Undergraduate Course: Archaeology of the Late Antique Near East (CACA10058)
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 | Plague, warfare, and religious and cultural transformation. The roughly two hundred years from the reign of Justinian to the fall of the Umayyads could be summed up in this short sentence. It was not only a period of radical change with far-reaching historical consequences, but also of great innovations in art and architecture that has left us with some of the best-known monuments of the Near East. |
| Course description |
This thematic course explores the late antique Near East with a focus on the period from the first half of the sixth century to the middle of the eighth century. We will examine the effects of socio-political and religious change through archaeological studies of life in urban and rural environments, technological advances, economy, infrastructure, and trade. The course will explore the sixth-century building boom in the countryside (villages and monasteries) and the return of the rural villa in the seventh and eighth centuries (the Umayyad qusur). We will explore the plague and the Late Antique Little Ice Age and their impacts on both urban and rural communities. The course will highlight the most iconic monuments of the early Islamic period (the Dome of the Rock and the Great Mosque in Damascus) and examine them within their Late Antique contexts, while also exploring artistic innovations and new ideas such as religiously motivated iconoclasm and aniconism. We will conclude with an overview of the Near East after the fall of the Umayyads, the rise of the Abbasids and the subsequent move of their power base east into modern Iraq.
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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:
- Show critical engagement with key aspects of the religious, cultural, and social history of the late antique Near East.
- Conduct independent research and critically engage with both textual sources and material culture pertinent to the late antique Near East.
- Have the ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
- Conduct bibliographical research, which includes finding additional information on topics relevant to the course as well as analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship.
- Make informed contributions to class discussion and summarise succinctly the key points in relevant scholarship.
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Reading List
Avni, G. (2014), The Byzantine Islamic Transition in Palestine, OUP.
Brown, P. (1971), The World of Late Antiquity, Thames and Hudson
Decker, M. (2009), Tilling the Hateful Earth: Agricultural Production and Trade in the Late Antique East, OUP.
Eger, A. (2014), The Islamic-Byzantine Frontier. I.B. Tauris.
Evans, H.C. (ed.) (2015), Age of Transition: Byzantine Culture in the Islamic World, YUP.
George, A. and A. Marsham (eds.) (2018), Power, Patronage, and Memory in Early Islam: Perspectives on Umayyad Elites, OUP.
Mourad, S.A., N. Koltun-Fromm and B. der Matossian (eds.) (2019), Routhledge Handbook on Jerusalem, Routledge.
Sarris, P. (2011), Empires of Faith: The fall of Rome and the rise of Islam, OUP.
Walmsley, A.G. (2009), Early Islamic Syria, Bristol Classical Press.
Ward-Perkins, B. (2005), The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, OUP.
Whittow, M. (2003), 'Decline and Fall? Studying long-term changes in the East' pp 402-423 in L. Lavan and W. Bowden (eds.) Theory and Practice in Late Antique Archaeology. Brill. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Collect, evaluate, and use a wide range of information from a variety of sources.
Summarise, interpret, and critically assess published archaeological scholarship.
Undertake an independent research project in the course essay and complete it within a strict time limit.
Construct and convey in writing and in class presentation a coherent argument based on independent research of primary source material and secondary scholarly literature. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Louise Blanke
Tel: (0131 6)50 2368
Email: louise.blanke@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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