5AACHI25 The World from Babylon: 911-ca.550 BC
Credit value: 15
Module convenor/tutor: Dr Lindsay Allen
Teaching pattern: 10 x 2-hour seminars (weekly)
Availability: Please see module list
Assessment: 2 x 2,500 word essays (70% better essay & 30% less good essay)
Urban life began in southern Mesopotamia; by the time the city of Babylon was conquered by the Persian king Cyrus in the sixth century BCE, the city’s population could look back on two and a half thousand years of literate scientific, religious and philosophical activity in the densely cultivated zone reaching from the Persian Gulf in the south to the modern area of Kurdistan in the north. This module gives students an introduction to Babylonian and Assyrian culture and civilization, from the vantage point of Babylon, Mesopotamia’s ‘cultural metropolis’, in the first millennium BCE.
Primary/introductory reading
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Kuhrt, Amélie(1996) The Ancient Near East, 3000-330 BC Routledge
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Matthews, Roger(2003) The archaeology of Mesopotamia: theories and approaches London & New York
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Van der Mieroop, M.(2004) A History of the ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC Blackwell