Civilization of the Ancient Near East

Instructor Civilization of the Ancient Near East HI 400-001/HI 500-001 Department of History North Carolina State University Fall Semester 2018 Thursday, 6:00 8:45pm 135 Withers Hall Dr. Tate Paulette Office location: 460 Withers Hall Office hours: Monday 2:00 5:00pm (or by appointment) Email: tatepaulette@ncsu.edu Phone: 919-513-2216 Course Description This discussion-based course provides a detailed introduction to the civilizations of the ancient Near East (Mesopotamia and Egypt, in particular) from prehistory through the conquests of Alexander the Great. Particular emphasis is placed on written sources, but the course also includes frequent discussion of archaeological remains and artistic works. You will leave the course with a solid grounding in the history, archaeology, and art of the ancient Near East. In the process, you will learn to engage critically with a wide variety of historical sources, and you will emerge with a deeper appreciation for the particular challenges and potentials of these different types of evidence and different modes of engaging with the past. Credit hours: 3 Prerequisites: 3 hours of History GEP category: Humanities Learning Outcomes This course fulfills a General Education Program (GEP) category requirement in the Humanities. Each course in the Humanities category of the General Education Program will provide instruction and guidance that help students to: 1. Engage the human experience through the interpretation of human culture and 2. Become aware of the act of interpretation itself as a critical form of knowing in the humanities; and 3. Make academic arguments about the human experience using reasons and evidence for supporting those reasons that are appropriate to the humanities. 4. Make academic arguments about the human experience using reasons and evidence for supporting those reasons that are appropriate to the humanities. Expectations You are expected to attend all class meetings, to complete all of the assigned readings prior to each class meeting, to complete all written assignments by the designated due date/time, and to contribute actively to in-class discussions and activities. You are also expected to be respectful toward your fellow students and the instructor and to abide by the Code of Student Conduct. Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 1

Readings For undergraduates, there are three required textbooks. For graduate students, there are six required textbooks. Additional readings will be posted on the course website. All readings must be completed before class on the day indicated (see schedule below). Required textbooks (undergraduates and graduate students): Civilizations of Ancient Iraq (Benjamin R. Foster and Karen Polinger Foster). 2009. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (available for purchase at NC State bookstore: used, $19.50) The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt (Bill Manley). 1996. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. (available for purchase at NC State bookstore: used, $15.75) The Epic of Gilgamesh (Andrew George, translator). 1999. London: Penguin Books. (available for purchase at NC State bookstore: used, $10.50) Additional required textbooks (graduate students only): Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States (James C. Scott). 2018. New Haven: Yale University Press. (available for purchase at NC State bookstore: new, $18.00) What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West (David Wengrow). 2010. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (available for purchase at NC State bookstore: new, $14.95) Akhenaten: History, Fantasy, and Ancient Egypt (Dominic Montserrat). 2003. London: Routledge. Requirements Class participation You are expected to be present and prepared for all class meetings, and you are expected to participate actively in class discussions. Attendance will be taken during each class meeting. If you come to class late, you will be marked absent unless you notify the instructor of your presence immediately following class. If you leave class early, without a valid excuse, you will only receive half credit for attendance. You will not be penalized for your first two unexcused absences. After two unexcused absences, each subsequent unexcused absence will decrease your class participation grade by 10 percentage points (i.e., 3 unexcused absences = 90%; 4 unexcused absences = 80%). Failure to participate in class discussions will also negatively impact your class participation grade. All excused absences must be cleared with the instructor prior to class or, in the case of unanticipated absences, within one week of the absence. It is your responsibility to contact the instructor with the required documentation and to arrange for any necessary make-up work. Make-up quizzes will only be allowed in the case of excused absences. Please see the NC State policy on attendance at the following website. https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-20-03-attendance-regulations/ Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 2

