Course Descriptions

Professor and students with laptops around table in classrom ©Kahn: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau To enroll in an ISAW course, you must first obtain the permission of the instructor. You may then forward the permission email to isaw.academic.affairs@nyu.edu to get the registration access code. All classes will be held in the 2nd-floor Seminar Room at ISAW unless indicated otherwise.

Spring 2024: Seminar on the Interconnected Ancient World

Interconnectivity in the Ancient World: Issues, Topics, Approaches
Beate Pongratz-Leisten and Daniel Potts
bpl2@nyu.edu; dtp2@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3030-001
Tuesdays, 2:00-5:20pm

In the ancient world, the interconnectivity of polities or states occurred on many planes and in a variety of social fields: trade, extraction of resources, diplomatic engagement, military encounters, vassaldom, exchange of gifts, as well as the transfer of knowledge and expertise in many domains of cultural production. Very often, the royal courts can be seen as the motor behind these various kinds of cultural encounters. As the intensity of cultural contact and the social fields in which these encounters occurred always differed, it would be wrong to extrapolate from one type of cultural interaction to the others. Ancient studies abound in attempts to categorize intercultural contact, as we can see in approaches including network theory and world system theory, as well as in recent work on globalization, the notion of entanglement and histoire croisée, cultural transfer and transmission, and translation studies. Not all of these theories are suited to address adequately these varieties of cultural interaction mentioned above, and many have focused primarily on economic rather than cultural interconnectivity. In combining textual and archaeological evidence, this course will investigate a number of case studies to probe the adequacy of modern approaches while aiming at defining in more nuanced ways the historical context and agency relevant to particular cultural encounters.

Permission of the instructors is required.

Spring 2024: Research Seminars

Observation and Experiment in Ancient Physical Science
Alexander Jones
aj60@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3002-001
Mondays, 2:00-5:20pm 

This seminar explores the empirical elements in ancient scientific traditions that aimed at systematic description, explanation, or prediction of physical phenomena. Scientific practices of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world will figure prominently, but those of other civilizations may be investigated according to the interests and competences of participants. The evidence is largely textual; knowledge of at least one ancient language in which relevant scientific texts exist is required. Participants will choose topics, select study materials, and guide discussion for at least one session.

An initial selection of topics will include the following: the rise of systematic observation of spontaneously occurring phenomena in the context of interpretation of the phenomena as ominous signs; practices of recording and transmitting observations of astral, meteorological, and mundane events; precision, accuracy, and instruments of measurement, especially in astronomical observation records; experiment and experimental apparatus in Greek harmonic theory; empirical claims within deductive scientific texts, e.g. in optics, mechanics, and astronomy; empirical argument in Ptolemy's Optics; adjustment and fabrication of reported observations and measurements.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Writing History … Experimentally
Roderick Campbell
rbc2@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3012-001
Fridays, 2:00-5:20pm

Historians, anthropologists and archaeologists all communicate through writing. We re-construct, imagine, present, narrate, tell stories, but seldom do we reflect seriously on this process. Even less do we actively play in the creative field that is manifestly the ground of all writing, historical or otherwise. Nor is taking writing seriously (or joyously!) merely about the aesthetics of good form or the craft of persuasive rhetoric but rather the very structuring, embodying, even worlding of thought. What then might history, anthropology or archaeology look like if we reconfigured the parameters of its constitution? This seminar will explore the craft of historical writing including its experimental borders with multi-scalar narratives, counter-factuals, fictioning, narration/anti-narration and even speculative fiction.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Scientific Methods in Archaeology
Federico Carò
Federico.Caro@metmuseum.org
ISAW-GA 3012-002
Thursdays, 2:00-5:20pm
Large Conference Room, 6th Floor

This course explores the application of scientific methodologies to the investigation of archaeological objects and works of art, with a specific focus on inorganic materials. This introductory course aims at providing the students with the appropriate knowledge and tools to understand advantages and limitations of traditional and cutting-edge analytical techniques commonly available to archaeologists, and to implement them into successful interdisciplinary archaeological research. Students will be introduced to the science of most common archaeological materials and will examine how scientific analysis can help characterizing them, disclosing manufacturing processes and techniques, and reconstructing raw material procurement and trade.

The goal of this course is to give each student the knowledge necessary to understand, for each technique, its primary area of application, its strengths and weaknesses, and finally, how to couple complementary scientific techniques to tackle specific archaeological problems.

