UCL INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY ARCL 0066: The Emergence of Bronze Age Aegean States 2019-2020 - Term 2 Undergraduate Year 2-3 option, 15 credits Coursework deadlines: Monday 21st February 2020, Monday 3rd April 2020 (TBC) Co-ordinator: Dr. Borja Legarra Herrero [email protected], Room 106 1 1. OVERVIEW Short Description This course provides a survey of Aegean prehistory from The Neolithic until c. 1500-1400 BC. It focuses on the origins of complex societies during the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC and the dynamics of the Minoan palatial societies that followed. It provides a broadly chronologically overview of the region’s long-term transformations and the remarkably rich data (material, iconographic and archival) on which interpretations are based. It encourages a thematic treatment, within a theoretically informed, problem-oriented framework, of major processes including: state formation, elaboration and collapse; production, trade and consumption in and beyond the Aegean; archaeologies of cult and death; the interpretation of symbols and images; and the place of the prehistoric Aegean within the wider Mediterranean and Near Eastern world. The course equally emphasises the need to understand how interpretations and data collection strategies have developed, and the impact this has had on accounts of Aegean prehistory. Week-by-week summary (lectures are Monday, 10-12.00, in Room 410). Date Session Topic 13 Jan. 1 Introduction: Aegean space, time and environments. 2 Is ‘Minoan’ the right word? Biases in the study of the Aegean Bronze Age. 20 Jan. 3 Neolithics: taming of a fragmented landscape. 4 Seminar: Fieldwork in the Aegean: Archaeologists’ paradise? 27 Jan. 5 3rd Millennium comparative perspectives: the Greek mainland and Cyclades 6 3rd Millennium comparative perspectives: Crete. 03 Feb. 7 How did Crete become this interesting? Models for the emergence of the Minoan states. 8 Protopalatial Crete: an overview. 10 Feb. 9 Seminar: Reconstructing the Minoans. Myths, tourism and national pride 10 First scripts in Europe: Political economy and administration Reading week: 17 Feb. 24 Feb. 11 Neopalatial Crete: an overview. 12 Seminar: Knossos, palace, city, empire? 03 March 13 ‘Minoanisation’: trade, power, colonisation and networks in the southern Aegean and east Mediterranean 14 The Aegean and the East Mediterranean: the start of something special 10 March 15 Art and Ideology in Minoan Crete. 16 Seminar: Minoan art and iconography in the modern arts 17 March 17 The mainland transformed: The early Mycenaean world 18 Two catastrophes: the Theran eruption and the end of Neopalatial Crete. 24 March 19 Minoans becoming Mycenaeans? 20 Conclusions 2 Basic texts and handbooks Cline, E. (ed.) 2010. The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC). Oxford: OUP. ISSUE DESK IoA CLI 2 Shelmerdine, C. (ed.) 2008. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge: CUP. ISSUE DESK IoA SHE 16; DAG 100 SHE Dickinson, O.T.P.K. 1994. The Aegean Bronze Age (long the standard textbook, divided by themes rather than periods). IoA Issue Desk DIC; DAE 100 DIC. Fitton, J.L. 2002. Minoans. London: British Museum. DAG 14 FIT. Bintliff, J.L. 2012. The Complete Archaeology of Greece. From hunter-gatherers to the 20th century A.D. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DAE 100 BIN. Warren, P.M. 1989. The Aegean Civilisations (revised edition; short book-length introduction). Issue desk WAR; DAG 10 Qto WAR; YATES Qto A 22 WAR Adams, E. 2017. Cultural Identity in Minoan Crete. Social Dynamics in the Neopalatial Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Focused on the Neopalatial period, but good overview). Broodbank, C. 2013. The Making of the Middle Sea. London: Thames and Hudson. (for matters not strictly Aegea). Methods of assessment This course is assessed by means of two pieces of coursework, each of c. 2500 words, which together constitute 100% of the final grade for the course. If you are unclear about the nature of an assignment, you should discuss this with the Course Co-ordinator. The Course Co-ordinator is willing to discuss an outline of your approach to the assignment, provided that this is planned suitably in advance of the submission date. There is no unseen examination element to this course. Teaching methods This course comprises 16 1-hour lectures and 4 Seminar classes in which ideas presented in the lectures can be reviewed, consolidated, questioned and debated. One of the seminars will take place in the British Museum with emphasis on material culture and modern reception. Workload There are 16 hours of lectures 4 hours of seminars for this course. In addition, you are expected to undertake around 100 hours of reading to keep pace with the lectures and classes, plus 70 hours preparing for and producing the assessed work. This adds up to a total workload of some 190 hours for the course. Prerequisites This course has no prerequisites, and no knowledge of foreign languages is required. However, it may be an advantage, in terms of easing comprehension of the material and ideas presented, to have already taken one or more courses in Mediterranean, Greek, Egyptian or Western Asian archaeology at first- or second- to third-year level, or the Aegean companion course ARCL 3082 (taught in alternating years). Any students who are unsure whether they will be able to make the most of this course are welcome to contact the Course Co-ordinator at an early date to discuss matters. If you have a chance to visit Aegean sites and museums (or participate in fieldwork) before or after taking this course, it can only improve the overall experience. 