This course examines the history nature and complexity of human interactions across the Mediterranean, from the dawn of humanity in Africa until the fall of the Western Roman Empire: A final part of the course will examine the threats to this heritage posed by contemporary issues such as climate change and the growth of tourism. The course is designed around eight separate modules or themes, focusing on key issues that define the historical trajectory, such as human evolution, the Neolithic revolution, the rise of urbanism in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and the classical world represented by ancient Greece and Rome.
The intention of the course is to explore these phenomena, not only as a historical process, but as a way to understand and assess today’s Western culture, economics and politics. Taking advantage of the situation of the Mediterranean region, the course aims to discuss also more intriguing issues in human history, such as what make us human, to figure out the role of women in human history, to explore the origins of urbanism, to discuss the nature of democracy and citizenship, to establish the effects of commercial and colonialist encounters, to explore curiosities of ancient daily life, and to understand why cultural heritage plays an important role in the construction of contemporary society..
As part of this exploration, the course will analyze how this Mediterranean heritage is presented to the general public through cinema, exhibitions, and displays in archaeological museums. The course also includes field studies to museums and archaeological sites in Barcelona so as to provide a first hand encounter with monuments and material culture.
Attendance policy:
Attendance is mandatory for all IES classes, including field studies. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or family emergencies. If a student misses more than three classes in any course half a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Seven absences in any course will result in a failing grade.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students are able to:
• to summarize the historical evolution of the Mediterranean region from the dawn of humanity until the fall of the Roman Empire;
• to identify the main social, economic and political phenomena in prehistory and ancient history;
• to stimulate critical thinking about past phenomena, and compare them to today’s Western culture;
• to develop research skills applied to a specific topic related to the Mediterranean prehistory;
• to interweave the three above points (theory, facts and opinion) in order to build a better image of the Mediterranean prehistory and ancient history in relation to today's Europe society and culture.
Method of presentation:
Lectures: Students gain an overview of course content, and have the opportunity to become involved with the subject matter, and to clarify issues;
Course Reader: this comprises a selection of key readings to complement class lectures and is chosen to
develop a general understanding of the subject matter. Additional readings may be added to the course to track any new or significant developments in the subject matter.
Reading guides: Reading guides will be posted in the course webpage to help students focus on the main points, and be as an aid to preparation for class discussions;
Field studies: These are classes on site in which the students are able to experience at first hand archaeological and historical materials.
Research/writing analysis guides: Reading and writing analytical skills will be provided in order to help
students accomplish the course aims and objectives
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation (15%): The student should be able to:
• understand and assess the main ideas, author’s arguments and archaeological/historical information contained in the course readings;
• to explain shortly and clearly the information provided in the course readings as well as author’s points of view to his/her classmates;
• to link that particular information to the general information provided during each class session, and also to both general and today concepts;
• to generate his/her own thoughts on the subject discussed.
Short Quizzes (15% each, total 30%). The student should be able: - to answer a series of multiple choice and short answer questions relating to the archaeology and history of the Mediterranean region.
Midterm Exam (25%): The exam is meant to prove that the student has understand main issues, ideas and information of the prehistory and ancient history of the Mediterranean basin;
• the student understands specific historical issues such as time line, and past societies social, economic, and political information;
• the student is able to use this new archaeological and historical information to argue general concepts on past societies.
Travel Log (15%): Creating a journal comprising observations of cultural and historical experiences.
Research project (20%): The student should be able to research new (academic) information on an unknown subject:
• to write and summarize this new information in a logical and coherent order so the research can be understandable by a non-specialist;
• to be able to use archaeological and historical data (examples) to support this work
• to organize the research into a coherent presentation and communicate this to the class.
content:
Session 1: Introducing the Mediterranean. Course presentation; defining archaeology and ancient history; defining the Mediterranean and its biophysical and cultural identity.
Web assignment: Mediterranean geography
Required Reading: Renfrew & P.Bahn (1997): 11-13, 16, 37, 45-47, 50-51, 97, 100-105, 108.
Session 2: What is archaeology: Objects in context: the importance of time and place; interpreting social, economic and political concepts from discarded broken objects; from fieldwork to public exhibition. Film Viewing: selected parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark
Required Reading: R. Chadwick (2005): 14-17
Session 3: The mythological Mediterranean: The central role of mythological images and narrative in cultural life, past and present.
Web assignment: The Greek pantheon
Required Reading: D. Olsen (1991): 295-301.
Session 4: The Peopling of the Mediterranean: Neanderthals and Homo sapiens sapiens.
