Ancient Near East to 1200 BCE - HST 541

Contact information:

Office: Strong 416, phone 836-5024; Office hours: Office hours: 11:00-12:00, 2:00-3:30 Tuesday/Thursday and by appointment. I can be reached through E-mail at mac566f@smsu.edu.

Required texts: (available at the bookstore)

Recommended general texts: (on reserve)

Recommended source collections: (on reserve)

Book policy:

Textbooks are available from the bookstore, and the supplementary texts are on library reserve. Students may purchase any of these books through Amazon.com by clicking the linked title of the book. When you buy books through these links, Amazon.com offers a discount, will not charge sales tax, but there is a shipping fee.

Prerequisite:

HST 101 is recommended or permission of instructor. This course fulfills part of the Ancient and European history requirement of the BA and BSEd History majors. It also fulfills part of the Ancient Near Eastern Studies requirement of the Antiquities major.

Content:

This course will pursue the history of the ancient Near East from the origins of urban civilization to the fall of the Bronze Age empires. Check the course calendar for a list of assignments for each of the following topics: the origin of cities, the Sumerian Problem, Early Dynastic civilization, the origins of the State, Old Babylonian civilization, Old Kingdom Egypt and its precursors, Middle Kingdom literature and religion, the Amarna Age empires and their collapse. The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of ancient Near Eastern history and an appreciation for its civilizations.

Undergraduate paper:

Each undergraduate student is required to write a bibliographical paper on a topic chosen in conjunction with the instructor. Most students will find topics which appeal to their own interests, but the instructor will help students choose an area if necessary. The paper should address an issue of scholarly contention by discussing no less than ten different journal articles and books. Topics might include: the origins of writing, the unification of Egypt, the value of Sumerian mythology, the nature of cuneiform law codes, Amarna theology, the role of women in Egypt, or the nature of cuneiform king lists. The paper should consist of an introduction to the problem, a discussion of the issues in the academic literature, and conclude by taking a position on the issue. The paper should also contain a formal bibliography and footnotes (use Kate L. Turabian, Student's Guide for Writing College Papers). JSTOR is a wonderful service for finding sources. Papers will be graded on thoroughness, organization, attention to opposing positions, and lucidity. A one paragraph description of your topic is due by the 7th of October, a formal bibliography is due by the 18th of November, and the paper, itself, is due on the 7th of December.

Graduate research paper:

Each graduate student is required to write a research paper on a topic chosen in conjunction with the instructor. Most students will find topics which appeal to their own interests. Students should keep in mind that the paper is a medium through which a foreign culture will be engaged. This means that students should be working with primary sources--artifacts and ancient writings--rather than modern books about the ancient world. The instructor will provide a topic for those students who cannot conjure up one on their own. Papers should concern some aspect of the course, and attempt to collect and order the appropriate evidence (textual and archaeological) into an argument which comes to some conclusion. These papers should be 2500 to 5000 words long including endnotes and bibliography (10 to 20 pages, typed, double-spaced). They should include a discussion of the scholarly literature, an evaluation of the primary sources, an argument, and a conclusion. The instructor will grade papers on both style (20%) and content (80%). A one paragraph description of your topic is due by the 7th of October, a formal bibliography is due by the 18th of November, and the paper, itself, is due on the 11th of December.

Examinations:

All students will be required to take three (3) written examinations. Check the course calendar for dates. All examinations must be written in ink on bluebook which are available from the bookstore. There will not be a comprehensive final exam. Make-up exams should not be necessary but will be provided when students have missed the scheduled exams with good cause.

Grades:

Each exam will be worth 20% of the final grade. The paper will be worth 30% of the final grade, and the instructor will divine the remaining 10% on the basis of class participation (asking and answering questions, commenting on the material presented to the class, etc.). Failure to turn in the paper will result in an I grade for the course.

Email:

The instructor will, from time to time, make important announcements to individual students and the entire class by email. To read these emails, students must have an active SMS account and check it regularly. SMS accounts are protected from malicious attacks and are password protected in a way that lets both students and instructors know that they are sending emails to a known party. The instructor will not send emails or accept attachments from students through non-SMSU accounts.

Miscellaneous Policies:

Supplementary Resources:

This course is a broad survey of early ancient Near Eastern history. Compared to the study of later periods, the study of the textual and physical remains from the ancient Near East is still in its infancy. New texts are recovered every year, and new sites are excavated, so that our understanding of fundamental aspects of ancient civilization have improved dramatically over the last twenty years. Those who want to go beyond the bounds of a one semester course should begin their studies in the library. Meyer Library holds a substantial collection of books concerning various aspects of the ancient world. The instructor will be happy to recommend a few to start.

Students can also explore the world of the ancient Near East on the internet. The single best site for ancient Near Eastern studies is Abzu at the University of Chicago. Students should be very wary of material from sites not listed in Abzu. The University of Chicago also maintains an up-to-date electronic card catalogue of the Research Archives of the Oriental Institute. Because it lists individual articles, it is an extremely useful tool. Our classroom maps and image collection is available on the web, but may only be viewed by those with an SMSU IP address.