World Cultures: The Ancient Near East and Egypt MAP V55.0501 Fall 2008 Lecture and Recitation Sections: 001 MW 9:30am - 10:45am SILV 408 Ann Macy Roth 002 T 8:00am - 9:15am MEYR 105 Brendon Benz 003 T 9:30am - 10:45am SILV 804 Brendon Benz 004 T 3:30pm - 4:45pm 48CS 107 Lisa Saladino 005 T 4:55pm - 6:10pm TISC UC55 Lisa Saladino 006 T 8:00am - 9:15am BOBS 437 Elizabeth Knott 007 T 9:30am - 10:45am BOBS 437 Elizabeth Knott Course Faculty: Professor: Ann Macy Roth amr349@nyu.edu Office Hours: Monday: 3-4:30 pm; Wednesday: 11 am - 12:20 pm and by appointment Office Location: Silver 306 C; Office Telephone: (212) 998-8007 Preceptor: Brendon Benz Office Hours & Location: Wednesday, 1-4 in the dining room of the 2nd floor of the King Juan Carlos Center, 51 Washington Square South Preceptor: Elizabeth Ann Knott Office Hours & Location: Wednesdays 11:30am-1pm and by appointment, at the Tea Spot, located on the SW corner of Washington Square Park on Macdougal Street between West 4 th (Washington Square South) and West 3 rd. Check the main floor and downstairs. Preceptor: Lisa Saladino Office Hours & Location: Wednesday, 11-12 and by appointment. KJCC 206, 53 Washington Square South (After the entryway, turn right, go through the door to the right of the elevators, up a few stairs, and then up the metal stairway). Course Aims: The World Cultures courses are intended to teach students about cultures that differ from their own, including their history, their beliefs, their cultural products, and the methods that scholars use to study them. In studying cultures that no longer survive (ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt), a multi-disciplinary and comparative approach is most useful. The course therefore will also introduce the basic concepts of archaeology, textual analysis, and the study of art and iconography. Course materials will thus be taken from a variety of sources: literature, architecture, religious writings, works of art, archaeological remains, and administrative documents. By the end of the course, students should be familiar with the chronological development of the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, the basic tenets of their religious beliefs, their social forms and organizations, the conventions and achievements of their art, and the forms of their major buildings and monuments. More importantly, however, students will understand how scholars have used the textual and archaeological remains of these cultures to reconstruct them.
Course Requirements and Grading: All grades will be assigned on a 100 point scale and calculated according to the weight of the grade. The scale is given at the end of the syllabus for your reference Attendance and Participation (5%): Attendance will be taken at all discussion sections, and your participation in discussions noted. You will be asked to sign an attendance sheet during lectures. Section Grade (15%): This grade will be assigned by your preceptor, based on section attendance and participation and completion of section assignments. Midterm Exam (15%): There will be a midterm exam given in class on Wednesday, October 8 th. It will include both objective and essay components, and it will cover material from the readings, lectures, and sections up to that point. Make-up exams can only be taken with a verified medical or similarly serious excuse approved by Prof. Roth. Final Exam (35%): A final exam, of the same format as the Midterm but slightly longer, will be given on Wednesday, December 17 th, 8:00-9:50 a.m., in our regular classroom. This is the regularly scheduled exam time for this class, and given the size of the class, it cannot be changed. As with the Midterm Exam, any make-ups must be approved by the instructor, and they will only be approved with a very pressing reason. DO NOT make airline reservations to leave town before the exam. This will not be regarded as a reason. Essays (30%): You will be asked to write two short (6-8 page) essays on assigned topics. Each of them will be worth 15% of your grade. Spelling, grammar, writing style, organization, and argumentation are important for these essays. Required Books: Course readings will be from the following six books (available at the NYU bookstore and elsewhere). The readings and assignments are indicated in this syllabus using the abbreviations noted. Except for the first week, they should be read before the first lecture of the week. Erik Hornung, History of Ancient Egypt: An Introduction (Cornell, 1999) [Hornung] Barbara Mertz, Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs, rev. ed. (William Morrow, 2007) [Mertz] Barry Kemp, Ancient Egypt Anatomy of a Civilization, 2 nd ed. (Routledge, 2005) [Kemp] William Kelly Simpson, The Literature of Ancient Egypt, 3 rd ed. (Yale, 2003) [Simpson] M. van der Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East (Blackwell, 2008) [van der Mieroop] Stephanie Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford, 1998) [Dalley] Readings will be assigned from these books as well as additional articles that will be posted on the Blackboard web sites. Preceptors may assign additional readings.
