HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

The course is part of the teaching activities that characterise the Master Degree in Ancient Civilisations: Literature, History and Archaeology. It aims at guiding the student to master the philological and methodological skills to develop independent research in the field of ancient Near Eastern history. The student will be required to practice them by writing a scientific article on a topic related to the course, assigned by the teacher.

The student at the end of the course will master the philological and methodological skills to develop independent research in the field of ancient Near Eastern history, practicing them by writing a piece of scientific research on a topic related to the course, assigned by the teacher.

A general knowledge of the history of the ancient Near East is recommended and can be acquired through a series of individual readings at the beginning of classes.

The topic of the course is "Israel Babylonia and Persia between the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th century BC". The content of the course is related to the wider topic " Cultures in comparison: Persia between Greeks, Babylonians and Egyptians" which will be jointly dealt with in Greek History sp., Assyriology sp. and Egyptology sp. classes. The course focuses on the situation in Babylonia at the end of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom and on the political confrontation with the Persian rulers; on the political structure and the social and economic features of both empires; on the Babylonian conquest of Judea, on the settlement of the exiles in Babylonia and their alleged return from captivity following the Edict of Cyrus.

Bibliography will be provided during the course.

See in general:
Michael Jursa (Ed.), Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC., Muenster 2010
Pierre Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, Winona Lake 2002
Robert Rollinger et al. (Eds.), Herodotus and the Persian Empire, Wiesbaden 2011
Laurie Pearce & Cornelia Wunsch, Documents of Judean Exiles and West Semites in Babylonia in the Collection of David Sofer, Cornell University Studies 2014

- notes and materials from the classes
- class discussion on selected topics
- written assignement

Presentation of the subject by the teacher and discussion in class. Handouts will be distributed to the students, concerning texts to be discussed.

Italian

Students who are interested in Ancient Near Eastern Studies are suggested to follow along with History of the Ancient Near East sp. the following classes: Assyriology sp., Archaeology of Caucasus, Archaeology of the Levant, Egyptology sp.

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