- Ancient Greeks and Persians

Catalog description

An overview of the major cultures of the ancient Mediterranean from 1700 BCE to 300 BCE focusing on the Ancient Greeks and Persians. The course begins with the prehistory of each of these cultures and their predecessors/contemporaries in the Aegean, including peoples known as the Minoans, Mycenaeans, Hittites, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Egyptians (Kemet), and Kushites, and examines the development of ancient Hellenic and Iranian cultures from the 8th-3rd centuries BCE in connection with each other and these other cultures. Ancient Greek and Persian cultures were Mediterranean phenomena that spread in antiquity from the Aegean through southern Europe, the Black Sea, and Egypt as far as India and have had lasting influence in Europe, Asia, and North Africa and were in almost every period deeply intertwined. The course focuses on the major social and political institutions as well as the intellectual and artistic achievements of the Greeks and Persians.