2. Aims, Objectives and Assessment 3 Aims • To provide an overview of the main issues, themes and theories in the archaeology of the early prehistoric Aegean. • To ensure a familiarity with the material culture, imagery and texts of the period and alternative ways of interpreting them. • To encourage a comparative approach to Aegean societies in relation to neighbouring societies in the Mediterranean with which they interacted. Objectives On successful completion of this course you should have gained an overview of the major developments and interpretative issues in early Aegean prehistory, as well as the data that underpin them, within the date-range covered by the course. You will be aware of, and be able to engage in, critically informed discussion of central problems such as the origins of farming communities, the emergence of the state-level societies on Crete, and the role of eastern Mediterranean societies in Aegean cultural developments. You will also be familiar with thematic issues involving the interpretation of the Aegean material record, such as analysis of settlement patterns, economic organisation, cult and ideology. You will understand the models of change proposed and will be able to recognise, and know the social significance of, a range of Aegean material culture. Learning Outcomes At the end of the course, you will have improved your critical skills in reading and debate through assessment and evaluation of alternative interpretations, and recognised the linkages between data, methods and ideas in archaeological interpretation. You will be able to apply methods and theories in archaeological and anthropological analysis to a specific regional database, broadened your experience in integrating a variety of evidence from different disciplines into overall interpretations, and developed your proficiency in setting out information and ideas clearly in written form. Coursework Assessment tasks The assessed coursework consists of two essays, each of c. 2,500 words. Both assessments should be presented according to the guidelines available on the Institute intranet (<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/ administration/ students/handbook) and in your Degree Handbook. The purpose of the assessments is to demonstrate your understanding of the issues and the relevant Aegean data, so descriptions of evidence should be concise and focused on what needs to be presented to explicitly answer the question set. You are encouraged to include illustrations if relevant to making your argument clearly; general background illustrations are not necesaary. Choose one essay title from each of the two groups listed below. Readings should be drawn as appropriate from the relevant session bibliographies, though should not be limited to those sources. Additional readings are organised thematically on the course Moodle site. Essay 1: 1. Compare and contrast the evidence for the social organisation of Early Bronze Age societies in two of the following areas (i) southern mainland Greece, (ii) the Cyclades, (iii) Crete. 4 2. What are the differences between a revolution and an evolution model for state formation on Crete? What evidence supports each? Is this debate now dated? 3. What is the International Spirit? How can it be defined archaeologically? What role interaction plays for the understanding of the 3rd millennium Aegean? 4. What are the historical academic biases in the study of the south Aegean and how are they still affecting the archaeology of the region today? Use two examples to structure your answer 5. What the debates on Cretan State formation can tell us more generally about the appearance of complex social organization in human history? 6. Reconstruct or not? Critically assess the role of Arthur Evans in constructing the idea of the Minoans: use two specidic case-studies to illustrate your view. Essay 2: 1. Compare the economic or/and political organisation of Crete during the Protopalatial and Neopalatial periods. 2. What are the main characteristics of Minoan religion? 3. How the study of Linear A, albeit undeciphered, can help in the understanding of Neopalatial Crete? 4. Does the concept of ‘minoanisation’ help or hinder our understanding of relations between communities in Crete and the rest of the southern Aegean in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC? 5. Can we understand the significance of Aegean wallpaintings to a Bronze Age viewer? Use specific images from one site as an example in your answer.