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This course will survey the history of the Middle East from the beginning of the Neolithic period (9000 BCE) through the invasion of the region by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE and into the pre-Islamic era. It will examine the civilizations of ancient Iraq (Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria), Turkey (the Hittites), the Levant (Syria and Palestine), and Iran (the Persians, Parthians, Sasanians). Some attention will be paid to ancient Egypt as well. While the focus will be on political history, the course will also cover important aspects of these societies’ culture, law, religion, and daily life.

"Ancient Mediterranean World" surveys the major civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Italy from the dawn of the city around 3000 BC through the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 400s AD. Beyond providing a basic historical framework, the course explores the surprising ways in which the various civilizations of the area influenced one another culturally. We will examine interactions between Egyptians, Sumerians, Hittites, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks and Romans, among others. Students will also learn about the different types of evidence, both literary and archaeological, on which knowledge of the ancient world is based. There are two lectures and one discussion section per week.

Carries the Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought course area requirement.

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European society changed so rapidly and extensively between 1050 and 1200 that medievalists often call it a "renaissance," ( a period of rebirth not to be confused with the later Italian Renaissance.) During this period, agricultural technologies changed, new forms of religious life developed, schools and universities emerged, cathedrals were built, towns became self-governing, and royal governments experimented with new forms of administration and law. Though a reading of primary documents - including love letters, memoirs, accounts of religious visions, chronicles of urban revolts, court poetry, theological treatises, and artistic creations – this course examines a series of these intellectual, religious, social, and political developments.

Grading:

• Class Preparation Exercises 26% 13 Total at 2% each (complete/incomplete)
• 2 short (3-page) papers 30% (15% each, re-writes average grade)
• Map Exercise (on line) 4%
• Final Paper (8 pages) 30%
• Class Participation and Attendance 10% Your attendance grade is the number of classes you attend

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This seminar will examine topics and problems in the social, political and economic history of the ancient city-state of Sparta from the foundation of the settlement on the Eurotas river in the lOth century B.C. to the refoundation of Messenia in the 4th century B.C. We will pay attention both to internal and external representations of Sparta (e.g. as a community of equals [internal] or as the conservative other to Athenian invention [external]) and what the evidence (material, literary, and documentary) suggests about the reality behind the representations.