Ancient Near East: Introduction

About the course

This course provides you with broad historical and cultural-historical knowledge of the Near East, from when people began to settle down until the beginning of our era.

We study the many cultures that inhabited the area stretching from the Mediterranean east coast, through Syria, Iraq and southern Turkey, to Iran. We see trade, ideas and technology, migrations and conflicts connecting people across the region and beyond. The earliest state formations in Iraq and eastern Syria, Sumer, Babylon and Assyria, take centre stage. Here we find the most varied evidence in the region for investigating human living conditions, their perception of the world, and the historical developments, all due to the number of archaeological finds and hundreds of thousands of preserved texts in cuneiform, written on clay tablets.

The course is also included as a module in Assyriology A and cannot be taken together with and included in the same degree as this.

Outline for distance course: Learning activities and examination in the distance learning courses are online. Examination takes place through submissions during the course and a final exam. The course is given in the university's learning platform Studium and Zoom. Access to a computer with an internet connection, a webcam and a headset, is required to follow the course.