COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course introduces students to the material culture and early historical documents of the ancient Near East. Chronologically, this course starts with the earliest occupation of soutwestern Asia in the Paleolithic and ends with the arrival of Alexander of Macedon and his army in the 4th century BC. The course is organized around major social transformations in the ancient Near East: the beginnings of settled village life, the origins of agriculture, cities, states and early militaristic empires. Discussion will focus on events in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Levant and, to a lesser degree, on Iran and Egypt.

Project Description

In addition to standard lecture-style classes and reading discussions, students also engage in a significant research project based on the University of Akron's Akins Collection of artifacts from ancient Mesopotamia. Students are given one of the several hundred complete, or nearly complete, artifacts from the collection and are asked to write a paper describing, classifying and analyzing the importance of their artifact in everyday life in ancient Mesopotmia.

Dr. Matney incorporates research from his own archaeological projects at Ziyaret Tepe (Iron Age Turkey), Titris Hoyuk (Early Bronze Age Turkey) and Cheshmeh Ali (Neolithic-Chalcolithic Iran) into the course materials to provide students with a hands-on understanding of how archaeologists piece together the past using artifacts and ancient documents.