Required Reading: G.C. Conroy (1997): 385–401 and 416–429;
Falk (1997): 114–133.
Session 5: The first artistic representations of nature: The socio-natural context of cave paintings and ‘goddess’ figurines.
Web assignment: Origins of agriculture
Required Reading: Conkey, M. (1987): 413-430.
Session 6: The Neolithic Revolution. From hunting/gathering to farming; First settlements and villages in the Mediterranean; the Natufian culture
Web assignment: Jericho
Required Reading: F. Hole (1992): 373–379.
Session 7: Domestication of plants and animals. How archaeology explains the “Neolithic Revolution”: when, how and why did start; the settlement of Çatal Höyük.
Web assignment: Sumer
Required Reading:
M. Balter (1998): 1442–1445.
Session 8: The first civilizations (1): Mesopotamia. The politics and economics of the river, the temple, and the palace in the making of the first city life-style.
Web assignment: the pyramids
Required Reading: J.N. Postgate (1992): 109–153
Session 9: The first civilizations (2) Egypt. The pyramid-builders
Film Viewing: Journey through the Valley of Kings
Required Reading: Stephen Quirke, ed. (2007): 108 – 147.
Session 10: The emergence of complex societies in the Eastern Mediterranean (1): The Minoan palaces and their political,economic and social organization.
Web assignment: Gilgamesh
Required Reading: Castleden (1990): 9–37 & 117–122.
Film Viewing: Legacy of ancient civilizations. The Minoans
Session 11: The emergence of complex societies in the Eastern Mediterranean (2): The Mycenaean civilization in the Aegean and the dawn of Classical Greece.
Film Viewing: Troy
Web assignment: the Aegean Bronze Age
Required Reading: R. Chadwick (2005): 27–32; D. Wardle (2001): 45-53; summary of Homer’s
The Iliad.
Session 12: Mid-Term Exam
Session13: Phoenicians: masters of sea trade. Connecting the East and the West worlds of the Mediterranean.
Field Study: The Archaeological National Museum of Catalonia.
Web assignment: George F. Bass and Ulu Burun
Session 14: Greeks going West Trade, migration and the role of Colonization.
Web assignment: the Polis
Required Reading: L. Proudfoot (1997): 57-74.
Session 15: Classic Greece: the poleis and their economic and social structure. Athens vs. Sparta.
Film Viewing: Ancient Greece. A journey back in time.
Required Reading: J. Thorley (1996): 22-50.
Session 16 : Politics in Classic Athens: the invention of democracy.
Web assignment: Cleisthenes
Required Reading: M. Ostwald (1996): 49-60.
Session 17: Pericles and the ‘Golden Age’ of Athens
Web exercise: the life of Pericles
Session 18: The origins of Rome and the growth of the Republic.
Required Reading: T.R. Reid (1997):12-40
Session 19: Militarism and the rise of Empire
Film Viewing: Gladiators in Rome.
Required Reading: R. Ling (1987): 148-160.
Session 20: Romanization in the provinces. The end of Empire in the West
Field Study: City
Web assignment: romanization
Required Reading: I.Rodà (2002): 17-31.
Session 21: Field visit to Roman
Barcelona (Barcino) and its monuments. Web assignment: daily life in Rome
Session 22: Whose heritage? Who owns the past? Issues in the conservation and management of Mediterranean archaeology
Web assignment: the past in the present (hand-out)
Session 23: Project presentations
Session -24. Project Presentations
Final Exam
Required readings:
Balter, Michael. (1998) Why settle down? The Mystery of Communities, Science, 282: 1442-1445.
Castleden, Rodney. (1990) Chapter 2. The People. In Minoans. Life in Bronze Age Crete :9-37 & 117-122. London: Routledge.
Chadwick, R. (2005) First Civilizations. Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. London: Equinox:c27-32.
Conkey,, M. (1987) New approaches in the search for meaning, J. of Field Archaeology 11 (1), 413-430.
Conroy, Gordon C. (1997) Reconstruction Human Origins. New York: W.W. Norton & co.
Falk, Dean. (1997) The brain evolution in females. An answer to Mr. Lovejoy. In Lori D. Hager (ed.)Women in the Human Evolution :114-133 London: Routledge.
Hole, Frank (1992) Origins of agriculture, in S. Jones, R. Martin, & M. Pilbeam (ed.) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution: 373 -379. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ling, Roger (1987) Chapter 11. A new look at Pompeii. In Origins. The Roots of European Civilization, 148 – 160. London: BBC Books.
Olsen, David (1991) Classical mythology, The Classical World, 84 (4), pp. 295-301.
