage and holy places? Beginning in antiquity and continuing through the medieval and modern periods, this course will chronicle the rise, fall, and reconstruction of Jerusalem many times over in historical relationship with the rise and development of Mecca as a sacred city. Emphasis is placed on the architecture of both cities, the phenomenology of the sacred, the nexus between power, prayer, peace and violence, and, finally, how Mecca and Jerusalem are centers in the arts, mercantile trade, politics, and literature of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Inter-religious, political, and heritage dialogues are encouraged to understand the history of Middle Eastern landscapes. We will investigate the meanings Mecca and Jerusalem have had in the past and will consider current questions about their futures.

Archaeological research in the Gulf States has recently increased exponentially. Why is archaeology and its scientific methods the most comprehensive way to investigate life in Arabia and preserve its heritage? How is new archaeological research changing historical paradigms for the development of trade and agriculture at the Gulf crossroads? And how should we identify the land of the Emirates in the distant past before the birth of the U.A.E? In this course, we will explore evidence from excavations in the Gulf for understanding the characteristics of pre-Islamic as well as Early, Middle, and Late Islamic society, culture, and identity. The chronology is focused on the Bronze-Iron ages to the Late Islamic phases, with an overview of ceramic typologies, historical geographies, pastoral nomadism and human adaptation, dromedary domestication, the economy of trade on the incense roads, and the development of writing in the Arabian Peninsula before the rise of Islam.