This seminar-style course introduces students to a problem or theme that is explored through ancient historical texts as well as archaeological evidence. Readings and studies of this material evidence provide the subject upon which a series of writing assignments will focus. AHMA R1B is the second seminar in the University’s required R&C sequence; its aim is to introduce students to college-level research and writing by focusing on a problem or theme related to a specific department’s field of inquiry

This course will be structured around the interdisciplinary examination of a handful of major historical events in the ancient Mediterranean in Egypt, West Asia, Greece, and Rome. It provides an introduction to the ways ancient people set about the task of writing their own accounts, as well as how to examine archaeological evidence surrounding past events. We will explore core issues in the interpretation of these texts, artefacts, and sites. This writing-intensive course introduces a handful of moments that took place in the ancient Mediterranean from epic battles to everyday trips to the market. We will consider how ancient people approached writing about their past and present, the ways they constructed their narratives, the roles of rhetoric and myth, and the strategies they used to argue the veracity of their accounts. We will also examine a case in which conflicting reports of the same events are provided and we will discuss the problem of how–or whether–to reconcile the differences. Comparative evidence in the form of archaeological artefacts and sites will also be presented, and students will grapple with how to write history from objects and structures as well as from written accounts both literary and documentary. (Primary texts include selections from Herodotus, accounts of the Battle of Qadesh, everyday papyri from Greco-Roman Egypt.) A final research paper consists of a topic chosen by the student with advice from the instructor.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills