10:10-11:00 MW WH 101
About 10,000 years ago, human societies in several areas of the world
began to undergo a series of major transformations.  Small groups of
hunters and gatherers settled into the world’s first farming
villages.  From these villages arose bigger towns, and eventually
large and complex urban civilizations.
How and why did these changes take place?  In what ways were the
early civilizations similar to one another?  How did they differ from
one another?  What do these similarities and differences tell us
about the nature of civilization and the state, culture change, and
human society itself?  This course addresses such questions through
an introductory survey of five ancient civilizations:  the Sumerians
and Egyptians in the Old World and the Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas in
the New World.  Lectures, readings, and discussion sections describe
and compare these civilizations and consider the ways in which their
growth and decline were shaped by environment, technology, trade,
warfare, religious beliefs, and other phenomena.  Some of the
discussion sections provide hands-on exercises that introduce basic
principles and methods of archaeological research.
The goal of E104 is not to provide final answers to the questions
posed above.  (At present there are none.)  Rather, the goal is to
introduce students to the ways in which major questions in social and
historical studies are investigated and debated.  The course also
aims to teach critical thinking skills.  Students are asked to weigh
competing points of view against the available data and develop the
strongest arguments they can to support their own interpretations.
There are two lectures and one discussion section per week. Grades
are based on four short (3-5 page) essays and a take-home final exam
(essentially a fifth essay). For more information see the course Web
site: http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/ancient/  [Note: the Web site
currently shows the 1998-99 syllabus. In 1999-2000 I will be using
Lamberg-Karlovsky and Sabloff 1995 as the primary text, eliminating
Essay #3, increasing the length of Essay #1 to 3-4 pages, increasing
the length of the other essays to 4-5 pages, and adjusting the
schedule of assignments. These changes reflect suggestions made by
last year's students.]