Map quizzes (9/6, 11/1) There will be two map quizzes (one for Mesopotamia, one for Egypt) that test your ability to identify ancient/modern cities, archaeological sites, and other geographical features. Prior to each quiz, you will be provided with a study map labeled with all relevant map features. For the quizzes themselves, you will be provided with a blank map, and you will be asked to identify a selection of map features (indicated with numbers) chosen from those provided on the study map. Reading journal (due each Wednesday, 11:59pm) Each week you will submit a reading journal entry dedicated to the assigned course readings (due the night before our Thursday class meeting). For each assigned reading, the journal entry should include a 4 5 sentence summary, a list of difficult or interesting concepts encountered (with page numbers), and at least two further questions, comments, and/or critiques that emerge in response to the reading. For the Epic of Gilgamesh reading (Week 9), a more extensive commentary will be required (to be discussed in class). Annotated bibliographies (due 9/20, 11/15) In preparation for your two bibliographic essays (see below), you will submit two annotated bibliographies, one dedicated to ancient Mesopotamia and one dedicated to ancient Egypt. Each bibliography will compile and comment on a set of primary and secondary sources related to a topic and question of your choosing. Potential topics and questions will be discussed in class. Each bibliography must include at least two primary sources and at least five secondary sources, and each bibliographic entry must include at least five sentences of commentary. Formatting guidelines will be provided. Bibliographic essays (due 10/18, 12/11) You will submit two bibliographic essays of 2,400 3,000 words in length (approximately 8 10 pages, double-spaced, not including bibliography), one dedicated to ancient Mesopotamia and one dedicated to ancient Egypt. Each essay will explore a set of primary and secondary sources (subject to instructor approval) related to a topic and question of your choosing. Potential topics and questions will be discussed in class. Each essay must explore at least two primary sources and at least five secondary sources, and each essay must include the following elements: 1) Introduction to the topic, 2) Historiography, 3) Key concepts, 4) Primary sources, 5) Comparison and critique of arguments, and 6) Overall assessment. Formatting guidelines will be provided. Book reviews (GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY, due dates TBD, Weeks 6, 11, 16) Graduate students will submit three book reviews of 900 1,200 words in length (approximately 3 4 pages, double-spaced, not including bibliography), dedicated to the three assigned monographs (Against the Grain, What Makes Civilization, and Akhenaten). In each case, the book review must engage with the full scope of the argument presented in the book, but you will also be assigned a specific chapter (or chapters) to explore in more depth. As part of your commentary on this chapter (or chapters), you are expected to employ at least three other sources (primary or secondary) with appropriate citations. For example, you may wish to examine some of the sources cited by the author, or you may wish to draw on alternative viewpoints that call the argument into question. Book discussions (GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY, dates TBD, Weeks 6, 11, 16) Graduate students will be required to attend three book discussion sessions dedicated to the three assigned monographs (Against the Grain, What Makes Civilization, and Akhenaten). These sessions will take place outside of the normal class meeting time and will, as far as possible, be arranged to accommodate the schedules of all graduate students in the class. Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 3

Grading Undergraduate assessment Class participation 10% Map quizzes 10% Reading journal 20% Annotated bibliographies 10% Bibliographic essays 50% Graduate student assessment Class participation 10% Map quizzes 5% Reading journal 20% Annotated bibliographies 5% Bibliographic essays 30% Book reviews and discussions 30% Grading Scale A+ 97.00 100% A 93.00 96.99% A- 90.00 92.99% B+ 87.00 89.99% B 83.00 86.99% B- 80.00 82.99% C+ 77.00 79.99% C 73.00 76.99% C- 70.00 72.99% D+ 67.00 69.99% D 63.00 66.99% D 60.00 62.99% F 00.00 59.99% Late Assignments Assignments submitted after the due date will result in an automatic reduction of 10 percentage points (i.e. one whole letter grade) per day late. Use of Online Sources Your writing assignments may include references to online sources, subject to the following restrictions. You may not cite Wikipedia.org as a source. You may cite online books and academic journal articles, but these must be referenced as books and journal articles, not as websites. You may also cite web content hosted by academic institutions (web addresses usually end in.edu,.org, or.gov), but these must be approved by the instructor and must be accompanied by a footnote explaining why the source in question qualifies as a reputable academic source. Use of Electronic Devices You may use a laptop computer or tablet to access course readings and/or take notes in class, but this privilege may be revoked at any time (for the class as a whole) if it is being abused. Cell phone use is not permitted. Academic Integrity Regardless of discipline, honest and rigorous scholarship is at the foundation of a Research I institution. Students are bound by the academic integrity policy as stated in NCSU Code of Student Conduct: http://policies.ncsu.edu/policy/pol-11-35-01. Students are required to uphold the university pledge of honor and exercise honesty in completing every assignment. Instructors may require students to write the Honor Pledge on every exam and assignment and to sign or type their name after the pledge ( I have neither given nor received Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 4

