In this course we will study two "dead" civilizations-ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia--but ones well-known to us from the buildings, cities, objects and writing they have left behind. These two unique cultures built magnificent pyramids, produced works of art and wrote poetry that many students may know from films, television, magazines, newspapers or courses taken before college. The course has three principal aims:

1. In the course we will use the "things" these cultures produced to examine what it was like to live in ancient times. Some of the questions we will explore are: Why did people live in cities or build pyramids? What activities did people living in cities or pyramid towns take part in on a day-to-day basis? What did they think about in their spare time? Did they have spare time? Our attempts to answer these questions will be based upon archaeological evidence and written sources.

2. A major emphasis will be on the unique histories of the two civilizations, although they developed almost simultaneously. The Mesopotamians (present-day Iraq) "invented" the idea of a city and built the city, Uruk, five thousand years ago; it was a foc al point of markets, trade and religious activities. In contrast, the Egyptians did not live in cities, although large numbers of crafts people and religious experts lived in large towns that functioned primarily for the production of burial goods and pyr amid complexes. The historically contingent nature of these civilizations raises important questions that we will examine throughout the semester. We also will examine the legacy they have left in our own western cultural traditions.

3. Near the end of the course, we will discuss the importance of prehistoric monuments to national heritage and ask the questions: Who needs the past? How is knowledge of the past structured? Do we have a responsibility to preserve it?

By the end of the semester, I expect students to have a deep appreciation for the accomplishments of people in the past and some sense of their own place in the larger scheme of world history.

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