URBS 236 - Mesopotamia:Heartland of Cities and Empires

Institution:

University of Pennsylvania

Subject:

Description:

Zettler. This course surveys the cultural traditions of ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, a region commonly dubbed "cradle of civilization" or "heartland of cities," from an archaeological perspective. It will investigate the emergence of sedentism and agriculture; early villages and increasingly complex Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures; the evolution of urban, literate societies in the late 4th millennium; the city-states and incipient supra-regional polities of the third and second millennium; the gradual emergence of the Assyrian and Babylonian "world empires," well-known from historical books of the Bible, in the first millennium; and the cultural mix of Mesopotamia under the successive domination of Greeks, Persians and Arabs. The course seeks to foster an appreciation of the rich cultural heritage of ancient Mesopotamia, an understanding of cultural continuities in the Middle East and a sense of the ancient Near Eastern underpinnings of western civilization. No Prerequisite.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.upenn.edu

Phone Number:

(215) 898-5000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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