Upon completion of the course, students will have gained a basic knowledge of the techniques presented and will be able to discuss and design an analytical protocol around an archaeological question of their choice. Students will be involved in lectures, classroom discussions, hands-on exercises and analytical projects that will take advantage of the equipment and materials in the department of Scientific Research of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while certain portable analytical instruments will be made available at ISAW.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Early Greek Medicine
Claire Bubb
cc148@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3012-003
Thursdays, 2:00-5:20pm

This course will investigate Greek medicine of the 5th and early 4th centuries BCE. The majority of the evidence for medical thought in this period stems from the Hippocratic Corpus, which comprises medical texts from a collection of authors with diverse viewpoints. Generally considered, both in antiquity and by modern scholars, to be the heart of Greek academic medicine, the corpus has exerted an enormous influence on the development of western medical thought (and beyond). Scholarship is also increasingly attuned to connections between these texts and contemporary literature and philosophy. We will consider every text traditionally considered to be part of the corpus (reading most in their entirety) and trace the themes and differences to be found among them. Although these texts dominate the historical record, they are not a complete picture of Greek medicine in this period. Accordingly, we will also consider other voices that can be recovered, including through the Anonymous London Papyrus and the fragments of Diocles. Further, these textual sources, whether eventually codified into the Hippocratic Corpus or not, were operating in the context of an explosion of interest in religious healing. We will therefore round out the class with a consideration of the Cult of Asclepius, including the robust corpus of inscriptions celebrating miracle cures.

Permission of the instructor is required; ability to read Ancient Greek is recommended.

Agriculture in the Ancient Near East: From the Neolithic to the 'Islamic Green Revolution'
Lorenzo Castellano
lc2995@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3013-001
Wednesdays, 2:00-5:20pm
Large Conference Room, 6th Floor

The history of agriculture is a history of persistence and innovation. Structural aspects of agropastoral economies are often embedded at the very core of the longue durée. Nevertheless, farming systems are also prone to changes and transformations, either resulting from long-term gradual trends or abrupt ‘revolutions’.

This seminar-based course introduces to the history of agriculture in the Ancient Near East, understood in its historical and environmental complexity, across both space and time. The course is diachronically organized around a series of topical questions, chronologically extending from the Neolithic to the Islamic period. Among other topics, we will discuss the onset of the first agricultural communities in western Asia, the role of agricultural production in the emergence of early complex societies, the impact of climatic and environment change on farming systems, and the broader changes in the agricultural landscape throughout the Iron Age, Roman, and Late Antique periods.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Early Chinese Excavated Manuscripts in Context
Ethan Harkness
harkness@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3013-003
Mondays, 8:40am-12:00pm 

This seminar will explore important discoveries of early Chinese manuscripts dating from the late Warring States period (475-221 BCE) to the early Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE). Philological analysis based on close readings of select texts will be complemented, insofar as possible, by consideration of historical and archaeological context to uncover nuance within and connections between the texts. In practice, we will examine the nature of “tomb libraries,” relations between manuscripts and the other material objects found in tombs, connections between separate assemblages of excavated manuscripts, connections between excavated and transmitted texts, and problems with manuscripts of non-standard or unknown provenance. Every effort will be made to present the initial meetings of this course in a way that is accessible to students with an interest in early manuscripts but little or no background in Chinese studies, and auditors are welcome to attend those sessions. Classical Chinese reading skills are a prerequisite for formal enrollment.

Permission of the instructor is required.

The History and Archeology of Chinese Divination
Zhao Lu
lz69@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3013-004
Wednesdays, 8:40am-12:00pm
Large Conference Room, 6th Floor

This course explores the archeological findings and history of divination in China from the 4th century BCE to 10th century CE. We will examine the subject matter from three perspectives: the material culture of the divination manuals, the technological details and traditions behind them, and the socio-intellectual context of the time. We will ask questions like: What led people to seek out divination? How did divination work and what technology went into it? What made a satisfactory answer? The class will move chronologically so that we have a clear understanding of the development of divination. Further, in-class discussions will also incorporate relevant discourse in the study of material culture, religious studies, science and technology studies, and studies of divination outside China. Although case studies in this course are mainly focused on China, we will also have in-depth discussions on divination in a trans-regional context. Students are encouraged to write the final research paper from a trans-regional or comparative perspective.

