Mesopotamian civilisation, as known from written texts, spans three millennia. This course examines some important topics relating to this civilisation, without attempting to chronicle a history of this period. We will firstly explore the often bewildering but fascinating world of reconstructing chronology, exploring how both the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia and modern scholars have dealt with the issue. Then we will review the major languages that the peoples of that world spoke, and finally study the written scripts (especially cuneiform) by which they recorded their lives and the events in which they were immersed.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

COURSE OUTLINE

• Basics of building up a chronology in general, and specifically of ancient Mesopotamia (king lists, eponym lists, synchronisms with other chronological schemes of the ancient Near East)
• Babylonian calendar
• The Seleucid Era and its novelty
• Range of languages that were spoken in ancient Mesopotamia and the surrounding lands
• Scripts used to write these languages, with emphasis upon cuneiform, noting its variations
• Outline of how cuneiform was deciphered

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, student should be able to:

1. Discover how the chronology of ancient Mesopotamia ties into our dates
2. Learn how a precise date in the history of Mesopotamia is obtained
3. Understand different ways in which an oral language can be recorded in writing
4. Explore the family of cuneiform scripts, and the basics for their differences