Introduction to the History and Culture of Ancient Mesopotamia

3 units

This course will introduce students to the first great human civilization, Ancient Mesopotamia. Combining textual evidence and material remains we will survey all major facets of Mesopotamian culture: the environment, political history, and everyday life including portraits of several material, social, and economic aspects of society: religion, myth, art, science and medicine. The course will focus on helping the student to understand empathetically the Mesopotamian worldview, to interact with primary materials (in translation), and to evaluate the ideas of historians dedicated to investigating this culture. Since some of the practices of this ancient culture are quite different from our own (e.g. magic, divination, the gods), yet others have made important contributions to world civilization (including the West, e.g. writing and astronomy), the course will also be an important experience in cross-cultural learning.