Course Catalog

Fertile Crescent: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization NEW!

Witness the birth of gods, agriculture, the wheel, and story. Then agriculture gave birth to astronomy, cities, writing, and mathematics; Then cities gave birth to priests, metalworking, bureaucrats, taxes, the military. Or perhaps astronomy gave birth to mathematics, or perhaps trade -- good old buying and selling -- gave birth to mathematics and to writing. This course will begin our story from the end of the Neolithic and the rise of the cities of Sumer and Akkad: Ur, Uruk, Eridu, then Nineveh and Mari. Assyria appears, only to give way to Babylon, who gives way back to Assyria, who gives way back to Babylon, who gives way to Persia. But by then, we’ve wandered outside the Western lineage. Of course, any lineage needs to include what really interests us, like sex, marriage & divorce, food (world’s oldest recipes), arts & crafts, and other daily stuff. We will meet Inanna / Ishtar, Marduk, Sargon, Gilgamesh, Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar (two of them), the world’s first known author (a woman), the world’s oldest story, the world’s oldest profession, and a (literally) star-studded cast of goddesses and gods, including table salt. About the Instructor: Douglas Kenning was conceived in Japan, born in California, raised in Virginia, and lived in many corners of the globe before finding home in Sicily. He received a doctor of philosophy from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and has been a biologist, actor, army officer, Manhattan taxi driver, academic administrator, university professor, tour guide, etc. He has published books, articles, and stage plays.

This class is not available at this time.

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