unauthorized aid on this test or assignment. ). Violations of academic integrity will result in referral to the Office of Student Conduct with a recommendation of a failing grade for the assignment, and they will be reported to the department head. Writing and Speaking Tutorial Services If writing is difficult for you, please visit the Writing and Speaking Tutorial Services to review drafts of assignments before they are due. The Service offers free one-on-one consultation with experienced tutors who can help with all levels and stages of writing. There are six locations around campus that offer drop-in services. For more information go to: https://tutorial.dasa.ncsu.edu/writing-speaking/ Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with verifiable disabilities. In order to take advantage of available accommodations, students must register with Disability Services Office in Suite 2221, Student Health Center, Campus Box 7509, 919-515-7653. https://dso.dasa.ncsu.edu/. For more information on NC State's policy on working with students with disabilities, please see the Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Regulation (REG02.20.01) https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-20-01. Electronically-hosted Course Components Students may be required to disclose personally identifiable information to other students in the course, via electronic tools like email or web postings, where relevant to the course. Examples include online discussions of class topics, and posting of student coursework. All students are expected to respect the privacy of each other by not sharing or using such information outside the course. NC State University Policies, Regulations and Rules Students are responsible for reviewing the PRRs which pertain to their course rights and responsibilities. These include: http://policies.ncsu.edu/policy/pol-04-25-05 (Equal Opportunity and Non-discrimination Policy Statement) http://oied.ncsu.edu/home/ (Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity) http://policies.ncsu.edu/policy/pol-11-35-01 (Code of Student Conduct) http://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-50-03 (Grades and Grade Point Average) https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-20-15 (Credit-Only Courses) https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-20-04 (Audits) https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-50-03 (Incompletes) Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 5

Schedule (Note: Schedule is subject to change with appropriate notification to students.) Abbreviations: CAI = Civilizations of Ancient Iraq (Foster and Foster) PHAAE = The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt (Manley) Gilgamesh = The Epic of Gilgamesh (George) AG = Against the Grain (Scott) GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY WMC = What Makes Civilization? (Wengrow) GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY Akh = Akhenaten (Montserrat) GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY Week Topic Date Readings (primary sources shown in italics) Assignments 1 Introduction 8/23 No readings Ancient Mesopotamia 2 Historiography 8/30 3 Prehistory, Uruk period 9/6 4 Early Dynastic, Akkadian, and Ur III periods 9/13 5 Old Babylonian period 9/20 Finkel and Taylor 2015 Richardson 2014 Van De Mieroop 1999 CAI: Ch. 1, 2 Bernbeck 2009 Dietrich et al. 2012 Stein 2002 Archaic texts CAI: Ch. 3, 4 Adams 2004 Michalowski 1983 Pollock 2003 Cursing of Agade Umma-Lagash conflict Ur III administrative documents CAI: Ch. 5 Fleming 2009 Roth 1995 Yoffee 2005 Mari letters Code of Hammurabi Map quiz 1 Annotated bibliography 1 due Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 6

