This course's scope is the entire Mediterranean basin, from its first peopling until ca. 500 BC. The focus is on key transformations in economic, social, and political structures and interactions; on explanations for these changes; and on current issues where fresh data or new approaches are transforming our understanding. This seminar is intended for students both with and without prior knowledge of this field, and particularly for those preparing for the Joukowsky Institute's Mediterranean Prehistory graduate field exam.

Instructor: John F. Cherry

Thursdays 2:30-5:00pm (Eastern)
Online

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SYLLABUS: ARCH 2240 Spring 2021 Syllabus.docx

Short description:

This seminar is intended for students both with and without prior knowledge of this specific field of archaeology, and particularly for those preparing for the Joukowsky Institute’s Mediterranean Prehistory graduate field exam, or using this seminar to “course out” of the field exam. Its scope is the entire Mediterranean basin, from its first peopling until ca. 500 BC. The focus is on key transformations in economic, social, and political structures and interactions; on explanations for these changes; and on current issues where fresh data, innovative techniques, or new approaches are transforming our understanding. Advanced undergraduates are welcome in the seminar, provided they have some background in archaeology, acquired either through previous courses or by hands-on fieldwork.

MAJOR THEMES

This seminar is intended for graduate students both with and without prior knowledge of this specific field of archaeology, and particularly for those preparing for the Joukowsky Institute’s graduate Mediterranean Prehistory field exam (or using this seminar to course out of that exam). Its aim is to provide a thoughtful overview of developments in the world’s largest inland sea, a challenging but opportunity-rich environment adjacent to the riverine cores of the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt. The seminar’s scope is the entire Mediterranean basin, from its first peopling until the mid-first millennium BC and the beginning of the Classical era. The primary focus is on key transformations in economic, social, and political structures and interactions, and the types of explanations that have been advanced to account for these changes.

Mediterranean archaeology is one of the world’s richest sources for the reconstruction of ancient, pre-literate societies, as a result of its unrivalled depth and breadth of exploration, and an unparalleled range of information from the field, beneath the sea, and in the laboratory. The seminar will consider ideas and information from the European, western Asian, and African flanks of the Mediterranean, as well as the coasts and islands at its heart, in order to focus on the varied trajectories and interactions that created this maritime world. A primary emphasis will be on currently “hot” issues, as well as areas where fresh data or new techniques and approaches are transforming our understanding. An underlying premise is that the Mediterranean is a political and social arena in which the past is very much alive in the present; coping with current predicaments demands an informed knowledge of how its societies, cultures, and economies first emerged and engaged with each other.

Until very recently, such a seminar has been difficult to configure, in the absence of a single, synthetic, up-to-date, and comprehensive text to use as the main framework for discussion. (The only book that previously made claim to cover this field was David Trump’s Prehistory of the Mediterranean [1982], long out of print, hopelessly out-of-date, woefully under- illustrated, and intended mainly as a short popular introduction to the subject.) Now, however, we have Cyprian Broodbank’s prize-winning 2013 volume The Making of the Middle Sea: An Archaeological History of the Mediterranean from its Earliest Peopling until the Iron Age (London: Thames and Hudson; New York: Oxford University Press). This book has already begun to re-frame discussion in the same revolutionary way that Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell’s book The Corrupting Sea (2000) did for the Classical and post-Classical Mediterranean world.

The sequence of topics, intentionally, mirrors the chapters of The Making of the Middle Sea, which is organized chronologically in progressively shorter time-periods, but whose framework is consistently Mediterranean-wide (rather than region-by-region). These topics will include (but are by no means limited to): the Mediterranean as a unit of analysis; the constraints and opportunities for human settlement in Mediterraneoid environments; the impact of the changing configurations of land and sea over the past million years; the arrival of Homo in the Mediterranean; patterns and processes in the peopling of different parts of the Mediterranean; Neanderthal and Homo sapiens interactions; the Mesolithic “problem” in the Mediterranean; the establishment of sedentary communities; the spread of domesticated plants and animals; origins of metallurgy and other pyrotechnologies; craft specialization; the inception of local and regional networks of exchange and social interaction; archaeological indicators of growing social inequality and complexity; the impact of growing connectivities with Egypt, the Levant, and the Near East; the first states and empires in the Mediterranean; varieties of urbanism; effects of the adoption of writing systems; the coming of the age of iron in the Mediterranean; “orientalization”; the rise of the city-state.