Reading Classical Chinese is recommended but not required.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Generating Antiquity: Artificial Intelligence for the Ancient World
Sebastian Heath and Patrick Burns
sebastian.heath@nyu.edu; patrick.j.burns@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3023-001
Wednesdays, 2:00-5:20pm

This course will be an open-ended exploration of the impact of recent advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (gAI) and their implications for research and teaching focussed on the Ancient World. That gAI tools can respond to prompts has proven to be a compelling form of human-computer interaction. The course pushes further, beginning with an introduction to how the underlying technologies of chatbots and image generation tools work and accordingly positioning students to be both critical and realistic about what these tools can do. All students will have the opportunity to engage with Large Language Models (LLMs) and Image Generation tools from a programmatic perspective using the Python programming language. We will also make use of NYU's infrastructure for High Performance Computing (HPC). There are no technical prerequisites for the course beyond a willingness to try the approaches introduced in class. We also welcome students with technical expertise who want to apply that to the Ancient World. Throughout the semester, students will be exposed to particular use-cases for gAI as well as to critical readings. The goal is not to promote gAI but rather to think about it: there are actual downsides and barriers - including cost, perpetuation of bias, threats to intellectual property, and environmental impact - and we will consider those alongside any potential benefits. Towards the end of the course students will undertake their own final project that should incorporate both hands-on work as well as informed critical discussion. We are open to projects that are predominantly written papers and to projects that are predominantly in the form of applied work, though again, all projects should exhibit an element of both. Creativity will be encouraged as a path to exploring to what extent the development of gAI tools might lead to fundamental change in scholarly practice. In addition to the final project, students will be expected to respond to the weekly readings and to complete smaller assignments - including coding assignments - throughout the term that allow them to build their familiarity and skills with gAI tools.

Students are expected to bring their own notebook computers to class.

Permission of the instructors is required.

Spring 2024: Other Courses

Intro Ancient Egyptian II
Niv Allon
Niv.Allon@metmuseum.org
ISAW-GA 1001-001
Fridays, 9:00am-12:20pm

This course, the second in a two-semester sequence, will introduce students to the Middle Egyptian (Classical) dialect of the ancient Egyptian language. Students will become familiar with the hieroglyphic writing system, as well as key elements of the grammar and vocabulary of Middle Egyptian.

Prerequisite: ISAW-GA 1000-001, “Intro to Ancient Egyptian I” (or equivalent coursework).

Permission of the instructor is required.

Advanced Akkadian: Oracles and Literary Prophecies
Beate Pongratz-Leisten
bpl2@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3018-001
Thursdays, 10:00am-1:20pm
Large Conference Room, 6th Floor

Permission of the instructor is required.

A Brief Introduction to Urartian Language
Annarita Bonfanti
ab11866@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3003-002
Fridays, 10:00am-12:30pm
Small Conference Room, 6th Floor

3 credits. This course will introduce the students to the study of Urartian language. The course will provide essential notions of Urartian grammar, followed by a discussion on specific topics associated with the Urartian state (art and iconography, religion and cult, architecture, conception of royalty), and related readings in Urartian language, when possible, directly from cuneiform. During the whole duration of the course, we will also focus on the problems related to the understanding of Urartian vocabulary and on the challenges faced by the scholars when translating the epigraphs.

Knowledge of cuneiform and permission of the instructor are required.

Fall 2024: Seminar on the Interconnected Ancient World

Pioneers and Pathfinders: Early Giants of Archaeology from Inner Asia to the British Isles
Daniel Potts
dtp2@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3030-001
Tuesdays, 2:00-5:00pm

This seminar will examine a series of scholars whose research opened up new domains of knowledge production in the study of ancient Eurasia. Whether through fieldwork, or armchair, methodological and theoretical innovation, the contributors to the fields in which we now work established new empirical foundations that remain relevant in the 21st century. Bio-bibliographical research by seminar participants will focus on one individual who made a seminal contribution to their field. Examples may include, but are not limited to, V. Gordon Childe, O.G.S. Crawford, Dorothy Garrod, Ernst Herzfeld, A.H. Layard, Albert von Le Coq, Sir John Marshall, Antoine Poidebard, Raphael Pumpelly, Heinrich Schliemann, Sir Marc Aurel Stein, C.J. Thomsen and Sir Mortimer Wheeler.

