HIST 213                      History of the Ancient Near East

Essay Assignment

 

Please write separate essays on the topics listed below. These are broad questions and you should not deal with every issue raised by the prompts provided. Rather, develop your own thesis and make an original argument around a few key points that you discuss in depth with concrete examples from primary sources. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain how well you have grappled with the primary sources. You may bring in secondary literature if necessary, which should be cited using the Chicago Manual of Style. But please remember that this paper is to gauge the originality of your argument grounded in your observations of the primary readings. NB: ALL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE TURNED IN TO RECEIVE A GRADE IN THIS COURSE.

Format: Your paper should be:

  • 1600 typed words (roughly 5 pages)
  • double spaced
  • 12 point font
  • one inch margins (top and bottom and sides)
  • numbered pages
  • fastened with a staple
  • include a separate title page with your name, the class, the date, and the number of the question you are answering. Interesting titles are especially appreciated
  • "drop-down" footnotes
  • proper citation style (see below)
  • http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
  • or you may cite the text as it appears in the online syllabus.

 

Essay #1               DUE 3/9              100 points

Topics:

 

1.  Epic as History

Discuss how the Epic of Gilgamesh reveals social and cultural attitudes of ancient Mesopotamia. You may wish to address how the Epic preserves the transition from nomadic transhumance to sedentary urbanization. Alternatively you may discuss how the Epic reveals ancient attitudes towards kingship, sex, patriarchy, and religious attitudes. Explain how the genre of epic and its later iterations (from Akkadian to Old Babylonian) reveal a shifting attitude over time. Be sure to use primary sources to prove your argument.

2.  Kings as Divine Intermediaries

Discuss the intersection of political power (kingship) with religious authority (conduit to the gods.) You could focus on either Mesopotamian or Egyptian examples or both. How did political leaders use their positions of religious authority to augment their political power? Do the differences between Mesopotamian and Egyptian examples of kings as intercessors of the gods reveal information about the physical and cultural topography in which they live? Be sure to use primary sources to prove your argument.

3.  Law Codes and Imperialism

Discuss the intersection of comprehensive law codes with imperialism. You could focus on either Mesopotamian or Egyptian examples or both. How did "lawgivers" use universal law codes to maintain political control over a vast distance? Were these law codes strictly judiciary, or were common cultural forces at work that sought to conflate justice with authority? Be sure to use primary sources to prove your argument.

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Essay #2                   DUE 4/18                  100 points

 

Topics:

 

4.   Comparative Kingship

Compare and contrast ideas of Kingship between the Egyptian and Hittites civilizations. Using primary sources such as the Song of Sinuhe, the Kamose Inscription or the collection of documents from the Amenhotep III period and Hittite documents such as the Hittite inscriptions on the Mitanni or the Egyptian-Hittite treaty, discuss how each civilization portraysed the idea of "Kingship." Did each of these civilizations perceive the role of king in similar or different ways? Where in the texts do we read of these definitions.

5.   Empire and Trade

Discuss the intersection of Imperialism with Internationalism. First, explain your definition of imperialism and then apply it to either Egyptian, Hittite/Hurrian or Assyrian models. What did these "empires" do to expand and did they take on similar forms of extended control? What tools did they use to consolidate that control? How was trade a central issue to the political expansion?  Be sure to discuss primary sources (textual or material) to argue your point.

6.   The Vanquished

Discuss the conquered in the Ancient Near East. How did the victors portray those who were conquered? How did that narrative of conquest increase the power of those in power? What would happen to those in power should they suffer a military defeat? What sources do historians have that tell the story from those defeated peoples? Were collaborated universally reviled? Be sure to discuss primary sources to explain your answer.

7.     Art and Ideology

Discuss the intersection of art and ideology. How did various civilizations in the Ancient Near East deploy art to express particular ideologies? From the walls of Medinet Habu, to the King's Gate in Hattusha, to palaces at Assur and Khorsabad art was deployed for a variety of reasons. What do these images tell us about the "ideologies of power"? Here the article by Reade will be most helpful for framing your argument. Be sure to site the specific places and art works as evidence in your paper.