Syllabus NMC262H1S Introduction to the Archaeology of the Near East Part II The Historic Periods Tues/Thurs am; Room BF 415

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1 1 Syllabus NMC262H1S Introduction to the Archaeology of the Near East Part II The Historic Periods Tues/Thurs am; Room BF 415 Instructor: Anne Porter Room 420, 4 Bancroft Avenue. Office hours: for an appointment anne.porter@utoronto.ca YOU MUST READ THE SYLLABUS CAREFULLY. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP TRACK OF ALL DUE DATES AND ASSIGNMENTS Course Description The historic periods of the Near East seem to be marked by the rise and fall of one political power after the other, constant conflict and cultural change. Both texts and archaeology give us evidence of what happens at the state level, although whether conflict is a cause or effect of political change is hotly debated. Archaeology can also tell us what happens to ordinary people. This course has two goals: through a survey of the key sites and discoveries of the late third through first millennium in the Near East, to take a critical look at archaeological evidence of collapse, continuity and change as it relates to everyday life; to familiarize you with the way archaeologists answer questions. You will be expected to actively participate in constructing critique and conclusions. Assessment All papers must be submitted in hard copy as well as ed. All papers must be single-sided, double-spaced and 12 pt font. Exercise 1 JANUARY 19 10%: research the causes and effect of Syrian War. Exercise 2 JANUARY 26 15%: mapping collapse. Take the data from Schwartz, G Taking the long view on collapse: a Syrian perspective. Varia Anatolica, 19(1), pp.45-67, and plot it geographically. How does your picture of collapse differ from the original? Exercise 3 DATE 10%: describe the sensory experiences of ritual adding the experiential dimension to archaeological thought (this exercise will be based on an extracurricular excursion). Term test MARCH 7TH: 30% Research Paper MARCH 23RD: 30% Participation 5%

2 2 Classroom Policies STUDENTS MAY NOT OPEN THEIR COMPUTERS IN CLASS UNLESS EXPRESSLY PERMITTED BY INSTRUCTOR. No phones or any other digital media are permitted. Class may not be recorded unless by prior arrangement with instructor. Computers may be used to take notes only. Wikipedia is not considered an acceptable source under any situation (so don t bother consulting it in class). If students persist in inappropriate use of electronic media, they will be asked to leave the class. Behavior that distracts other students will not be permitted. Students are expected to discuss all topics openly and civilly. MARCH 13 th IS LAST DAY TO DROP CLASS Failure to complete all components of the assessment may result in a failing grade. Failure to properly reference any written work or to acknowledge source material is considered plagiarism and will result in a failing grade. Readings Some readings are given as a source of information, but some will apply the techniques or theories to a particular subject we are discussing. Approached critically these sources are also ways of learning how archaeologists do things and why. For this reason you will be expected to do three things with the readings: extract information, analyze the structure and implications of the piece, and break down the argument. Most readings are available online at JSTOR, academia.edu or researchgate.net. Please consult google scholar. Otherwise they will be posted in Blackboard. Please pay attention to the directions in the weekly schedule. Plagiarism Plagiarism consists of passing off someone else s work as your own. This may be done in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to: wholesale copying of another person s writing; getting someone else to write your work for you; quoting someone s words directly within your own writing but failing to place the quote in quotation marks and/or failing to provide a reference; failing to provide a reference for someone else s words that you paraphrase; failing to acknowledge information or ideas that have come from someone else. Plagiarism is a serious offence and will be reported. It will be then treated according to school policies and may result in expulsion. Please see the appropriate web page for the school s plagiarism policy. Attendance It is very difficult to pass this class unless you attend class regularly. There are three reasons for this: one, I will be modeling for you in class the kind of work you are supposed to do for assignments and exams; two, readings do not replace class content; and three, class discussions, because they are the practice of analysis, are as important as any other part of the course. Exam questions are taken directly from class materials and discussions.

3 3 PART I: LATE THIRD MILLENNIUM BCE (EARLY BRONZE IV) Week 1 The Ancient Near East at 2500 BCE Thurs Jan 5 th : Sumer, Subartu and Susa Week 2. The World s First Empire: Akkad. Tues Jan 10 th Lacking the city of Akkad itself, we are reliant on objects and texts for our understanding of imperialism. The artefacts of Sargon and Naram-Sin. Thurs Jan 12 th But in the North, it is a different story. The Akkadian levels at Tell Brak. Oates, D. and Oates, J., Excavations at Tell Brak Iraq, 55, pp (Read only the section on the Akkadian levels). Week 3. Climate and Collapse: The Fall of Akkad and the Third Dynasty of Ur Tues Jan 17 th How did the rise and fall of empires affect the general population? Sallaberger, W From urban culture to nomadism: A history of Upper Mesopotamia in the late third millennium. Pp in Sociétés humaines et changement climatique à la fin du Troisième Millénaire, edited by C. Marro and C. Kuzucuoglu. Thurs Jan 19 th Does the modern situation give us insight into ancient situation, or are we imposing our own experience on the past? Kolinski, R., The upper Khabur region in the second part of the third millennium BC. Altorientalische Forschungen, 34(1-2), pp PART II THE SECOND MILLENNIUM BCE (MIDDLE AND LATE BRONZE AGES) Week 4. Invasion, migration, infiltration or none of the above. Tues Jan 24 th The coming of the Amorites in Mesopotamia intermediate periods, disjuncture and continuity. Porter, A You Say Potato, I Say Typology, Chronology and the Origin of the Amorites. Pp in Sociétés humaines et changement climatique à la fin du Troisième Millénaire, edited by C. Marro and C. Kuzucuoglu Thurs Jan 26 th How can archaeology inform us about the realities of daily life? Mashkan Shapir and Mari.

