CLASS 7770 - [The Aegean and East Mediterranean Bronze Age c. 3000-1000 BCE]

(crosslisted) ARKEO 7271, NES 7701

Spring. Not offered: 2022-2023. Next offered: 2023-2024. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Co-meets with ARKEO 2271/CLASS 2770/NES 2701.

S. Manning.

An exploration of the archaeology and art of the Aegean region and of its neighbors during the Bronze Age, ca. 3000-1000 BCE: the origins and precursors of the Classical World. The course will investigate the emergence of the first complex societies in the Aegean region in the third millennium BCE, and then the development and story of the Minoan and Mycenaean worlds and their neighbors in the second millennium BCE. Topics will include: the Early Bronze Age and the first complex societies in the Aegean (Cyclades, Crete, Greece, Anatolia); the collapse and reorientation around 2200BCE and links with climate change; the first palace civilization of (Minoan) Crete; the Santorini (Thera) volcanic eruption and its historical impact in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean; the rise of the Mycenaean Greek palaces and the shift into proto-history; the development of an international east Mediterranean trade system; Ahhiyawa and the Hittites; the ‘Trojan War’; and the collapse of the Late Bronze Age societies and links with climate change.