Hello,

If you could please complete the highlighted slides. This course is called the digital ancient near east and puts great emphasis on finding reputable and academic sources when conducting research. If you could please keep in mind that anything in the US published before 1924 is NOT copyright. I have completed the first slide as a template. I will also attach some recommended schoalarly sources. Please use reputable databases and other forms of relaying information. I have attached the powerpoint my portion of the work includes: representations, symbols, offerings/sacrafices, and modern interpretations. I have also attahced some reccomended sources as well (use the scholarly sources), anything highlighted is considered an invalid source!

Digital Ancient Near East
Instructor:

Department of Near Eastern Studies

Spring 2020; Tu/Th 3:30-5 PM 271 Barrows

Office Hours: Tue/Th 9-10 AM 280 Barrows

3 units

prerequisites: none

1. Goals
Today, much of the information we gather on any topic comes from Internet sources. It is not easy to make a clear distinction between balanced, scholarly sources of information and collections of outdated, tendentious, or speculative opinions. Goal of this class is to increase students’ skills in critically evaluating the (scholarly) value of a variety of sources on Ancient Near Eastern topics, including web pages, online journals, and scanned publications, as well as traditional print media. We will consider the goal and context of sources of information (touristic, commercial, scholarly, religious, popular, etc.) and how this influences and filters the information provided. Although the class will focus on Internet resources, we will not neglect to use the same critical eye when using print media. The class will feature a number of collaborative projects in which this critical attitude may be practiced.

2. Design of the Class
The class is designed around topics in four areas of Ancient Near Eastern Studies: Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Hebrew Bible, and Near Eastern Archaeology. Each of these areas will take 3 weeks (or 6 class meetings), in total 12 weeks. Students participate in 4 collaborative projects around discipline-specific issues. The students collect, evaluate, and summarize data from different sources that pertain to the issue at hand in bcourses, using the SuiteC tools (Asset Library and Whiteboard). The sixth class meeting (the last class meeting in each module) is always devoted to the presentation of the results by the various groups. The presentation includes a critical evaluation of a representative selection of the various resources that the group has found, as well as a summary of the valid information (data, theories, interpretations, areas of scholarly disagreement) thus obtained. The remaining weeks are used for introductory purposes and looking back.

3. Required Readings and Home Work
Homework for class meetings consists of working on a group project of your choice in one of the four areas of Ancient Near Eastern Studies. This means searching for articles or web pages on the Web, reading such material, evaluating it, or preparing for your group’s presentation. Some class meetings are more lecture-style and will have required readings for the entire class. Such readings are listed in the syllabus under the header of that class meeting and are made available on bcourses.

4. Grading
Grading is based on the four projects in which the student participated; each project contributes 25% to the final grade . The group grade is adjusted for individual students on the basis of class attendance and on the basis of individual contributions to the group effort as evidenced in the presentation, in the Asset Library and the Whiteboard. There is no final exam.

Each project is worth 25 points, distributed as follows:

class presentation    10 (group grade)
attendance    8
participation    7

The maximum score of 100 (4 x 25) corresponds to an A. Extra points may be earned by assuming a leadership role in your group and/or by active participation that goes beyond and above the expected. The group may earn extra points by presenting in an unusually clear and well-structured way.

5. The Projects
For each of the four areas of Ancient Near Eastern Studies four or five (depending on the number of students) issues are defined: who was the goddess Inana? What is stratigraphy? How did the book of Genesis develop? The issues are fairly broad, and have led to very different (scholarly or not-so-scholarly) treatments. After a first introductory meeting (in which the discipline at hand is introduced) the students are divided into collaborative groups that each will work on a particular problem. Each disciplinary area has six class meetings according to the following schedule:

Introduction
First collection of resources
Detailed evaluation of resources; development of criteria
sifting of valuable information
preparation of the final report
reporting to the full class
Each of the meetings 2-5 are collaborative project sessions that end with ‘lightning talks’ in which groups present interim results or take the opportunity to ask the class for advice. During the collaborative project sessions the instructor is at hand to answer questions, help finding resources, question intermediate results, help with formulating criteria, or help with technological questions in using SuiteC tools.

