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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