Prerequisites: none, but reading knowledge of French and/or German will be useful.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Fall 2024: Research Seminars

Roman Medicine
Claire Bubb
cc148@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3012-001
Tuesdays, 9am-12pm

This course will provide a deep survey of medicine as it was practiced in the Roman world in the first two centuries of the imperial period. We will spend considerable time with Galen, reading a variety of his treatises on both the theory and the application of medical treatment. We will also spend a significant amount of time looking at the wider world of medicine beyond Galen. Beginning with a survey of Italian medical traditions and the cultural tensions inherent in Greek medicine inhabiting a Roman world, we will also study the sectarian landscape of academic medicine, with particular attention to the Empiricists and the Methodists. Further topics to round out the picture will include pharmacology, the epigraphic and papyrological evidence for medicine and doctors, and the practices of religious healing and medical tourism.

Knowledge of Greek and Latin is recommended; permission of the instructor is required.

Art and Archaeology of the First Emperor: A Global Perspective
Lillian Tseng
lillian.tseng@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3012-002
Mondays, 2:00-5:00pm

Permission of the instructor is required.

Palace to Polis: An Archaeology of Early Greece
Antonis Kotsonas
ak7509@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3013-001
Wednesdays, 2:00-5:00pm

The seminar examines a range of discourses on political, social and economic history and material culture in the Aegean from the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Early Iron Age (14th to 7th centuries BCE). Although these two key periods of Aegean archaeology are typically treated separately, we will adopt an integrated approach to compare and contrast the textual and material culture of the palace-centered polities of the Late Bronze Age with the culture of the communities of the Early Iron Age, many of which became Archaic Greek poleis. Inspired by discussions over continuity and change, and over internal development and external influence, we will study: socio-political complexity, including its collapse and re-emergence; economy and trade; migration, colonization and the interaction of Aegean populations with communities in the Eastern and the Central Mediterranean; religion and cult practice; death, burial and the role of the past; script, literacy and the Homeric epic. Emphasis will be placed on the meaning of temporal and spatial variation in material culture and patterns of deposition, which is important for the seminar's aim of enriching and deconstructing the linear narrative embedded in the traditional concept of "Palace to Polis".

Permission of the instructor is required.

The Modern Reception of Greek and Roman Sculpture
Hallie Franks
hmf2@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3013-002
Mondays, 9:00am-12:00pm

In this class, we ask how modern narratives of ancient art history have been constructed, and how they have shaped both scholarly and popular ideas about ancient art. We focus on Greek and Roman sculpture, which has had a privileged place in the modern imagination of antiquity, and in art historical historiography. Our semester will be organized around particular moments of tension or debate, which may include: Johann Winckelmann's readings of ancient sculpture and reception of his work; the establishment of chronology and periodizations; how to understand ancient use of color and tinting in sculpture; claims to classicism in nationalist narratives; the creation, use, and dissemination of casts; the relationship of Greek sculpture to modern ideas of bodily and artistic beauty. Our study of these histories of interpretation and instrumentalization of ancient sculpture will lay groundwork for close study and productive rethinking of the ancient material.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Wealth, Inequality, Diversity: Political Archaeology of Ugarit
Lorenzo d'Alfonso
lda5@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3013-003
Wednesdays, 9:00am-12:00pm

Permission of the instructor is required.

Interactive and Physical Computing
Sebastian Heath
sh1933@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3023-001
Thursdays, 2:00-5:00pm

This course will bring together recent developments in 3D modeling, virtual environments such as game engines, machine learning, and generative artificial intelligence (gAI) in combination with inexpensive microcontrollers and sensors to allow students to create interactive environments that explore the concept of physical experience as it relates to the ancient world. Among the themes we explore will be the extent to which combinations of these tools and methods can evoke the lived experience of ancient people - in any culture - and allow for consideration of how ancient bodies interacted with spaces, objects, and environments (and with other bodies). Among the projects we will undertake will be creating apps that use machine learning to recognize pose and gesture and so consider how those were aspects of embodiment that were incorporated into ancient societies. This will likely segue into building online environments evoking interior and exterior spaces as well as landscapes using open-source game engines. We will find opportunities to integrate output from sensors and controllers - including ones we assemble ourselves using low-cost microcontrollers - into the virtual environments and other tools we create. Throughout the course we will look to take advantage of recent developments in generative AI, both as a means to add functionality to - and as an aid in developing - digital resources. The scope of this course will feel expansive at times, but students will have the opportunity throughout the term to focus on working results and then will be able to turn to a final project that builds on their growing level of technical skill. There are no technical prerequisites beyond a willingness to engage in active learning of new computational principles and methods and then to apply those to their own chosen field of study. Our work throughout the semester will be informed by readings that explore the relationship between digital approaches and the study of the ancient world from practical perspectives, theoretical perspectives, and from various disciplinary perspectives.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Fall 2024: Other Courses

Advanced Ancient Egyptian I
Marc LeBlanc
ml4878@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 1002-001
Fridays, 2:00-5:00pm

This course will focus on reading Middle Egyptian texts in a variety of genres. Special consideration will be given to the grammar of the texts, as well as the materiality and historical, cultural, and archaeological context.