Organization of the seminar

The seminar will be oriented around the 11 chapters of Broodbank’s book (as detailed below). Each week, for the first ten regular meetings of the seminar, we will focus in detail on one chapter (N.B. chapters vary greatly in length, from a little as 30 to as much as 100 pages; weeks with shorter chapters will have commensurately more additional reading assigned).

As noted below, everyone is required to make short weekly blog posts (due no later than 8 a.m. on Thursday mornings), posted to the Canvas site under “Discussions”. These should include at least 4 topics you think merit further discussion and/or your reactions to this week’s chapter and/or what you found especially interesting (or perhaps unclear).

Students (ideally in pairs, depending on enrollment) will take turns in helping direct and enrich the discussion for a given week by:

(1) In consultation with the instructor, selecting (and making available to the seminar, on the class Canvas site) additional articles or chapters that provide supplementary in-depth treatment of several key issues addressed in the Broodbank book-chapter for that week. We will especially focus on publications that have appeared since the book was finalized about a decade ago.
(2) Compiling (as a pdf or powerpoint, to be posted to the class Canvas site) a small gallery of images illustrative of key material and themes for discussion that week — maps, chronological tables, photos and drawings of sites, artifact assemblages, etc. Broodbank’s book is already very well illustrated, so this will allow the more detailed exploration of particularly important or interesting topics.
(3) Preparing a series of critical questions and key issues for consideration and discussion by members of the seminar, and leading (or at least starting) that discussion.

This sequence of classes will take the seminar to the 12th week of the semester. But well before that, students should be working on the topic of their term papers, meeting individually with the instructor for detailed discussion of their research projects, and preparing Powerpoint presentations. These will be presented to the seminar in one or two scheduled meetings during the Reading Period in Week 13. To allow incorporation of comments received during the presentations, final term papers will not be due until 5 p.m. on Friday 23 April (the last day of the final examination period). Late papers will not be accepted, except with advance permission of the instructor.

Schedule of seminar meetings

Week 1 (January 21)

Introduction to the seminar; organizational matters; allocation of student duties.

Week 2 (January 28)

General approaches to Mediterranean prehistory; historiography; the Mediterranean

as a unit of analysis. [Broodbank Ch. 1]

Week 3 (February 4)

Environment, geography, and Mediterranean ecosystems. [Broodbank Ch. 2]

Week 4 (February 11)

The earliest Mediterranean: 1.8 million to 50,000 years ago. [Broodbank Ch. 3]

Week 5 (February 18)

The Modernization of the Mediterranean (50,000-10,000 BC). [Broodbank Ch. 4]

Week 6 (February 25)

Brave new worlds on sea and land (10,000-5,500 BC). [Broodbank Ch. 5]

Week 7 (March 4)

How it might have been (5,500-3,500 BC). [Broodbank Ch. 6]

Week 8 (March 11)

The devil and the deep blue sea (3,500-2,200 BC). [Broodbank Ch. 7]

Week 9 (March 18)

Pomp and Circumstance: The big and small worlds of the second millennium (2,200-

1,300 BC). [Broodbank Ch. 8]

Week 10 (March 25)

From sea to shining sea (1,300-800 BC). [Broodbank Ch. 9]

Week 11 (April 1)

The end of the beginning (800-500 BC). [Broodbank Ch. 10]

Week 12 (April 8)
De profundis: Pulling it all together and final observations [Broodbank Ch. 11]

Week 13 (April 15 [during the Remote Reading Period])

Brief oral presentations of draft term papers. An additional class will be scheduled during the Remote Reading Period, if required to accommodate all student presentations.

Readings

All required readings (other than Broodbank) will be made available as pdf files posted under “Announcements” on the Canvas site established in association with this seminar. Average length of readings per week (from the Broodbank text, plus additional assignments) will be ca. 100-125 pages; I anticipate that this will require at least six hours of your time, and probably more (see below).

