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Course Criteria
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1.00 Credits
Creation, the Flood, the Tower of Babel--well-known myths such as these have their origins in ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Using both ancient texts in translatioin and archaeology, this course will explore categories of Mesopotamian culture labeled "myth" and "religion" (roughly 3300-300 BCE), critically examining the ancient evidence as well as various modern interpretations. Topics will include myths of creation and the flood, prophecy and divination, death and the afterlife, ritual, kingship, combat myths and apocalypses, the nature and expression of ancient religious experience, and representations of the divine. There are no prerequisites. WRIT
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1.00 Credits
A survey of ancient magic and medicine focusing on Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq, ca. 2500-300 BCE), with an emphasis on beliefs about the body, health, illness, and the causes of disease, such as witchcraft or angry gods. Topics will include the training of healers, exorcists, and herbalists; concepts of contagion and plague, modalities of treatment, incantations, prayers, and empirical remedies like prescriptions; ancient perceptions of problems like sexual dysfunction, the perils of pregnancy, tooth decay, epilepsy, and mental illness. Readings will be drawn from ancient texts (in translation), archaeology, and parallels with ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Bible. No prerequisites. Not open to first year students. WRIT
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1.00 Credits
This course provides an introduction to the history of astronomy from ancient times down to the invention of the telescope, focusing on the development of astronomy in Babylon, Greece, China, the medieval Islamic world, and Europe. The course will cover topics such as the invention of the zodiac, cosmological models, early astronomical instruments, and the development of astronomical theories. We will also explore the reasons people practiced astronomy in the past. No prior knowledge of astronomy is necessary for this course.
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1.00 Credits
Time plays many roles in civic and everyday life: calendars provide a way of regulating activities ranging from gathering taxes to knowing when to perform religious rituals. This course will provide an introduction to the way time was measured, used, regulated and conceived in the ancient world. We will cover topics such as the calendars used in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and China, sundials and other instruments used for measuring time in the ancient world, and the way time is used in scientific and non-scientific texts. WRIT
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1.00 Credits
This course will explore the relationship between astronomy, divination and politics in the ancient world. The sky provided ancient cultures with many possibilities for observing occurrences that could be interpreted as omens. In many cultures, celestial omens were directed towards the king and his government. As a result, interpreting and controlling celestial omens became an important political activity. In this course, we will explore how and why astronomical events were used politically in ancient Mesopotamia, the Greco-Roman world, and ancient and medieval China. No prior knowledge of astronomy is necessary for this course. WRIT
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1.00 Credits
The interpretation of natural events as portents of good or bad outcomes played an important role in religious, political, scholarly and everyday life in ancient Mesopotamia. In this course we will study Mesopotamian omen literature from textual, scientific, philosophical and cultural viewpoints in order to understand how divination operated and what it was used for. WRIT
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1.00 Credits
Introduces graduate students to the sources, problems, and methodologies of the history of astronomy and mathematics from Babylon to Kepler.
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1.00 Credits
Introduces graduate students to the sources, problems, and methodologies of the history of astronomy and mathematics from Babylon to Kepler.
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1.00 Credits
Readings and analysis of a major scientific text in Akkadian, Arabic, Greek, Latin, or Sanskrit. May be repeated with a different text.
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1.00 Credits
Readings and analysis of a major scientific text in Akkadian.
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