Ostwald, Martin (1996), Shares and Rights: ‘”Citizenship” Greek Style and American Style”, in Démokratia. A conversation on democracies, ancient and modern: 49-60. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Postgate, J.N. (1992) Chapter 6. The temple. In Early Mesopotamia. Society and Economy of the dawn of history: 109 – 153.London: Routledge.
Proudfoot, Lindsay. “The Graeco-Roman Mediterranean”, in The Mediterranean. Environment and society. Ed. Russell King, Lindsay Proudfoot and Bernard Smith. London: Arnold, 1997. Pp.57-74.
Quirke, Stephen, ed. (2007), British Museum Book of Ancient Egypt, London: British Museum: 108 –147.
Reid, Thomas R. (1997) The making of an empire, National Geographic, 192(1): 12-40.
Renfrew, Colin and Paul Bahn.(2003) Archaeology. Method and Theories. London: Thames and Hudson (4th edition).
Rodà, Isabel. (2002) Barcelona. From its foundation up to the 4th century AD. In Julia Beltrán de Heredia The Archaeological Remains of Plaça del Rei in Barcelona: 22-31. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona.
Thorley, John (1996) Chapter 3. The democratic system: Kleisthenes’ reform. In Athenian Democracy: pp. 22-50.
Wardle, Diana. (2001) Cities of Legend. The Mycenaean World. London: Bristol Classical Press.
Recommended readings:
Braudel, Fernand. (2002) Memory and the Mediterranean. London: Random House.
Diaz-Andreu, Margarita & Simon Keay (ed.) (1997) The Archaeology of Iberia. London: Routledge. Ehrenberg, Margaret. (1989) Women in Prehistory. London: British Museum Publication.
Hager, Lori D. (ed.) (1997) Women in Human Evolution. London: Routledge.
Horden, Peregrine & Nicholas Purcell. (2000) The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers.
Knapp, Arthur Bernard (2004) The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Nichols, D.L. & T.H. Charlton (ed.) (1997) The Archaeology of City-States. Cross-Cultural Approaches. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Osborne, R. (1996) Greece in the Making. Londres. Routledge.
Powell, A. (ed.) (1995) The Greek World. London: Routledge.
Mauch Messenger, Anthony P. (ed.) (2000) The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property. Whose Culture?
Whose Property?. Alburquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
This course examines the history nature and complexity of human interactions across the Mediterranean, from the dawn of humanity in Africa until the fall of the Western Roman Empire: A final part of the course will examine the threats to this heritage posed by contemporary issues such as climate change and the growth of tourism. The course is designed around eight separate modules or themes, focusing on key issues that define the historical trajectory, such as human evolution, the Neolithic revolution, the rise of urbanism in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and the classical world represented by ancient Greece and Rome.
The intention of the course is to explore these phenomena, not only as a historical process, but as a way to understand and assess today’s Western culture, economics and politics. Taking advantage of the situation of the Mediterranean region, the course aims to discuss also more intriguing issues in human history, such as what make us human, to figure out the role of women in human history, to explore the origins of urbanism, to discuss the nature of democracy and citizenship, to establish the effects of commercial and colonialist encounters, to explore curiosities of ancient daily life, and to understand why cultural heritage plays an important role in the construction of contemporary society..
As part of this exploration, the course will analyze how this Mediterranean heritage is presented to the general public through cinema, exhibitions, and displays in archaeological museums. The course also includes field studies to museums and archaeological sites in Barcelona so as to provide a first hand encounter with monuments and material culture.
Attendance is mandatory for all IES classes, including field studies. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or family emergencies. If a student misses more than three classes in any course half a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Seven absences in any course will result in a failing grade.
By the end of the course, students are able to:
• to summarize the historical evolution of the Mediterranean region from the dawn of humanity until the fall of the Roman Empire;
• to identify the main social, economic and political phenomena in prehistory and ancient history;
• to stimulate critical thinking about past phenomena, and compare them to today’s Western culture;
• to develop research skills applied to a specific topic related to the Mediterranean prehistory;
• to interweave the three above points (theory, facts and opinion) in order to build a better image of the Mediterranean prehistory and ancient history in relation to today's Europe society and culture.
Lectures: Students gain an overview of course content, and have the opportunity to become involved with the subject matter, and to clarify issues;
Course Reader: this comprises a selection of key readings to complement class lectures and is chosen to
develop a general understanding of the subject matter. Additional readings may be added to the course to track any new or significant developments in the subject matter.
Reading guides: Reading guides will be posted in the course webpage to help students focus on the main points, and be as an aid to preparation for class discussions;
Field studies: These are classes on site in which the students are able to experience at first hand archaeological and historical materials.
