Nov 14, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
CARS 2180 - Ancient Near Eastern Art and Architecture
This course surveys the visual and architectural material culture of the ancient Middle East, defined loosely as the geographic region stretching from Anatolia to Iran–including Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean. It spans the time period ranging from the emergence of civilization in the fourth millennium BCE to the arrival of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE. After an orientation to history, geography, and archaeological practice, we examine regional and chronological trends in content and style, definitions of and relationships between “art” and architecture, scholarly approaches to text-image relationships, and the role of archaeology and the understanding of provenance and provenience in the study of visual material culture in these periods and places. We conclude with a look at the role of this material in the creation and development of modern national narratives and identities.
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS: Pillar: Humanities: Arts
General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2FA
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Course Transferability: OTM course: TMAH Arts & Humanities
College Credit Plus: Level 1
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to analyze, interpret, and evaluate primary works of artistic expression in the ancient Near East.
- Students will be able to identify, describe, and differentiate important regional and chronological trends in style and content.
- Students will be able to explain relationships between historical cultural contexts and individual works of art and architecture.
- Students will be able to utilize archaeological excavation reports in understanding objects of study.
- Students will be able to trace the basic provenience and provenance of a given object.
- Students will be able to analyze on a basic level individual works within their historical and political contexts.
- Students will be able to describe and analyze relationships between words and images in the geographic and chronological contexts covered in the course.
- Students will be able to identify and analyze the use of ancient Near Eastern art and architecture in basic modern political contexts and trends.
- Students will be able to recognize and analyze the role of ancient Near Eastern art and architecture in European colonialism.
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