This course is under construction. The course entries will be made available as we complete them.
If the Early Bronze was the age of invention, the Middle Bronze may properly be termed the age of literacy. Some of the great epics of of the ancient world were written during this period, including the Gilgamesh Epic and the Tale of Sinuhe. Cities devastated by warfare and famine at the end of the Early Bronze period were rebuilt bigger and better than before.
The Sumerian civilization was brought to an end with the fall of Ur. It was replaced by the Old Babylonian Empire founded by the Amorite king Hammurabi whose most famous achievement was not his empire he built but a smooth diorite obelisk carved with his famous law code.
Meanwhile in Egypt the brilliant achievements of the Twelfth Dynasty gave way to a period of dissolution that culminated finally in the overthrow of the Egyptian pharaohs by a group of foreigners known as the Hyksos. The story of Joseph recorded in the Bible should probably be located in the Twelfth or Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt.
The expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt by the Eighteenth dynasty ruler Ahmose marks the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. The first half witnessed of the period witnessed a period of a detente between the great powers in the Ancient Near East. Daughters were married to foreign princes, rich gifts were exchanged, and trade flourished. There arose for the first time city-states in Crete and mainland Greece—the Minoans and Myceneans—which rivalled those of the Levant.
The period of detente ended with the chaotic Amarna period in Egypt and the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites.
The last half of the Late Bronze saw war between the Egyptians and the Hittites. The war between the Greeks and Trojans, of Homeric fame, should also probably be dated to this time period. These wars were followed by wholesale collapse. In one of the great mysteries of the ancient world, the Minoan, Mycenaean, Hittite civilizations disappeared over the span of just several decades.
The purpose for this course is to place the architecture, art and literature of the period in their historical context. We will study the famous works of art from period and also some of its lesser known works. Each chapter concludes with a quiz and each section with an exam. The course concludes with a final exam. Here is a breakdown of how much each quiz and exam is worth and the number of redos allowed in total for each type of quiz or exam.