Research/writing analysis guides: Reading and writing analytical skills will be provided in order to help
students accomplish the course aims and objectives
Class participation (15%): The student should be able to:
• understand and assess the main ideas, author’s arguments and archaeological/historical information contained in the course readings;
• to explain shortly and clearly the information provided in the course readings as well as author’s points of view to his/her classmates;
• to link that particular information to the general information provided during each class session, and also to both general and today concepts;
• to generate his/her own thoughts on the subject discussed.
Short Quizzes (15% each, total 30%). The student should be able: - to answer a series of multiple choice and short answer questions relating to the archaeology and history of the Mediterranean region.
Midterm Exam (25%): The exam is meant to prove that the student has understand main issues, ideas and information of the prehistory and ancient history of the Mediterranean basin;
• the student understands specific historical issues such as time line, and past societies social, economic, and political information;
• the student is able to use this new archaeological and historical information to argue general concepts on past societies.
Travel Log (15%): Creating a journal comprising observations of cultural and historical experiences.
Research project (20%): The student should be able to research new (academic) information on an unknown subject:
• to write and summarize this new information in a logical and coherent order so the research can be understandable by a non-specialist;
• to be able to use archaeological and historical data (examples) to support this work
• to organize the research into a coherent presentation and communicate this to the class.
Session 1: Introducing the Mediterranean. Course presentation; defining archaeology and ancient history; defining the Mediterranean and its biophysical and cultural identity.
Web assignment: Mediterranean geography
Required Reading: Renfrew & P.Bahn (1997): 11-13, 16, 37, 45-47, 50-51, 97, 100-105, 108.
Session 2: What is archaeology: Objects in context: the importance of time and place; interpreting social, economic and political concepts from discarded broken objects; from fieldwork to public exhibition. Film Viewing: selected parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark
Required Reading: R. Chadwick (2005): 14-17
Session 3: The mythological Mediterranean: The central role of mythological images and narrative in cultural life, past and present.
Web assignment: The Greek pantheon
Required Reading: D. Olsen (1991): 295-301.
Session 4: The Peopling of the Mediterranean: Neanderthals and Homo sapiens sapiens.
Required Reading: G.C. Conroy (1997): 385–401 and 416–429;
Falk (1997): 114–133.
Session 5: The first artistic representations of nature: The socio-natural context of cave paintings and ‘goddess’ figurines.
Web assignment: Origins of agriculture
Required Reading: Conkey, M. (1987): 413-430.
Session 6: The Neolithic Revolution. From hunting/gathering to farming; First settlements and villages in the Mediterranean; the Natufian culture
Web assignment: Jericho
Required Reading: F. Hole (1992): 373–379.
Session 7: Domestication of plants and animals. How archaeology explains the “Neolithic Revolution”: when, how and why did start; the settlement of Çatal Höyük.
Web assignment: Sumer
Required Reading:
M. Balter (1998): 1442–1445.
Session 8: The first civilizations (1): Mesopotamia. The politics and economics of the river, the temple, and the palace in the making of the first city life-style.
Web assignment: the pyramids
Required Reading: J.N. Postgate (1992): 109–153
Session 9: The first civilizations (2) Egypt. The pyramid-builders
Film Viewing: Journey through the Valley of Kings
Required Reading: Stephen Quirke, ed. (2007): 108 – 147.
Session 10: The emergence of complex societies in the Eastern Mediterranean (1): The Minoan palaces and their political,economic and social organization.
Web assignment: Gilgamesh
Required Reading: Castleden (1990): 9–37 & 117–122.
Film Viewing: Legacy of ancient civilizations. The Minoans
Session 11: The emergence of complex societies in the Eastern Mediterranean (2): The Mycenaean civilization in the Aegean and the dawn of Classical Greece.
Film Viewing: Troy
Web assignment: the Aegean Bronze Age
Required Reading: R. Chadwick (2005): 27–32; D. Wardle (2001): 45-53; summary of Homer’s
The Iliad.
Session 12: Mid-Term Exam
Session13: Phoenicians: masters of sea trade. Connecting the East and the West worlds of the Mediterranean.
Field Study: The Archaeological National Museum of Catalonia.
Web assignment: George F. Bass and Ulu Burun
Session 14: Greeks going West Trade, migration and the role of Colonization.
Web assignment: the Polis
Required Reading: L. Proudfoot (1997): 57-74.
Session 15: Classic Greece: the poleis and their economic and social structure. Athens vs. Sparta.
