Announcements

Welcome to Week 8!

14 March 2026

The midterm exam will be held in-person on Tuesday, March 17 in our normal meeting room and class period. Please arrive on time. You will only have the normal class period (from 3:00 to 4:15 p.m.) to take the exam. Make-up exams will be arranged only in cases of documented medical/family emergency.

The review sheet (detailing content and structure) is posted on the Exams page on the course website, along with links to other resources. Make use of your notes, fellow students, quiz notes, and so on. Remember the Videos page has videos on every subject covered in class. The midterm will cover everything in the course so far up through the meeting on the Persian Empire.

This course focuses on the Mediterranean, but after the exam we’re taking a side trip to ancient Asia this week as well. Why did the Greeks romanticize the Scythian barbarians? Is it a coincidence that the same kinds of things are happening in the Indus valley as are happening in Mesopotamia and along the Nile? What jumps out at you about the culture and religion of ancient South and East Asia?

See the sticky at the top of the Announcements page for more guidance on the exam. Email me with any questions, and good luck!

Link to Schedule page

Welcome to Week 7!

7 March 2026

This week we’re talking about two very different empires in the same part of the world: the Iron Age Assyrians, also known as the Neo-Assyrians, and the Persians.

Things to ponder as you explore the materials. Did the Neo-Assyrians and the Persians have anything in common apart from being empires? What do you think were the most important keys to the success of the Persian empire a century or so later?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and reactions. See you Tuesday!

Link to Schedule page

Essay Musts reminder

5 March 2026

Just a quick reminder as you work on completing your essays: make sure to review the Requirements for All Papers on the Essay Musts page before you upload—not just for formatting, but for structure and evidence as well. All three are areas in which good choices strengthen your paper and in which significant deductions might be made if the requirements are not met.

There are videos about each of these topics on the Essay Musts page to help advise you as you finalize your work. There’s also a sample interpretive essay on that page to provide additional guidance.

If you have any questions about any of these requirements, drop me an email or see me in office hours. I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas!

Link to Essays Musts page

Welcome to Week 6!

1 March 2026

This week we’re talking about the Bronze Age Aegean: the indigenous inhabitants, especially the mysterious Minoans, and the invading Greeks, who swarm in from the north and take over the Aegean world before bringing about their own spectacular collapse, bringing down the whole Bronze Age with them.

What strikes you as most intriguing about the Minoans—given what little we know of them? Why do you think the Mycenaean Greeks were so successful in surpassing them? If you were to talk about what was important to the Minoans and to the Mycenaean Greeks, what would be similar, and what would be distinctive? Were the Mycenaean Greeks their own worst enemy in too-greedily building a trade empire, or should we emphasize other factors in the great cataclysmic collapse of the Bronze Age and its civilizations?

After that comes the dawn of the Iron Age, which we see first in Canaan—now that it’s not being warred over by the surrounding Bronze Age empires, the lands along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean are free to develop their own strength and economic reach. And they’re very characteristic of how the Iron Age differs from the Bronze Age. We’re focusing on three very distinct peoples who are rivals for land and independence in early Iron Age Canaan: the Phoenicians, the Philistines, and the Hebrews.

Why is the Iron Age so different, do you think? Why does a shift to iron matter so much? What do you think most sets apart a trade empire like that of the Phoenicians from the empires of the Bronze Age we discussed? What do you think are the biggest factors in the Hebrews being able to create their own state in Canaan despite huge disadvantages? How does religion factor into the story?

Remember to come to class with any questions you have about Gilgamesh and the essay. What is the author trying to emphasize? What is the story telling us about what it was like to live and think as a Sumerian?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and reactions. See you Tuesday!

Link to Schedule page

A quick reminder about meeting slides and note taking

25 February 2026

For every class meeting, there are always a number of ideas I want to discuss and key points that go with them. I try to make sure a lot of these ideas are included on my slides, to aid in-class discussion and for later review.

For those taking notes in class, that can sometimes add the challenge of wanting to get all of these points on paper. To help with this, I've provided tools that allow you to streamline your note-taking and not have to worry about getting every point down from the slides.

I do recommend note-taking—we cover a lot of material in this course, and it’s all relevant to your written assignments and exams. Sometimes, though, in class I have to move on faster than fully comprehensive transcription allows, so these tools might be of help. For example, images of the slides are always available before and after class on the Slides page for you to check and supplement your notes.

One offering that students have found helpful in the past is the PDF handout I post for each meeting. These show the slides on the left side, with all the bullet points, and room to take additional notes and ideas that you think of or that come up in discussion next to the slides on the right. That way you don't have to get distracted trying to get everything down and can keep your reactions side-by-side with the key points I’m hoping to convey.

The PDF handouts are always available on the course website the weekend before class. You can print them out and bring the printouts to class, or use a tablet to add to them during the meeting.

The PDF handouts can be accessed via both the Slides page and the PDF/Print page.

Link to PDF/Print page