Encountering the Foreign: The Archaeology of Diplomacy

Human societies have long been both intrigued and frightened by the foreign and exotic, from objects, peoples, and practices that appear “different”. Out of these encounters with the unknown evolved a way to manage these interactions: what we now call diplomacy. This course focuses on the earliest forms of diplomacy in the societies of the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean, examined through the lens of material culture, texts, and art, while also considering how disciplines such as sociology, psychology, and anthropology might expand our understanding.