Prerequisites: ISAW-GA 1000, "Intro to Ancient Egyptian I," and ISAW-GA 1001, "Intro to Ancient Egyptian II" (or equivalent coursework).

Permission of the instructor is required.

Arabic and Islam in Central Asia
Robert Hoyland
rgh2@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3003-001
Tuesdays, 2:00-5:00pm
Large Conference Room, 6th Floor

Four credits. Permission of the instructor and intermediate-level knowledge of Arabic are required.

Spring 2025: Seminar on the Interconnected Ancient World

The Interconnected Ancient World: 1-500 CE
Lillian Tseng and Sebastian Heath
lillian.tseng@nyu.edu; sebastian.heath@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3031-001
Tuesdays, 2:00-5:00pm

Permission of the instructors is required.

Spring 2025: Research Seminars

The Animal Across Disciplines in the Roman Mediterranean
Claire Bubb
cc148@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3012-001
Mondays, 2:00-5:00pm

Animals were integrated into many aspects of life in antiquity and have left their mark in the textual, material, and archaeological records. This class will focus on human interactions with animals in the Roman Mediterranean, offering a synthetic view of the different types of evidence available. With this goal in mind, the course will begin with sessions devoted to cattle, flock animals, and equids, respectively, each taking a holistic look at the animals in the historical record, including literary appearances, artistic representations, ancient technical writing, and zooarchaeological remains. Subsequent weeks will consider the more diverse groups of species (real and imagined) that fall under the heading of pets, exotic animals, and (quasi-)mythical animals, including the role that fossils may have played in the ancient zoological imaginary. The second half of the class will turn more directly to the study of human-animal interactions, covering the topics of the religious role of animals, hunting, diet, the scientific study of animals in antiquity, and literary and artistic deployments of animals.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Early Iron Age Complex Societies in Ancient Western Asia and the Emergence of the Scytho-Siberian Phenomenon
Sören Stark and Annarita Bonfanti
soeren.stark@nyu.edu; ab11866@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3012-002
Thursdays, 2:00-5:00pm

Permission of the instructors is required.

Antiquarians and Curators: Ancient Art Collecting and Displaying Practices
Roberta Casagrande-Kim and Maya Muratov
rck3@nyu.edu; mbm224@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3012-003
Thursdays, 9:00am-12:00pm

This course explores major issues pertinent to the collection, display, and curation of ancient art by offering a historical and contemporary perspective. Central topics will include history of collecting from Antiquity onwards and early history of museums, historical and contemporary issues of acquisition, development of cross-cultural thematic exhibitions, use of design and technology in contemporary modes of display, as well as audience development and engagement.

The seminar will alternate between lectures from both professors and meetings in ISAW's galleries and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Permission of the instructors is required.

Ancient Worlds and World Systems: Interaction, Interconnection and Comparison
Roderick Campbell
rbc2@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3013-001
Fridays, 2:00-5:00pm

The terms "interaction" and "interconnection" are much invoked in academic discourse (indeed are considered to be foundational to the mission of this Institute), but what do they actually mean? How have these terms been used in ancient studies and its multiple overlapping disciplines? What concepts do they entail and how do they relate to one another? How do they map across different disciplines and what sorts of historical subjects do they imagine? Is interconnection, for instance, in opposition to comparison or its complement? Should it be ancient "world", "worlds" or "world systems" and how does this conceptualization relate to the sort of relationality one chooses to embrace or the historical subject one chooses to imagine?

This course will engage diverse theories concerning interaction, interconnection and comparison in the past, exploring their theoretical assumptions, the modes of relationality they invoke and the various engagements with the past they imply. Readings will range across a number of disciplines and from foundational figures of historiography and social theory to recent developments. This seminar will be reading intensive.

Permission of the instructor is required.

