Introduction to Early Mesopotamian Art and Architecture

Mesopotamia - the Greek name given to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now modern-day Iraq - is one of the world's cradles of civilization. This land is home to the invention of writing and literature, urbanism and administration, and home to the earliest world empires. Students will explore the art and architecture of ancient Iraq, Syria, Anatolia, and Iran during the Bronze Age, from approximately the 4th millennium BCE down through the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, against this backdrop of historical, social, and political innovation. By the end of the semester, students will develop visual acuity in early Mesopotamian visual and material culture, have a thorough grasp on Mesopotamian aesthetics, and become familiar with models of artistic production and the cultural impulses driving artistic creation. Expect to student the first monumental temple complexes, the development of seals and sealing technologies, and early representations of historical narrative and much more.