Syllabus
1. Introduction: Some Notes on Interpretative Narratives and Personal Biographies of Things and People
2. Late Bronze Age Aegean: Terminology, Chronology and Concepts
3. The Age of Kings and Heroes: Formation of the Discipline and Early Interpretative Narratives
4. Peaceful Minoans: Changing Perspectives on “Minoan” Culture
5. Warlike Mycenaeans: Changing Perspectives on the formation of “Mycenaean” Culture
6. Mycenaean Conquest of Crete: Ethnic, Cultural or Political Change?
7. The Brave New Mycenaean World: Changes in Social Identities on Crete and the Greek Mainland During the Late 15th and 14th Century BCE
8. Mycenaean Colonization I: Mycenaean Conquerors, Trojan War(s) and Colonial Myths
9. Mycenaean Colonization II: Hybrid Cultures, Intercultural Interaction and Mobility
10. End of the World I: The Role of the Aegean in the Formation of the Sea Peoples Phenomenon
11. End of the World II: End of the Palatial Period on the Greek Mainland and the Post-Palatial Reality
12. Minoan Coca-Cola: Late Bronze Age Aegean Material Culture in the Contemporary World
Annotation
The course focuses on the Late Bronze Age Aegean iconographic sources and burial practices. It explores the role of iconographic sources and funerary sets of data in the creation of two types of narratives. First, the course explores the way iconography and burial practices might have been used by the Late Bronze Age Aegean populations to construct narratives about themselves. Second, the course critically evaluates the formation of scholarly narratives about the Late Bronze Age Aegean since the beginning of the discipline until today. Moreover, it explores the epistemological interdependency between these two types of narratives.
The aim of the course is to familiarize the students with the Late Bronze Age Aegean iconographic sources, as well as to provide a general overview of the contemporary burial practices. Both sources of data will be presented through a critical overview of the changes in interpretative narratives used to explain social and cultural changes in the Late Bronze Age Aegean. Moreover, the course explores the way various interpretative narratives correlate social and cultural changes with the changes in various types of identities (ethnic, gender etc.).
NEW from November 2nd The classes will take place via WEBEX: https://uni-heidelberg.webex.com/meet/nd195