Explorers, Archaeologists, and Tourists in the Middle East

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course examines the development of archaeology in the Middle East from 1800 to contemporary times. The first half of the course explores the roles that explorers, pilgrims, and archaeologists played in the field’s development against the backdrop of European imperialism and Middle Eastern nationalism. The second half of the course evaluates urgent issues about looting, the antiquities market, repatriation, tourism, and climate change. Students will examine primary source materials such as ethnographies, memoirs, films, social media, and still images, and interrogate case studies that ponder the future of the past in the Middle East.