Schedule of Lectures & Reading Assignments Reading assignments should be done before the beginning of the class for which they are assigned. Week 1: Introduction 9/3: Evidence and the Historical Framework Week 2: Egypt History I 9/8: State Formation and the Pyramid Age Mertz 1-94; Hornung 1-47; Kemp 60-78 9/10: The Middle Kingdom Mertz 95-125; Hornung 48-75; Kemp 163-192 Week 3: Egypt History II 9/15: The Age of Empire Mertz 126-239; Hornung 76-124; Kemp 247-301 9/17: The Late Period Mertz 240-307; Hornung 125-147; Kemp 336-388 Week 4: Ancient Near East History I 9/22: The Early Dynastic and the First Dynasty of Akkad van der Mieroop 1-62 9/24: Ur III and the Old Babylonian Period van der Mieroop 63-125 Week 5: Ancient Near East History II 9/29: The Middle Periods van der Mieroop 129-206 10/1: The Empires of Assyria and Babylonia van der Mieroop 209-301 Week 6: Midterm 10/6: The Historical Development of Egypt and Mesopotamia 10/8: Midterm Examination Week 7: Religion I 10/13: No Class 10/15: The Creation of the Universe (Brendon Benz) Simpson 289-298; Dalley 228-277; additional readings on Blackboard Week 8: Religion II 10/20: The Gods and their Temples Kemp 111-160; additional readings on Blackboard 10/22: Prayers and Personal Piety (Lisa Saladino) Simpson 278-288; Dalley 1-38
Week 9: Society & Economy II 10/27: Kingship in Egypt and Mesopotamia Kemp 78-110; Simpson: 91-103; Dalley 49-52 10/29: State Planning in Egypt Kenp 193-244 Week 10: Society & Economy II 11/3: Egyptian Society & Economy Simpson 432-438; Kemp 302-335 11/5: Mesopotamian Society & Economy Week 11: Literature 11/10: Egyptian Literature: The Story of Sinhue Simpson 401-413, 54-66 11/12: Mesopotamian Literature: The Epic of Gilgamesh (Elizabeth Knott) Dalley 38-135 Week 12: Art & Architecture I 11/17: Egyptian Art: Conventions and Expression 11/19: Amarna Art Week 13: Art & Architecture II 11/24: Egyptian Architecture 11/26: Mesopotamian Art & Architecture Week 14: Mortuary Archaeology 12/1: Beliefs about Death Simpson: 247-277, 178-187; Dalley 154-177 12/3: Two Queens: Puabi and Hetepheres Week 15: The Grande Finale 12/8: The Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun 12/10: Synthesis and Review Final Exam: Wednesday 12/17 8:00AM-9:50AM
Policies: Attendance at lectures and sections is required. If students find it necessary to be absent, they must present documented excuses. A very small (and undisclosed) number of absences will be allowed before a grade is affected, but if there is a good (i.e., medical or similarly dire) reason for your absence, you would be better off documenting it. This documentation should be shown to your preceptor, if a recitation section was missed, or to the instructor, if a lecture was missed. Students are expected to show consideration for their fellow students in lectures and sections. All cell phones and pagers should be turned OFF during all your classes. If you are taking notes on a computer during in a PowerPoint presentation, sit at the back of the class so the light from your screen does not prevent the students behind you from seeing the slides. You should not eat in class. You should not drinks sugary drinks that might be spilled and attract vermin. You should not leave trash on the floor or the seats. This should all be obvious. Essays will not be accepted after the due date without excellent excuses. Extensions will not be granted unless there are genuinely exceptional circumstances that warrant them. (Poor planning is not, alas, exceptional.) If you see such a circumstance on the horizon, e-mailing your preceptor or professor about it before the paper is late (or the exam is missed) will make the acceptance of your excuse more likely. Papers may be submitted for comments in advance of the due date. Papers may be submitted to Prof. Roth at least a week before the paper is due. Note that your paper will not necessarily be graded by the same person who offered preliminary comments, and therefore that fixing the flaws pointed out does not necessarily guarantee you an A (or even a B, although it will almost certainly improve your grade somewhat. The grade of A is given only for papers and exams that exceed the requirements of the assignment and begin to approach perfection in content and presentation. If you feel a grade is unfair and would like to re-submit the paper or exam to the professor, be aware that your grade can be lowered as well as raised. Plagiarism and other forms of cheating will not be tolerated. They will be penalized with a significant reduction of the student s grade and they will be reported to the deans, as the faculty handbook requires. In extreme cases, students will fail the course. Students are therefore strongly advised to avoid even the appearance of cheating during exams and to be extremely careful about their use of sources. Note that changing around the words of a source does not make it your own. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to use quotation marks assiduously in your notes and to close all books while writing your essays. Grading Scale: A 93-100 C+ 77-79 A- 90-92 C 73-76 B+ 87-89 C- 70-72 B 83-86 D+ 67-69 B- 80-82 D 60-66