Objects, Texts and Images: expressions of the Antiquity
Objectives
1. To thoroughly acknowledge Antiquity through the crossing of information provided by data sources of different nature.
2. To provide specific information concerning mental, ideologic, economic, technologic, and cognitive issues of past societies of Antiquity in the different historical and regional frameworks.
3. To recognize the importance of cultural interactions occurred in Antiquity.
4. To inform about the characteristics and specificities of information provided by objects, texts and images, as well as the problematics of each category.
5. To allow future Historians to acquire basic theoretical and methodological knowledge on handling different sources, aiming to stimulate new approaches and readings of Antiquity.
General characterization
Code
01110434
Credits
6.0
Responsible teacher
Isabel Cristina Gomes de Almeida
Hours
Weekly - 4
Total - 168
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
Available soon
Bibliography
Module I. Introductory bibliography
Black, Jeremy & Green, Anthony. (1998). Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. An Illustrated Dictionary. London: British Museum Press.
Bottéro, Jean. (1987). Mésopotamie - L’écriture, la raison et les dieux. Paris : Éditions Gallimard.
Cuno, J. (2008). Who Owns Antiquity?: Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage (REV-Revised). Princeton University Press.
Dalley, S. (2000) Myths from Mesopotamia- Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and others. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mieroop, M. Van De (2007). A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC. Second edition. Blackwell.
Module II.
Castleden, R. (2005). Mycenaeans. London/New York: Routledge.
Castleden, R. (2001). Minoans. London/New York: Routledge.
Harris, W. V. (Ed). (2005). Rethinking the Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lemos, I.S. & Kotsonas, A. (Eds). (2019). A Companion to the Archaeology of Early Greece and the Mediterranean (2 vols). Hoboken, NJ. Wiley Blackwell.
Shaw, I. (Ed). (2001). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Teaching method
Sessions are of a theoretical-practical nature, where the students should actively participate in the discussion of specific bibliography and historical-archaeological data
Evaluation method
1) One individual in-person test, with the possibility of consulting materials previously defined in class by the teachers. The test will cover questions relating to both Modules. This assessment element accounts for 50% of the final grade;
2) Two oral presentations in class, reflecting autonomous research on a specific source from ancient Mesopotamia in line with the syllabus of Module I, which will be made available in the first session. Each presentation accounts for 25% of the final grade.
Subject matter
Module I – Ancient Mesopotamian Expressions
18 Sessions, from 18/02 to 25/03/2026 and from 29/04 to 20/5/2026
Professor Isabel Gomes de Almeida isalmeida@fcsh.unl.pt
Module II - Egypt and the Aegean during the Bronze Age
6 Sessions, from 8/04 to 27/04/2026
Professor Ronaldo Gurgel Pereira ronaldo.gurgel-pereira@fcsh.unl.pt
This course focuses on the detailed analysis of specific material, textual, and/or visual data from the defined ancient contexts. For each selected example, the analytical focus will be on the various expressions that a given object/text/image contains within itself and, on the other hand, on the relationship that can be established with other known sources/documentation. The in-depth study of each example will thus allow the identification of cultural topoi of the defined contexts of antiquity, enabling students to deepen their knowledge on them.