History of the Ancient Middle East
Code
711051046
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
História
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
Isabel Almeida
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) Understand the connection between the time and space dimensions of the Oriental Ancient History and know how to analyze it both in a diachronic and synchronic perspective;
b) Learn the main and more recent historical interpretations about the Oriental Ancient History;
c) Identify and understand the main historical documents of the Oriental Ancient Civilizations;
d) Understand the political, economical, social, cultural and religious context of the Oriental Ancient History;
e) Develop oral and written abilities to expose the different historical problems related to the Ancient Civilizations, using the correct concepts;
f) Learn the right know-how about Ancient History, allowing a future specialization in the field.
Prerequisites
None.
Subject matter
1. Different perspectives both of interpretation and research.
1.1Time and space boundaries: the different historical periods
1.2 The different sources for studying the Ancient Middle East History.
1.3 From the Orientalistic of the XIX century to the specialization in different fields of the present.
1.4 The new research objects and perspectives in the field.
2. Origins of the State and its organization.
2.1 The State: from the city-state to more complex political organizations
2.2 The royal institution: its ideological legitimacy.
2.3 The political limitations of the king.
3.Society
3.1 The social stratification and its models.
3.2 The social networks: family and macro-family structures.
3.3 The urban world vs. the nomad world.
4.The Economy.
4.1 Economical resources.
4.2 Economical activities
4.3 The long distance trade.
4.4 The structures of the economic activity: the Temple, the Palace and the oikos.
4.5 Bureaucracy and law in the economy.
5. Religion as a structural phenomenon
5.1 The different theologies: the Sumerian legacy and the Semitic identity
5.2 The cult and the religious behaviors
5.3 The religious syncretism: Itar as a paradigmatic case.
5.4 Is there a monotheistic tendency?
Bibliography
POLLOCK, Susan, Ancient Mesopotamia, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
LÓPEZ, Jesús e SANMARTÍN, Joaquín, Mitología y Religión del Oriente Antiguo I Egipto - Mesopotamia, Sabadell, Editorial Ausa, 1993.
ODED, Bustenay, War, peace and empire. Justifications for war in Assyrian royal inscriptions, Wiesbaden, Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1992.
POSTGATE, J.N., Early Mesopotamia. Society and Economy at the dawn of History, London New York, Routledge, 1992.
MARGUERON, Jean-Claude, Les Mesopotamiens, Paris, Armand Colin, 1991.
Teaching method
a) Theorical classes, where the content is exposed;
b) Didactical support, projecting images, maps, texts and schemes;
c) Practical exercises, analyzing texts and iconographic documents.
Evaluation method
Two written tests. The final grade will be the average of the two elements, which have a preponderance of 50% each.