6 Kassite, Old Assyrian, and Middle Assyrian periods 9/27 CAI: Ch. 6, 7 (pp. 105 112) Barjamovic 2007 Glatz and Casana 2016 Paulus 2011 Westbrook 2000 Amarna letters Old Assyrian letters AG 7 NO CLASS: Fall Break 10/4 No readings Book review 1 (AG) due Book discussion 1 (AG) 8 Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Achaemenid periods Interlude: The Epic of Gilgamesh 10/11 CAI: Ch. 7 (pp. 113 128), 8 Bahrani 2008 Khatchadourian 2016 Autobiography of Adad-guppi Behistun inscription Neo-Assyrian annals 9 Epic of Gilgamesh 10/18 Gilgamesh (pp. xiii li, 1 100) Ancient Egypt 10 Historiography 10/25 11 12 Prehistory, Late Predynastic period, Early Dynastic period Old Kingdom, First Intermediate Period, and Middle Kingdom 11/1 11/8 PHAAE: pp. 32 33 Baines 1983 Kemp 2006 (Introduction) Woods 2010 PHAAE: pp. 12 23 Köhler 2010 Teeter 2011 Wengrow 2006 WMC PHAAE: pp. 24 31, 34 51, 56 57 Kemp 2006 (Ch. 4) Richards 2010 Pyramid Texts Tale of Sinuhe 13 NO CLASS 11/15 No readings Bibliographic essay 1 due Map quiz 2 Book review 2 (WMC) due Book discussion 2 (WMC) Annotated bibliography 2 due 14 NO CLASS: Thanksgiving Break 11/22 No readings Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 7

15 Second Intermediate Period and New Kingdom 11/29 PHAAE: pp. 52 55, 58 89, 92 97, 108 109 Meskell 2002 Kemp 1989 Battle of Qadesh Hymn to the Aten Love poems Restoration Stela 16 Third Intermediate Period and Late Period 12/6 PHAAE: pp. 89 91, 98 107, 110 129 Loprieno 2003 Johnson 1994 Hassan 2010 Elephantine papyri Herodotus Tale of Wenamun Book review 3 (Akh) due Book discussion 3 (Akh) Akh 17 EXAM WEEK (No final exam) 12/11 Bibliographic essay 2 due Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 8

Readings Adams, Robert McC. 2004. The role of writing in Sumerian agriculture: Asking broader questions. In Assyrian and beyond: Studies presented to Mogens Trolle Larsen, ed. J. G. Dercksen, 1 8. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. Bahrani, Zainab. 2008. Rituals of war: The body and violence in Mesopotamia. New York: Zone Books. (Introduction: An archaeology of violence; Ch. 1, The king s head) Baines, John. 1983. Literacy and ancient Egyptian society. Man, New Series 18, no. 3: 572 599. Barjamovic, Gojko. 2011. A journey through Anatolia in 1865 BC. In Anatolia's Prologue, Kültepe Kanesh Karum: Assyrians in Istanbul, eds. F. Kulakoglu and S. Kangal, 160 168. Kayseri: Kayseri Büyüksehir Belediyesi Bernbeck, Reinhard. 2009. Class conflict in ancient Mesopotamia: Between knowledge of history and historicizing knowledge. Anthropology of the Middle East 4, no. 1: 33 64. Dietrich, Oliver, Manfred Heun, Jens Notroff, Klaus Schmidt, and Martin Zarnkow. 2012. The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities: New evidence from Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey. Antiquity 86 674 695. Finkel, Irving, and Jonathan Taylor. 2015. Cuneiform. London: The British Museum. (Ch. 1, Looking backwards and forwards; Ch. 3, Who used cuneiform writing?; Ch. 7, How did it work?) Fleming, Daniel E. 2009. Kingship of city and tribe conjoined: Zimri-Lim at Mari. In Nomads, tribes, and the state in the ancient Near East: Cross-disciplinary perspectives, ed. Jeffrey Szuchman, 227 240. Oriental Institute Seminars 5. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Foster, Benjamin R., and Karen Polinger Foster. 2009. Civilizations of ancient Iraq. Princeton: Princeton University Press. George, Andrew (translator). 1999. The Epic of Gilgamesh. London: Penguin Books. Glatz, Claudia, and Jesse Casana. 2016. Of highland-lowland borderlands: Local societies and foreign power in the Zagros-Mesopotamian interface. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 44: 127 147. Hassan, Fekri. 2010. Egypt in the memory of the world. In Egyptian archaeology, ed. Willeke Wendrich, 259 273. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Johnson, Janet H. 1994. The Persians and the continuity of Egyptian culture. In Achaemenid history VIII: Continuity and change, eds. Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Amélie Kuhrt, and Margaret Cool Root, 149 159. Leiden: Nederlands Institut voor het Nabije Oosten. Kemp, Barry J. 1989. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a civilization. New York: Routledge. (Ch. 7, Egypt in microcosm: The city of el-amarna) Kemp, Barry J. 2006. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a civilization. Second edition. New York: Routledge. (Introduction; Ch. 4, The bureaucratic mind) Khatchadourian, Lori. 2016. Imperial matter: Ancient Persia and the archaeology of empires. Oakland: University of California Press. (Introduction) Köhler, E. Christiana. 2010. Theories of state formation. In Egyptian archaeology, ed. Willeke Wendrich, 36 54. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 9