4 4 Stone, E.C., Mesopotamian cities and countryside. Pp in A Companion to the Ancient Near East, edited by D. Snell. Week 5 What do laws tell us about life? Tues Jan 31 st Hammurabi Feldman, M Object Agency? Pp. 148 in Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East: New Paths Forward, edited by S. Steadman and J. Ross. Thurs Feb 2 nd The Old Assyrian empire, international trade and Kanesh Larsen, M.T., Ancient Kanesh: A Merchant Colony in Bronze Age Anatolia. Cambridge. Chapter 4 The Lower Town. Week 6 The rise of the great empires and their impact on their subjects. Tues Feb 7 th The Hittites and Emar Otto, A., The Organization of Residential Space in the Mittani Kingdom as a Mirror of Different Models of Governance. Pp in Constituent, Confederate, and Conquered Space: The Emergence of the Mittani State, edited by Cancik-Kirschbaum, E., Brisch, N., and Eidem, J. Démare-Lafont, S. and Fleming, D., Emar Chronology and Scribal Streams: Cosmopolitanism and Legal Diversity. Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale, 109(1), pp Read, but don t worry about, the complexity of the first half of the paper, do focus on section V onwards. Thurs Feb 9 th Middle Assyrians Brown, B., The structure and decline of the Middle Assyrian state: the role of autonomous and nonstate actors. Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 65, pp Week 7 The International Age Tues Feb 14 th The Egyptians and the age of Amarna Liverani, M The Great Powers Club. Pp in Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations, edited by R. Cohen and R. Westbrook Selected Amarna letters Thurs Feb 16 th Qatna Pfälzner, P How did they bury the kings of Qatna? Pp in (Re-)Constructing funerary rituals in the ancient Near East. Proceedings of the First International Symposium of

5 5 the Tübingen Post-Graduate School Symbols of the Dead in May 2009, edited by P. Pfälzner, H. Niehr, E. Pernicka and A. Wissing. Pfälzner, P The Art of Qatna and the Question of the International Style Pp in Qatna and the Networks of Bronze Age Globalism edited by P. Pfälzner and M. Al-Maqdissi. Week 8 READING WEEK Week 9 The Levant Tues Feb 28 th in the North Ugarit Pfälzner, P., Levantine kingdoms of the late Bronze Age. Pp in A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, edited by D.T. Potts. Thurs Mar 2 nd and in the South Beth Shan Burke, A, et al Excavations of the New Kingdom Fortress in Jaffa, : Traces of Resistance to Egyptian Rule in Canaan. American Journal of Archaeology, 121/1, pp Panitz-Cohen, The Southern Levant (Cisjordan) During the Late Bronze Age. In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c BCE, edited by A. Killebrew and M. Steiner Week 10 And yet another collapse Tues Mar 7 th TERM TEST Thurs Mar 9 th The coming of the sea peoples Ertsen, M., and Kapteijn, E The Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Early Iron Age in the Levant: The Role of Climate in Cultural Disruption. Pp in Climate and Ancient Societies, edited by Kaniewski, D., Van Campo, E., Van Lerberghe, K., Boiy, T., Jans, G. and Bretschneider, J. PART III THE FIRST MILLENNIUM BCE (IRON AGE) Week 11 Identity, ethnicity, hybridity, acculturation Tues Mar 14 th Egypt Wegner, M.A Anthropoid Clay Coffins of the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age in Egypt and the Near East: A Re-Evaluation of the Evidence from Tell El-Yahudiya. Pp

6 6 in Walls of the Prince: Egyptian Interactions with Southwest Asia in Antiquity, edited by T. Harrison, E. Banning and S. Klassen. Thurs Mar 16 th Philistines Killebrew, A.E., Biblical peoples and ethnicity: an archaeological study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and early Israel, BCE (Vol. 9). Chapter 5. Week 12 New kids on the block Tues Mar 21 st Israel Gilboa, A The Southern Levant (Cisjordan) During the Iron Age I Period. In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c BCE, edited by A. Killebrew and M. Steiner. Levy, T.E. and Holl, A.F., Migrations, ethnogenesis, and settlement dynamics: Israelites in Iron Age Canaan and Shuwa-Arabs in the Chad Basin. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 21(1), pp Thurs Mar 23th Aramaeans Beaulieu, P.A., Neo Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire. The Encyclopedia of Empire. Mazzoni, S., The Aramean States During the Iron Age II III Periods. In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c BCE, edited by A. Killebrew and M. Steiner. Week 13 The Neos: The Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. Tues Mar 28 th The Assyrian Reliefs Reed, S., Blurring the Edges: a Reconsideration of the Treatment of Enemies in Ashurbanipal s Reliefs. Pp in Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context, edited by J. Cheng and M. Feldman. Thurs Mar 30 th The Babylonian city. Week 14 LAST DAY of CLASS Tues April 4 th So what was it all for?

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Paper A3 Introduction to Ancient Egypt & Mesopotamia:

Archaeology Tripos, Pt I HSPS Tripos Pt. I PART I Paper A3 Introduction to Ancient Egypt & Mesopotamia: Course Co-ordinator: Dr Augusta McMahon, amm36@cam.ac.uk Lecturers: Dr Augusta McMahon, amm36@cam.ac.uk