Undergraduate Course: Anatolia in the Bronze Age (LLLE07007)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This is a for-credit course offered by the Office of Lifelong Learning (OLL); only students registered with OLL should be enrolled.
This course will trace the story of Anatolia, or modern Turkey, from its earliest developments in architecture, writing, and metallurgy to the height of the great Hittite Empire using textual accounts and archaeological data from such famed cities as Troy, Kultepe, and Hattusa, amongst others.
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| Course description |
Content of course
1. Introduction: Anatolia from 3000-1200 BC: This first session aims to familiarise students with the land of Anatolia, or modern Turkey: its topographic regions, resources, and general history. The main societies and cultures discussed in the course will be introduced, and a chronological timeline established.
2. Anatolia at the Beginning of the Early Bronze Age: An introduction to the main cultures and cities of Anatolia in the Early Bronze Age and to the advent of metallurgy and its impact. What can the cemeteries of Demircihöyük-Sariket and Yortan tell us about these early peoples? How did the early cultures in Anatolia differ from those of Mesopotamia and Egypt?
3. The Royal Cemetery of Alaca Höyük and the display of status and prestige: The thirteen 'Royal' shaft tombs found at Alaca Höyük, a small Early Bronze Age and Hittite city near to Hattusha on the central plateau. The emergence of a social elite and how they command power and influence before writing or state-level organisation.
4. The Assyrian Merchant Colonies period: The city of Kültepe on the Kizilirmak river and its attached Assyrian Karum, or trading colony. Examination of Assyrian trading documents and of the motivations for the Assyrians to establish a trading colony.
5. The Hittite Empire: The Hittites: their ethnic and linguistic origins, their writing, and their capital at Hattusha, high on the central Anatolian plateau. How did the Hittites rise to become a powerful contemporary to New Kingdom Egypt?
6. Law Codes and Lawlessness: The Hittites were well known for their law code. But did they always conduct themselves with such careful moral attention? A look at the Hittites from the perspective of their military campaigns and their practices upon vanquished enemies.
7. The Hittite Capital at Hattusha and the sanctuary at Yazilikaya: Using aerial photographs and extensive maps and plans, an exploration of the Hittite capital at Hattusha: its lower city and fortification walls, its upper citadel and Royal residence, its temples, tunnels, priests, a very confusing religious pantheon, and one very intrepid princess.
8. Troy: from Early Bronze Age citadel to Late Bronze Age city of Wilusa: The city of Troy before the events of its classical fame: from the Early Bronze Age citadel and the correct dating of 'Priam's Treasures' to the controversy over Wilusa's role in the Hittiteopposing Assuwa League of the Late Bronze Age.
9. The Coastal Mediterranean cities of Anatolia, from the Early to Late Bronze Age: Liman Tepe, Beycesultan, and Elmali- Karata. The evidence for cities in the west: early contact with neighbouring cultures, and evidence of their dramatic destruction at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
10. Conclusions
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
Analyse, interpret and compare textual and archaeological evidence, especially to:
¿ Understand the main cultures of the Anatolian Bronze
¿ Age, their development as well as their interaction with
¿ neighbouring societies and cultures
¿ Discuss the central motifs of the Hittite pantheon, its major players, and the symbolism within much of its iconography
¿ Identify several factors leading to the collapse of the Bronze Age across the Mediterranean
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Reading List
All articles will be made available without any compulsory purchase pre-requisite.
Bryce, Trevor. 2005. The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford, Oxford University Press. (selected chapters)
Van de Mieroop, M. 2004. The Club of the Great Powers. In A history of the ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC: pp. 127-144.
Van de Mieroop, M. 2004. Western States of the late second millennium. In A history of the ancient Near East ca. 3000- 323 BC: pp. 149-*162.*
Kuhrt, A. 1998. The old Assyrian merchants. In Parkins, H. and C. Smith (eds), Trade, traders and the ancient city: 16-30. Routledge, London.
Singer, Itamar. 2007. Who were the Kashka? Phasis: Greek and Roman studies 10 (II): 166-181. http://telaviv.academia.edu/ItamarSinger/Papers/204166/Who_ were_the_Kashka_Phasis_2_2007_
Recommended
Collins, B.J. 2007. A political history of the Hittites. In, 'the Hittites and their world.' Atlanta, GA. USA: Society of Biblical Literature.
Collins, B.J. 2007. Religion. In, 'the Hittites and their world.' Atlanta, GA. USA: Society of Biblical Literature.
Van Loon, M. N. 1985. Anatolia in the second millennium BC. Leiden, Brill.
Bryce, Trevor. 2003. Relations between Hatti and Ahhiyawa in the last decades of the Bronze Age. In Beckman, G., R. Beal and G. McMahon (eds). Hittite studies in honor of Harry J. Hoffner, Jr.: 59-72. USA, Eisenbrauns.
Özgüç, T. 1988. Kültepe and Anatolian archaeology: relating to the old Assyrian period. In H.I.H. Prince Takahito Mikasa (ed.), Essays on Anatolian studies in the second millennium B.C.: 1- 21. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Beckman, Gary M. 1999. Hittite diplomatic texts. Atlanta, GA, USA. Scholars Press.
Hoffner, Jr., Harry A. and Gary A. Beckman. 1998. Hittite Myths. Atlanta, GA, USA. Scholars Press.
Karasu, Cem. 2003. Why did the Hittites have a thousand deities? In Beckman, G., R. Beal and G. McMahon (eds). Hittite studies in honor of Harry J. Hoffner, Jr. 221-236. USA, Eisenbrauns.
McMahon, G. 2003. Cultural boundaries in Hittite ritual. In Beckman, G., R. Beal and G. McMahon (eds). Hittite studies in honor of Harry J. Hoffner, Jr. 265-280. USA, Eisenbrauns.
Sasson, J. M. 2003. Forcing morals on Mesopotamian society? In Beckman, G., R. Beal and G. McMahon (eds). Hittite studies in honor of Harry J. Hoffner, Jr. 329-340. USA, Eisenbrauns.
Web sources
http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/1/777777122468/
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Appropriate interpretation of archaeological evidence and how to use such evidence to critically analyse textual accounts. Critical analysis of theory within anthropology and archaeology. |
| Special Arrangements |
This is a for-credit course offered by the Office of Lifelong Learning (OLL); only students registered with OLL should be enrolled.
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| Keywords | ZZoll |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Martine Pierquin
Tel: (0131 6)51 1182
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Marie Craft
Tel: (0131 6)50 3943
Email: |
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