Ancient Mediterranean

This course takes a self-conscious approach to what has long been asserted (and weaponized) as a "foundational survey" of the "Ancient" histories of Western Asia and the lands bordering the Mediterranean. As such, it calls attention to, while reading against the grain of, a "civilizational" narrative that has hitherto privileged certain assumptions regarding "progress," sought to engrave a teleology ("from Ancient Near East [sic] to Egypt to Greece to Rome") used to underpin and define "Western modernity," and which actively manipulates, marginalizes, and dehumanizes millions of peoples - past and present - through its imperial/colonial framework. This course explores the contours of these interlocking processes, while also tracing the fractures, interstices, and ongoing struggles in the "surviving" evidence, usually boxed into categories of disciplinary "knowledge," literary as opposed to oral, voices heard over the silenced, and/or the archaeological/artifactual/art-historical - all of it curated by modern geo-politics. Spanning thousands of years, a broad geography, and a diversity of worldviews, this course seeks to dispel oppressive myths inscribed as "universal," be they linearities drawn from "Prehistory" to "History," discourses surrounding "Agricultural" and "Urban/Industrial" "Revolutions," "Empires" as cyclical inevitabilities, or essentializing narratives regarding humanity, social hierarchies, gender identities, place, and the peoples of a place (with an exploration across the labels of "Mesopotamia, Egypt, Levant, Greece, north Africa, Europe, the Roman Empire"). On a weekly basis, we will unpack the historicizing of hegemonic structures that have 'splained "Antiquity," while then countering those edifices with perspectives "traditionally" unseen in the textbooks.

Prof. Davies, 4 credits, TTh 2:30-3:50 p.m.

• Fulfills Cultural Pluralism, Humanities, Social Sciences, Global Cultures & Languages, Individual & Society, and/or Studying the Past distribution, as well as Classics/Classical Studies and Human Centered Design electives. 
• History major: premodern history; Cultures & Ideas; Empires & Colonialism; Before Modernity

This course surveys the history of the Greek-speaking world, from Bronze Age beginnings to the Roman occupation. Using a range of ancient sources, both archaeological and literary, we will examine the many definitions of "Hellenic" identity - from the Minoan and Mycenaean worlds, to the rise of the polis and the phenomenon of Greek colonization, to Alexander's conquests and "globalizing" visions of pan-Hellenism. At the same time, we will consider the reception of these Hellenic identities - not only in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, but also in the modern world, in the often-problematic framing of what it means to be male, female, human, beautiful, "civilized," or "democratic."

Prof. Davies, 4 credits, TTh 11:30am-12:50 p.m.

• Fulfills Social Sciences, Global Cultures & Languages, and/or Studying the Past distribution, as well as Classics/Classical Studies and Global Studies electives.
• History major: premodern history; Cultures & Ideas; Before Modernity

On January 13th... 27 BCE, a 'settlement' took place between a 'reconstituted' Roman Senate (and "its People") and a persona-of-power-in-formulation: someone who deployed the name of 'Caesar,' and yet, from that January day forward - came also to be known as Augustus princeps ("the revered one, first-citizen"). That day was not actually so sudden, natural, or inevitable, by any means... but this "Caesar Augustus, princeps" would 'soon' "herald" the "dawn" of a res publica "reborn" unto a so-called "Golden Age." And then there was so much more at stake and involved - both before, and then in the many years and centuries after (into "modernity") - that actually sought to concretize such an easy-seeming simplicity, all-the-while sanitizing (as yet untold) crimes unto humanity that transpired along the way. Such is just one horizon of autocracy - featuring Rome - in this course. And that's because this course seeks to understand what might be called "the Roman-Augustan" 'moment,' period, or phenomenon - which is itself plural in its horizons, both ancient and modern, at the intersection-points of imperial-formations, fascist politics, and the intimacies of body, family, gender, land, space, monuments, 'urban planning,' ritual, and even time itself. as well as forms of resistance. As a 39x History seminar, this course is open to all, no matter your major. Recommended prerequisite: History 299.

Prof. Davies, 4 credits, MW 2:30-3:50 p.m.

• Fulfills Social Sciences, Power & Equity, Individual & Society, and/or Studying the Past distribution, as well as Classics/Classical Studies electives.
• History major: 39x seminar; premodern history; Revolution/War/Politics; Social Justice; Before Modernity

The Rasenna or Rasna were a group of ancient, indigenous peoples who played a key role in shaping the story of the peninsula that came to be known as Italy. For a millennium, their diverse and unique perspectives impacted innumerable others across cultural, ethnic, political, ideological, and economic lines. Their voices - despite layered violences (ancient and modern) of erasure and silencing - continue to resonate and echo today. From the end of the Bronze Age to the first century CE, our study will take a closer look at the evidence for the daily lives, gender and social norms, belief systems, and historical place of the Rasenna. We will analyze against-the-grain of received settler-colonial 'traditions,' relocating a vibrancy of being in the world that was distinctive and resonant. Stereotypes (ancient and modern) have at times sought to portray the Rasenna as 'vanished' and/or "other" - in the ways, for example, that their worldview centered strong women, explored gender fluidity, and/or paid close attention to divine presences and the deceased as fully connected to being alive. Such tropes call attention to the avenues through which imperial self-fantasies continue to colonize the past, eliding presences while robbing tombs. Even the act of naming a people "the Etruscans" (or Tusci, hence modern-day Tuscany) seeks to hide bloodied crimes of cultural erasure in plain sight. It is therefore long overdue that the voices of the Rasenna/Rasna be heard, and on their own terms. This course seeks to make a contribution to such an endeavor. 

Prof. Davies, 4 credits, TTh 1-2:20 p.m.

• Fulfills Humanities, Social Sciences, Global Cultures & Languages, and/or Studying the Past distribution, as well as Classics/Classical Studies, IRES, Gender Studies, or Art History electives.
• History major: premodern history; Cultures & Ideas; Empires & Colonialism; Social Justice; Before Modernity