Borderlands and Peripheries: Political Archaeology of the Liminal Regions of the Assyrian Empire (9th-7th cc. BCE)
Beate Pongratz-Leisten and Lorenzo d'Alfonso
lda5@nyu.edu; bpl2@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3018-001
Tuesdays, 9:00am-12:00pm

With its overwhelming military force, and an ideological and material apparatus the Assyrian empire features in the Old Testament, in the indigenous political narrative, and in the archaeological record as the most effective, powerful and visible political machine of ancient western Asia. Exactly because it has been so widely investigated, the Assyrian empire offers a unique case study for investigating processes of cultural interaction in non-core and border regions.

The seminar will first introduce theoretical literature on the theme of borders, group identity formation and cultural contact, with attention to the specific case of unbalanced political circumstances. It will then consider the study of the different non-core and border zones of the empire with their different histories and traditions (Babylon, Elam, the Zagros, Urartu, the post-Hittite canton states, Muški, the Syro-Hittite world, the Canaanite city-states, Israel and Judah) using the epigraphic and OT textual materials, but moving particularly from the evidence emerging from the archaeological record.

Permission of the instructors is required.

The Political Ecology of Urban Structures in Greater Mesopotamia: Theory, Evidence and Problems
Reed Goodman
rg4826@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3018-003
Wednesdays, 2:00-5:00pm

This seminar will explore the ecological underpinnings of urban institutions in Mesopotamia from the 4th through the 2nd millennia BCE. Despite the region's comparatively early transition from villages and towns to cities and city-states, Mesopotamia's urban record is often presented as a unified portrait of cultural continuity across vast scales of space and time, a palimpsest of archaeological, historical and ethnohistorical data. As a result, transformations in both material and symbolic processes are glossed over, lost to an urban gestalt that misses the dynamism of ancient Near Eastern cityscapes. To move beyond reductive concepts of urban form and organization, we will center our conversations around elements of process and change across case-studies, emphasizing shifts in subsistence-related artifactual assemblages, along with evolving expressions in text and image of scarcity and abundance, water and land. Theoretical readings will allow us to broaden the perspective from which we view urban institutions to better understand Mesopotamian cities as social and technical processes structured in and through landscapes. Ultimately, we will reflect on urban political power as "structural power," a term that the anthropologist Eric R. Wolf associated with the ability of institutions to redirect resource flows by manipulating the built environment. This approach will allow us to characterize the cultural and political ecology of a vast and heterogeneous geography stretching from southern Iraq and southwestern Iran to Syria and Turkey.

Permission of the instructor and reading knowledge of French and German are required.

Spring 2025: Other Courses

Advanced Ancient Egyptian II
Niv Allon
Niv.Allon@metmuseum.org
ISAW-GA 1003-001
Fridays, 9:00am-12:00pm

This course will focus on reading Middle Egyptian texts in a variety of genres. Special consideration will be given to the grammar of the texts, as well as the materiality and historical, cultural, and archaeological context.

Prerequisites: ISAW-GA 1000, "Intro to Ancient Egyptian I"; ISAW-GA 1001, "Intro to Ancient Egyptian II"; and ISAW-GA 1002, "Advanced Ancient Egyptian I" (or equivalent coursework).

Permission of the instructor is required.

Statistical Programming for Ancient World Study
Patrick Burns
pjb311@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3003-001
Mondays, 5:15-6:45pm
Large Conference Room, 6th Floor

This two-credit course introduces students to statistical programming in R with a focus on working with archaeological data, historical-language philological data, and other types of ancient-world data. The course uses Thulin's Modern Statistics with R: From wrangling and exploring data to inference and predictive modelling book, supplementing the examples used here with datasets directly relevant to ancient world study. Topics covered include data collection and transformation, exploratory data analysis and visualization, and basic introductions to regression models and predictive models, though the primary focus of the course will be instructing students on best practices for working with R for quantitative research. Weekly readings will supplement coding assignments with special topics related to the role of statistics in archaeology and philology. For the course's final project, students can either reproduce a quantitative analysis from their area of ancient world research or develop one of their own. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Permission of the instructor is required.

The Culture of Production in the Administrative and Literary Texts in Ancient Mesopotamia
Beate Pongratz-Leisten
bpl2@nyu.edu
ISAW-GA 3018-002
Thursdays, 10:00am-1:00pm
Large Conference Room, 6th Floor

Permission of the instructor is required.

Past Seminars