Film Viewing: Ancient Greece. A journey back in time.
Required Reading: J. Thorley (1996): 22-50.
Session 16 : Politics in Classic Athens: the invention of democracy.
Web assignment: Cleisthenes
Required Reading: M. Ostwald (1996): 49-60.
Session 17: Pericles and the ‘Golden Age’ of Athens
Web exercise: the life of Pericles
Session 18: The origins of Rome and the growth of the Republic.
Required Reading: T.R. Reid (1997):12-40
Session 19: Militarism and the rise of Empire
Film Viewing: Gladiators in Rome.
Required Reading: R. Ling (1987): 148-160.
Session 20: Romanization in the provinces. The end of Empire in the West
Field Study: City
Web assignment: romanization
Required Reading: I.Rodà (2002): 17-31.
Session 21: Field visit to Roman
Barcelona (Barcino) and its monuments. Web assignment: daily life in Rome
Session 22: Whose heritage? Who owns the past? Issues in the conservation and management of Mediterranean archaeology
Web assignment: the past in the present (hand-out)
Session 23: Project presentations
Session -24. Project Presentations
Final Exam
Balter, Michael. (1998) Why settle down? The Mystery of Communities, Science, 282: 1442-1445.
Castleden, Rodney. (1990) Chapter 2. The People. In Minoans. Life in Bronze Age Crete :9-37 & 117-122. London: Routledge.
Chadwick, R. (2005) First Civilizations. Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. London: Equinox:c27-32.
Conkey,, M. (1987) New approaches in the search for meaning, J. of Field Archaeology 11 (1), 413-430.
Conroy, Gordon C. (1997) Reconstruction Human Origins. New York: W.W. Norton & co.
Falk, Dean. (1997) The brain evolution in females. An answer to Mr. Lovejoy. In Lori D. Hager (ed.)Women in the Human Evolution :114-133 London: Routledge.
Hole, Frank (1992) Origins of agriculture, in S. Jones, R. Martin, & M. Pilbeam (ed.) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution: 373 -379. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ling, Roger (1987) Chapter 11. A new look at Pompeii. In Origins. The Roots of European Civilization, 148 – 160. London: BBC Books.
Olsen, David (1991) Classical mythology, The Classical World, 84 (4), pp. 295-301.
Ostwald, Martin (1996), Shares and Rights: ‘”Citizenship” Greek Style and American Style”, in Démokratia. A conversation on democracies, ancient and modern: 49-60. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Postgate, J.N. (1992) Chapter 6. The temple. In Early Mesopotamia. Society and Economy of the dawn of history: 109 – 153.London: Routledge.
Proudfoot, Lindsay. “The Graeco-Roman Mediterranean”, in The Mediterranean. Environment and society. Ed. Russell King, Lindsay Proudfoot and Bernard Smith. London: Arnold, 1997. Pp.57-74.
Quirke, Stephen, ed. (2007), British Museum Book of Ancient Egypt, London: British Museum: 108 –147.
Reid, Thomas R. (1997) The making of an empire, National Geographic, 192(1): 12-40.
Renfrew, Colin and Paul Bahn.(2003) Archaeology. Method and Theories. London: Thames and Hudson (4th edition).
Rodà, Isabel. (2002) Barcelona. From its foundation up to the 4th century AD. In Julia Beltrán de Heredia The Archaeological Remains of Plaça del Rei in Barcelona: 22-31. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona.
Thorley, John (1996) Chapter 3. The democratic system: Kleisthenes’ reform. In Athenian Democracy: pp. 22-50.
Wardle, Diana. (2001) Cities of Legend. The Mycenaean World. London: Bristol Classical Press.
Braudel, Fernand. (2002) Memory and the Mediterranean. London: Random House.
Diaz-Andreu, Margarita & Simon Keay (ed.) (1997) The Archaeology of Iberia. London: Routledge. Ehrenberg, Margaret. (1989) Women in Prehistory. London: British Museum Publication.
Hager, Lori D. (ed.) (1997) Women in Human Evolution. London: Routledge.
Horden, Peregrine & Nicholas Purcell. (2000) The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers.
Knapp, Arthur Bernard (2004) The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Nichols, D.L. & T.H. Charlton (ed.) (1997) The Archaeology of City-States. Cross-Cultural Approaches. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Osborne, R. (1996) Greece in the Making. Londres. Routledge.
Powell, A. (ed.) (1995) The Greek World. London: Routledge.
Mauch Messenger, Anthony P. (ed.) (2000) The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property. Whose Culture?
Whose Property?. Alburquerque: University of New Mexico Press.