Graduate

Archaeology is the study of the material evidence of past human activity. This course, which is offered every year in the Autumn Quarter, explores the history of archaeology as a discipline and the methods used by archaeologists to obtain evidence about past human activity via excavations, surface surveys, and remote-sensing technologies such as satellite imagery and ground-penetrating radar, with emphasis on archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East. This course also surveys the latest methods used to date, classify, and analyze various kinds of evidence after it has been obtained. And since archaeological data is always collected and interpreted within an intellectual framework of theoretical conceptions concerning human society, culture, and history, this course provides a brief overview of “archaeological theory,” i.e., the uses made by archaeologists of a wide range of different social theories that may lead to quite different interpretations of the same data. This topic is explored in more depth in a companion course on “Social Theory and Ancient Studies” (NEHC 20010/30010), which is offered in alternate years in the Winter Quarter.

This is a two-course sequence that introduces students to theory and method in landscape studies and the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyze archaeological, anthropological, historical, and environmental data.

n this course, we will focus on letters from the Amarna archive (ca. 1360-1330 BCE) that were written in what is commonly referred to as "Canaano-Akkadian", a form of Akkadian with significant influence from the native Canaanite language(s) of the scribes. There is no consensus as of yet what "Canaano-Akkadian" represents in terms of language. One aim of the course is to look at different proposals and evaluate them based on the original texts. In order to be able to understand the origin of Canaano-Akkadian and to put it into its proper historical and sociolinguistic context, we will further read earlier texts from Canaan, including those from Hazor and Taanach, before going over to letters from major Canaanite sites attested in the Amarna archive, such as Byblos, Jerusalem, Megiddo, Gezer, and others.

This course is an advanced seminar in comparative Semitics that critically discusses important secondary literature and linguistic methodologies concerning topics in the field, including topics in phonology, morphology, syntax, etc.

This course examines the lexical, phonological, and morphological traits shared by the members of the Semitic language family. We also explore the historical relationships among these languages and the possibility of reconstructing features of the parent speech community.

This advanced reading course introduces students to the intertwined epic and romance genres in premodern Persian. Through engagement with the original sources, students will become familiar with the vocabulary, grammatical features, poetic topoi, and metrical rules necessary to read, understand, and analyze key selections from Ferdowsi, Neẓāmi, Amir Khosrow, Jāmi, and other poets. In addition to developing their linguistic skills and familiarizing themselves with central texts of the premodern Persian canon, students will also engage with both Persian- and English-language scholarship on the tradition. This course is open to those who have completed two years of Persian or the equivalent.

This sequence deepens and expands the students' knowledge of modern Persian. The goal is to enable the students to gain proficiency in all skills of language acquisition at a higher level. In this sequence, the students learn more complex grammatical structures and gain wider vocabulary through reading paragraph-length texts on a variety of topics related to Persian language, literature, and culture. Students will also be familiarized with Persian news and media terminology. Class meets four hours a week with the instructor and one hour with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence concentrates on all skills of language acquisition (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). The class begins with the Persian alphabet, and moves to words, phrases, short sentences, and finally short paragraphs. The goal is to enable the students towards the end of the sequence to read, understand, and translate simple texts in modern standard Persian and engage in short everyday conversations. All the basic grammatical structures are covered in this sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture through the texts is also a goal. The class meets four hours a week with the instructor and one hour with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence deepens and expands the students' knowledge of modern Persian. The goal is to enable the students to gain proficiency in all skills of language acquisition at a higher level. In this sequence, the students learn more complex grammatical structures and gain wider vocabulary through reading paragraph-length texts on a variety of topics related to Persian language, literature, and culture. Students will also be familiarized with Persian news and media terminology. Class meets four hours a week with the instructor and one hour with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.

This sequence concentrates on all skills of language acquisition (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). The class begins with the Persian alphabet, and moves to words, phrases, short sentences, and finally short paragraphs. The goal is to enable the students towards the end of the sequence to read, understand, and translate simple texts in modern standard Persian and engage in short everyday conversations. All the basic grammatical structures are covered in this sequence. Introducing the Iranian culture through the texts is also a goal. The class meets four hours a week with the instructor and one hour with a native informant who conducts grammatical drills and Persian conversation.