Loprieno, Antonio. 2003. Views of the Egyptian past in Egypt during the first millennium BC. In Never had the like occurred : Egypt s view of its past, ed. J Tait, 139 154. London: UCL Press. Manley, Bill. 1996. The Penguin historical atlas of ancient Egypt. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Meskell, Lynn. 2002. Private life in New Kingdom Egypt. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Ch. 5, Love, eroticism, and the sexual self) Michalowski, Piotr. 1983. History as charter: Some observations on the Sumerian King List. Journal of the American Oriental Society 103, no. 1: 237 248. Montserrat, Dominic. 2003. Akhenaten: History, fantasy, and ancient Egypt. London: Routledge. Paulus, Susanne. 2011. Foreigners under foreign rulers: The case of Kassite Babylonia (2 nd half of the 2 nd millennium B.C.E.). In The foreigner and the law: Perspectives from the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East, eds. Reinhard Achenbach, Rainer Albertz, and Jakob Wöhrle, 1 15. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte 16. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. Pollock, Susan. 2003. Feasts, funerals, and fast food in early Mesopotamian states. In The Archaeology and politics of food and feasting in early states and empires, ed. Tamara L. Bray, 17 38. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Richards, Janet. 2010. Kingship and legitimation. In Egyptian archaeology, ed. Willeke Wendrich, 55 84. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Richardson, Seth. 2014. Mesopotamian political history: The perversities. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 1, no. 1: 61 93. Roth, Martha T. 1995. Mesopotamian legal traditions and Laws of Hammurabi. Chicago-Kent Law Review 71, no. 1: 13 39. Scott, James C. 2018. Against the grain: A deep history of the earliest states. New Haven: Yale University Press. Stein, Gil. J. 2002. From passive periphery to active agents: Emerging perspectives in the archaeology of interregional interaction. American Anthropologist 104, no. 3: 903 916. Teeter, Emily. 2011. Before the pyramids: The origins of Egyptian civilization. Oriental Institute Museum Publications 33. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. (Ch. 4, Hierakonpolis, Renée Friedman; Ch. 14, Tomb U-j: A royal burial of Dynasty 0 at Abydos, Günter Dreyer; Ch. 15, The first kings of Egypt: The Abydos evidence, Laurel Bestock; Ch. 16, The Narmer palette: A new interpretation, David O Connor) Van De Mieroop, Marc. 1999. Cuneiform texts and the writing of history. London: Routledge. (Introduction; Ch. 1, The first half of history; Ch. 6, Conclusions) Wengrow, David. 2006. The archaeology of early Egypt: Social transformations in north-east Africa, 10,000 to 2650 BC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Ch. 11, Conclusion: Subterranean histories of power) Wengrow, David. 2010. What makes civilization? The ancient Near East and the future of the West. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Westbrook, Raymond. 2000. Babylonian diplomacy in the Amarna letters. Journal of the American Oriental Society 120, no. 3: 377 382. Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 10

Woods, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Visible language: Inventions of writing in the ancient Middle East and beyond. Oriental Institute Museum Publications 32. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. (Ch. 6, The earliest Egyptian writing, Andréas Stauder; Ch. 7, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, Janet H. Johnson; Ch. 8, Hieratic, Kathryn E. Bandy; Ch. 9, Demotic, Janet H. Johnson) Yoffe, Norman. 2005. Myths of the archaic state: Evolution of the earliest cities, states, and civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Ch. 5, Identity and agency in early states: Case studies) Civilization of the Ancient Near East (HI 400/500) 11