CLAS 2310

The cultures of the ancient Near Eastern loomed large in the imagination and history of the Greeks and Romans. This course introduces their history from the beginning of writing, around 3000, to the Greek conquest, 332 B.C.E. We will focus on Mesopotamia, which has left us the largest archive of writing in the ancient world (far larger than that of Greece and Rome) with forays into Egypt Israel/Palestine, and Anatolia. We will use culture as a key to history, reading the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Laws of Hammurabi, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and some surprisingly intimate letters from people who have been dead for nearly 4,000 years. We will consider the significance of some world-historical “firsts”, including the origins of cities and writing in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, the first world empires and bureaucracies, and the still mysterious catastrophe that nearly destroyed them around 1200 B.C.E.