Download CSP Mesopotamian Syllabus - Stanford Continuing Studies

ARC 31
Fall Quarter 2012
Stanford University CSP
Dr. Patrick Hunt
[email protected]
http://www.patrickhunt.net
Mesopotamia:
Cradles of Civilization I
Wednesdays, 7:00 - 8:50 pm – September 26 to Dec. 5 - Syllabus and Course Outline
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Tower of Babel, 1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Course Aims:
Mesopotamia, located between the two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, one of the first places
civilization emerged about seven thousand years ago. Here scribes first began documenting
agriculture and society in gradually more and more sophisticated cuneiform texts. Clay was
both the medium of writing as well as the primary medium of architecture. Clay was
ubiquitous because the land itself was an alluvial plain and building stone was scarce.
Astronomy also greatly developed in Mesopotamia in response to the agricultural and yearly
calendar of planting and harvesting to seasonal stars and constellations, lore which also
became part of religious life. Legends, cosmologies and law codes from, for example,
the Epic of Gilgamesh, Dilmun and Eden, Inanna texts, the Code of Hammurabi to the Tower of
Babel and other texts are each consonant in many ways with the archaeological record,
together revealing much about what makes civilization.
This ten-week illustrated course moves from the seventh millennium BCE with Ubaid and
Uruk culture to subsequent Sumer, Akkadia (Agade) and Neo-Sumer, Old Babylon and Old
Assyria, Kassite and Middle Elamite, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian and Medo-Persian
and Achaemenid cultures to the fourth century BCE. Additionally, Ancient Egypt will be
covered in this first course as it pertains to Mesopotamia. Students attend lectures, read
ancient and modern texts and also visit at least one local museum to better understand the
material history via archaeological artifacts. Course Requirements:
Students attend lectures and complete assigned readings from assigned or recommended
texts, and supplemental texts as provided. If taken for credit (as MLA or prospective
students must fulfill), a brief 10 page critical paper will be completed with topic having
instructor consent.
Required Course Texts:
David Wengrow. What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East & the Future of the
West. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Patrick Hunt. Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History, Penguin/Plume 2007.
Also note online readings will be provided as linked below, including the Epic of
Gilgamesh, Hammurabi’s Law Code, Herodotus’ History Book I (Life of Cyrus) and
relevant articles.
Assyrian Lioness Relief, 7th c. BCE British Museum, Photo P. Hunt 2011
Course Outline:
9/26
Prehistory in Mesopotamia: Neolithic Revolution and Ubaid to Uruk
Reading: Epic of Gilgamesh, tablets I-XI
(http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh)
D. Wengrow, What Makes Civilization? Preface (xiii-xx), Introduction (1-16)
10/3
Sumeria and Neo-Sumeria
Reading: D. Wengrow, What Makes Civilization? (17-53)
P. Hunt, “Gudea, King of Lagash, Neo-Sumeria” The Ancient World: Great Lives from
History, vol. 1, 366-69, 2004 (to be provided)
10/10
Akkad and Old Babylon
Reading: Hammurabi’s Law Code
(http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html);
D. Wengrow: What Makes Civilization? (54-75)
10/17 Mari, Kassite and Elamite Mesopotamia
Reading: D. Wengrow, What Makes Civilization? (75-87);
Jack Sasson. “The King and I: A Mari King in Changing Perspectives” Journal of
The American Oriental Society 118.4 (1998) 453-70;
http://discoverarchive.vanderbilt.edu/jspui/bitstream/1803/3562/1/King%20and%20I.pdf)
10/24 Neo-Assyria: The First Juggernaut
D. Wengrow, What Makes Civilization? (88-108);
Reading: P. Hunt, Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History, ch. 3 “Nineveh’s Royal Assyrian
Library” (45-62)
10/31
Neo-Babylon
Reading: Wengrow, What Makes Civilization (109-35);
P. Hunt, “King Nabopolassar, Ancient Babylonian Archaeologist”. Electrum
Magazine, January 2012
(http://www.electrummagazine.com/2012/01/king-nabopolassar-ancient-babylonian-archaeologist/)
11/7
Achaemenid Persia: Cyrus to Darius III
Reading: Herodotus, History, Book I.110 & ff “Life of Cyrus”
(http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1110.html);
P. Hunt. “Persian Paradise Gardens: Eden and Beyond as Chahar Bagh”. Electrum
Magazine, July 2011
(http://www.electrummagazine.com/2011/07/paradise-gardens-of-persia-eden-and-beyond-as-chaharbagh/)
11/14
Predynastic and Old Kingdom Egypt
Reading: Wengrow, What Makes Civilization (136-76)
11/28
Middle Kingdom Egypt
Reading: P. Hunt. “Turin’s Egyptian Museum” Electrum Magazine, August, 2012
(http://www.electrummagazine.com/2012/08/turins-egyptian-museum/)
12/5
New Kingdom to Ptolemaic Egypt
Reading: P. Hunt, Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History, ch. 4, “King Tut’s Tomb” (6384); Ch. 1, “Rosetta Stone” (1-20)
Note: instructor reserves right to amend schedule