ARCH.F23

This course examines the archaeology of one of the most fundamental shifts to have occurred in human society in the last 12,000 years, the origins of agriculture. Via assigned readings, class work and lectures we will consider the varied factors which led (or did not lead) to the adoption of agriculture, questioning what the core building blocks of agricultural life were across Western Asia and exploring societies that did not experience these changes. We will also discuss the impacts these developments have had, and continue to have, on modern society and culture in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. For many scholars the roots of inequality and inequity can be seen more than ten thousand years ago, with the domestication of plants and animals. By exploring processes and practices over the long-term, students will build an understanding of and critically engage with discussions around inequality in the earliest agricultural societies. They will develop an understanding of how axes of power and difference interacted to produce inequalities and hierarchies in the ancient world, and how we can identify and interpret these through the archaeological record. Themes covered will include inequalities and hierarchies, societal organisation, identity (gender, ethnicity, culture, personhood etc.), communication, and the relationships between humans, animals, and the environment. Whilst doing so, the class will also critically examine the discipline of archaeology, considering the ways different biases have impacted the study of ancient agriculture. We will also address the relationships between colonialism and archaeology in Western Asia and explore what the future of a post-colonial and anti-racist archaeology looks like in this region.

This course will explore the entanglement between the modern and contemporary film industry and the classical and late-classical world. We will be exploring different movies and tv series (from all over the world) in which the past, and particularly the Graeco-Roman world, is depicted, treated, interpreted, and re-imagined by screenwriters, directors, actors. From silent movies to Hollywood kolossal, and through European movies and on-demand productions (Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Disney+, etc.) we will be walking through the several ways in which cinema and TV have shaped out our understanding- and adjusted our conception of the ancient worlds of Athens and Rome. We will analyze narrative choices and compare them with what we know from history, literature, and archaeology. Students will learn to think about movies and TV shows as creative acts in their contemporary world, but they will also develop critical thinking related to the use and abuse of history. The major take away for this class will be the understanding of the modern world through the interpretation and representation of the Graeco- Roman antiquity in contemporary pop culture.

Course Description:
This course delves into the fundamental issue of identity-making in the ancient world, using the ancient Near East as a case study. The process of shaping an identity within a society or group is usually intricately intertwined with its interactions with other societies or groups, frequently delineated by a range of borders and boundaries. While these borders and boundaries were initially established to assert power and control, both in theory and practice, the interactions along these demarcations could potentially spark conflict and innovation, ultimately leading to transformation of identity.

This seminar examines how the delineation and modification of borders and boundaries, as well as the interactions among diverse societies within the ancient Near East and between this region and its neighboring territories, played a pivotal role in shaping the identities of both the ancient Near Eastern societies and the modern scholarly perspectives. While the primary focus remains on examining archaeological, art historical, and textual evidence from the ancient Near East, this course also incorporates materials from other parts of the ancient world to provide a broader perspective on the general patterns of interactions and identity formation in the ancient world.