Undergraduate Course: The Lydians and their Greek Neighbours: Art and Archaeology (CACA10050)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The Lydian Empire stretched from the Mediterranean coast to the Halys river in the Anatolian interior. This course will familiarise students with the material culture (e.g. architecture, pottery, metalwork, coinage) and social and religious customs of Lydia during the archaic period and investigate the interactions with their Greek neighbours (most of all Karians and Ionians) through the analysis of reciprocal influence visible in the material culture. |
| Course description |
The Lydian Empire stretched from the Mediterranean coast to the Halys river in the Anatolian interior. Our understanding of the empire has long been filtered by the Greek perspective and, in particular, Herodotus' Lydian Logos (Hdt. 1:6-94), written by the historian about 120 years after the fall of the empire. There he describes in remarkable detail the close entanglement of the Lydian elites with the Greek world. He reports on, for example, the Lydian kings visiting the oracle of Apollo in Delphi or a conversation that supposedly took place between Lydian king Kroisos and the Athenian statesman Solon. The one-sided perspective sometimes obscures as well as reveals: while Lydians were admired for their proverbial wealth and luxurious textiles, Greek authors looked down on the effete lifestyle of their elite and consequently to members of the Greek elite that emulated this idle leisure. This form of moralizing tells us more about the Greeks than the Lydians, and detracts from their unique contributions, including the fact that the Lydian state was the first to use coinage and famously extracted their gold from the river Pactolus that flows through their capital at Sardis. Over the last 50 years, archaeological research in Lydia has begun to transform our understanding of the empire. This course will familiarise students with the material culture (e.g. architecture, pottery, metalwork, coinage) and social and religious customs of Lydia during the archaic period and investigate the interactions with their Greek neighbours (most of all Karians and Ionians) through the analysis of reciprocal influence visible in the material culture.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 3 courses in Classics, History or Archaeology (at least 1 of which should be in Classical Art and Archaeology) at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a detailed and critical command of the body of knowledge concerning archaic Lydian and Greek material culture
- Read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant archaeological evidence and modern academic discourse
- Understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of source material
- Develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence around material culture, especially contexts and objects related to Lydia and their Greek neighbours
- Demonstrate independence of mind, intellectual integrity and an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers
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Reading List
Roosevelt, C. H. 1. (2009). The archaeology of Lydia, from Gyges to Alexander. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cahill, N., ed. (2010). The Lydians and Their World. Istanbul: Kültür Varliklari ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlügü.
Greenewalt, C. H. 1., & Cahill, N. (2008). Love for Lydia: A Sardis anniversary volume presented to Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr. Cambridge, Mass.: Archaeological Exploration of Sardis.
Ramage, A., Ramage, N.H., Gürtekin-Demir, R.G. (2021) Ordinary Lydians at Home: the Lydian Trenches of the House of Bronzes and Pactolus Cliff at Sardis. Archaeological Exploration of Sardis Report, 8. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gürtekin-Demir, G. (2021) Lydian painted pottery abroad: The Gordion excavations 1950-1973. Gordion special studies IX. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Özgen, I., Mellink, M. J., & Öztürk, J. (1996). The Lydian Treasure: Heritage recovered. Istanbul: Published by Ugur Okman for Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture, General Directorate of Monuments and Museums.
Van Alfen, P. G., Fischer-Bossert, W., & Wartenberg, U. (2020). White gold: Studies in early electrum coinage. New York : Jerusalem: The American Numismatic Society; The Israel Museum.
Henry, O., & Kelp, U. (2016). Tumulus as sema: Space, politics, culture and religion in the first millennium BC. Berlin Boston: De Gruyter.
Henry, O., & Konuk, K. (2019). Karia Arkhaia: La Carie, des origines à la période pré-hékatomnide, Istanbul, 14-16 novembre 2013. Istanbul: Zero Books. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course will enable students to:
Gain in-depth knowledge of key contexts and objects related to the Lydian Empire and their Greek neighbours
Critically evaluate and reflect on theories and methods used by modern scholarship
Develop skills in analysing and interpreting archaeological objects and contexts from ancient Lydia and use primary and secondary literature effectively
Participate in seminar presentations, group discussion, and guided reading
Execute self-directed research into the Art and Archaeology of the Lydian Empire and their Greek neighbours |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Anja Slawisch
Tel: (0131 6)50 6693
Email: Anja.Slawisch@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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