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Murder in Mesopotamia, Or Why We Have a Twelve-Month Year

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Murder in Mesopotamia, Or Why We Have a Twelve-Month Year Murder in Mesopotamia, or Why We Have a Twelve-month Year OSHER 413-001 Dates: Thursdays, 1/24/13 – 2/28/13 Times: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Location: Commander’s House, Fort Douglas Instructor: Corethia Qualls, [email protected] Course Overview Aside from the twelve-month year, the Mesopotamian originated and left to us writing, kingship, irrigation, monumental architecture, mathematics, organized religion, formal education, multilayered society, taxes, labor disputes, international trade networks, long distance running champions, love songs, standing armies, animal fables, library catalogues, juvenile delinquents, bicameral congresses, and moral ideals. Welcome to third millennium BCE Mesopotamia, the focus of this course. We will look at the results of Sir Leonard Woolley's excavations at Ur in southern Mesopotamia and trace his findings in these areas back to possible earlier origins, then compare and contrast these elements as found in our own time and civilization. Materials or texts: There are no assigned texts. However, students can benefit from reading relevant portions of Agatha Christie Murder in Mesopotamia, any edition. Benjamin R. Foster, transl. and ed. From Distant days: Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 1995. Benjamin R. Foster and Karen Polinger Foster Civilizations of Ancient Iraq Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009 Thorkild Jacobsen The Harps that Once . Sumerian Poetry in Translation New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987. Samuel Noah Kramer History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-nine Firsts in Recorded History Philadelphia, 1956: University of Pennsylvania Press (3rd rev. ed., 1981). Jack M. Sasson, Editor-in-chief Civilizations of the Ancient Near East Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2000 (four volumes in two). Marc Van De Mieroop A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing: 2007 (2nd ed.). James B. Pritchard, ed. The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011 (revised ed.) Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1983. Course format: Lecture-discussion Topics by the week: Please bring a freshly sharpened wooden lead pencil to the first class. Week One, 24 January 2013 - Introduction to the Course and Class The Three Basic Elements of Sumerian Civilization Who, where, when, what, how o Ubaid beginnings, Uruk expansion o Examples from Uruk/Warka, Lagash, Ur, Kish, Babylon, and others Applications of Writing - hands-on experience Modern Translation of Sumerian Discussion Week Two, 31 January 2013 - Monumental Architecture The Eridu Temples Eanna at Uruk Ubaid with paintings Ziggurats: Warka, Ur, etc., Dur Kurgalzu o Building with Numbers - Why Base 6/12? (Michael McGinley, Guest Speaker) The Woolleys at Ur, Max Mallowan, Agatha Christie The Great Death Pit Discussion Week Three, 7 February 2013 - Clay, Bitumen, Reed, Imports (International Trade) Neighbors in the Gulf: Dilmun, Megan Meluhha Iranian Neighbors: Shimashki, Elam, Susiana, Luristan, Gutium, Kassites Northern Neighbors: Akkad, Assyria, Mitanni, Hurri Western Neighbors: Syrian sites especially Amorite Their Presence in Sumer proper Boats from the Ubaid Period on Discussion Week Four, 14 February 2013 - Can't Read or Write? - Sign Anyhow: Cylinder Seals Development of stamp and cylinder seals Relation to other graphic arts Stories from the pictures as time allows - more in Week 6 Discussion Week Five, 21 February 2013 - Society Kings Women in any role Priests, priestesses Skilled workers Writing dependent occupations Unskilled laborers Discussion Week Six, 28 February 2013 - The Stories They Told Inanna and the me's Inanna's Descent Dumuzi Stories Gilgamesh Epic o and other as time allows [Sumerians in Anatolia, Greece, Hellenistic Palestine, the Bible ] Discussion .
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