The resources used are collected and presented in SuiteC, using Asset Library (for collecting) and Whiteboard (for presenting). In both tools students clearly indicate who identified, evaluated, and summarized each resource, so that grading can properly reflect the group’s sense of who contributed what.

The final report includes a brief (narrative) discussion of the main issue, supported by images, quotes, and references to authoritative literature (in whatever media). It also includes the main reasons (criteria) why certain resources were preferred over others.

6. Class Meetings
Tue Jan 21 Introduction to the course
– what is the Ancient Near East?

– what is information literacy?

2. Th Jan 23 Intro/Exercises Mesopotamia

Required reading: Assurnasirpal II, King of Assyria (Links to an external site.)

– Mesopotamia: Assyria

exercises in advanced search and evaluating online resources

exercises in using Asset Library and Whiteboard

3. Tu Jan. 28 Library Research Session

Guest speaker from the library: Mohamed Hamed

Room 350C in Moffitt Library

Assignment: TBA

4-9 Module 1: Ancient Mesopotamia
– The goddess Inana/Ishtar

– The Babylonian Flood Myth

– Gilgamesh

– The Babylonian Epic of Creation

– The invention of writing

4. Th Jan 30 Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamia

Required reading: Dominique Charpin: ‘The History of Ancient Mesopotamia : An Overview.’ Pp. 807-830 in: Jack M. Sasson, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (1995).

5. Tu. Febr 4 First collection of resources (group work )

6. Th Febr 6 Detailed evaluation of resources; development of criteria (group work )

7. Tu Febr 11 Sifting of valuable information (group work )

8. Th Febr 13 Preparation of the final report (group work )

9. Tu Febr 18 Reporting to the full class (group work )

10-15 Module 2: Ancient Egypt
– Origin and use of the pyramids

– Karnak

– Tutankhamun

– Unification of Egypt

– Cleopatra

– Akhnaten and Monotheism in Egyptian religion

10. Th Febr 20 Introduction to Ancient Egypt

Guest Speaker: Prof. Rita Lucarelli

Required reading: Ancient Egypt (Ed. Silverman) 1997, Chapter 1

Frdric Servajean, Duality UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2008.

Rita Lucarelli Approved Websites

11. Tu Febr 25 First collection of resources (group work)

12. Th Febr 27 Detailed evaluation of resources; development of criteria (group work)

13. Tu Mar 3 sifting of valuable information (group work)

14. Th Mar 5 preparation of the final report (group work)

15. Tu Mar 10 reporting to the full class (group work)

16-21 Module 3: Hebrew Bible
– Exodus

– The development of the book of Genesis

– Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East

– History writing and the Hebrew Bible

– Babylonian captivity

16. Th Mar 12 Introduction to the Hebrew Bible

Guest lecture by NN

Required reading: TBA

17. Tu Mar 17 First collection of resources (group work)

18. Th Mar 19 Detailed evaluation of resources; development of criteria (group work)

March 23 March 28 Spring Break

19. Tu Mar 31 sifting of valuable information (group work)

20. Th April 2 preparation of the final report (group work)

21. Tu April 7 reporting to the full class (group work)

22-28 Module 4: Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology
– Neolithic Goddess

– Megiddo

– Archaeology and national identity

– The antiquities market and looting of archaeological sites

22. Th April 9 Introduction to Near Eastern Archaeology

Required reading: Nicole Chevalier, ‘Chapter 3: Early Excavations (Pre-1914)’. Pp. 48-69 in D. Potts (ed.) A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (Links to an external site.), Blackwell 2012. The article is also available here .

23. Tu April 14 First collection of resources (group work)

24. Th April 16 Detailed evaluation of resources; development of criteria (group work)

25. Tu April 21 sifting of valuable information (group work)

26. Th April 23 Museum visit: Hearst Museum of Anthropology and ArchaeologyLinks to an external site..

27. Tu April 28 preparation of the final report (group work)

28. Th April 30 reporting to the full class (group work); looking back

Thank you!