As noted above, each class revolves around the relevant chapter from Broodbank’s text. This central reading will be supplemented by several additional in-depth readings, generally amounting to ca. 50-75 additional printed pages (sometimes less, sometimes more), selected in collaboration by the instructor and the student(s). Please note that the length of individual chapters in Broodbank (and thus the amount of reading) increases as we move through the book.

You will need to acquire your personal copy of Broodbank’s book. I have deliberately not ordered copies at the Brown Bookstore, supposing that you will wish to buy it much more cheaply on line: Amazon can provide a new copy for $50 and sometimes a used/paperback copy for half that. Plan to buy a copy by the time of our first class meeting on January 21.

Grading

Short weekly blog posts (due by 8 a.m. on Thursday mornings), plus active contribution to the discussions in class (20%).
Regular attendance in class and visits to the instructor’s online office hours, Mondays 2-4 pm or by arrangement, at https://brown.zoom.us/j/8140523016 (10%)
In specific assigned weeks (at least twice), selecting the supplementary readings; preparing and pre-circulating a set of critical questions and key themes for discussion; and taking responsibility for summarizing and leading a discussion of particular issues (25%).
A research project (discussed in advance with the instructor), to be presented to the class (15%).
A final paper of ca. 20-25 pages (graduates) or ca. 12-15 pages (undergraduates), based on the oral presentation, due by April 26 (30%).

Now the mandatory fine print:

Course-related Work Expectations and Learning Goals

I am required by the University to provide you with a statement concerning course-related work expectations and learning goals. This is a 4-credit course, for which under Federal guidelines the total of in-class hours and out-of-class work should be approximately 180 hours. Over 14 weeks, students will spend 2.5 hours per week in class online (35 hours total). Required reading for the seminar meetings is expected to take up approximately 6 hours per week (84 hours). In addition, I expect preparing Powerpoint presentations and preparing to lead discussions (not on a weekly basis, but probably two times during the semester) will occupy 24 hours. Preparing an oral presentation of the final project research, with a Powerpoint, should take 17 hours, while writing a final term paper is expected to take 20 hours. Over the course of the semester, that amounts to an estimated 180 hours of in- and out-of-class work.

At the conclusion of this seminar, I expect you to have acquired a detailed, critical understanding of the broad sweep of Mediterranean Prehistory, at a fairly advanced level: what are the broad trajectories, what are the key themes, what are the currently debated issues? The majority of the time you devote to the seminar will be spent outside of class. This work is intended to help you develop critical reading skills, effective oral and visual presentations, the ability to participate on-the-fly in the exchanges of views and opinions that will occur in the seminar, knowing how to make the most of your interactions with the instructor, both in class and in office hours, and the capability of researching, writing, and submitting on time an extended paper that relates to the content of the seminar.

Accessibility and Accommodations Statement

Brown University is committed to full inclusion of all students. Please inform me early in the term if you may require accommodations or modification of any of course procedures. You may speak with me after class, during office hours, or by appointment. If you need accommodations around online learning or in classroom accommodations, please be sure to reach out to Student Accessibility Services (SAS) for their assistance (seas@brown.edu, 401-863-9588). Undergraduates in need of short-term academic advice or support can contact an academic dean in the College by emailing college@brown.edu. Graduate students may contact one of the deans in the Graduate School by emailing graduate_school@brown.edu.

Books, Supplies, and Materials

If your Brown undergraduate financial aid package includes the Book/Course Material Support Pilot Program (BCMS), concerns or questions about the cost of books and course materials for this or any other Brown course (including RISD courses via cross-registration) can be addressed to bcms@brown.edu. For all other concerns related to non-tuition course-related expenses, whether or not your Brown undergraduate financial aid package includes BCMS, please visit the Academic Emergency Fund in E-GAP (within the umbrella of "E-Gap Funds" in UFunds) to determine options for financing these costs, while ensuring your privacy.

Save

ARCH2240 Spring21 S01 Key Issues in Mediterranean Prehistory