CLA 270 FROM ALEXANDER TO THE MACCABEES: THE MATERIAL WORLD OF ANCIENT PALESTINE

Ancient and modern Israel is a location of strife: political, religious, and ethnic. In this course, we will be focusing on the key literature and material remains from half a millennia (ca. 500 BCE-70 CE) that help us understand the lives and identities of the people living there: from Alexander the Great to Herod the Great and Jesus. We will also examine the role this region played in the larger narrative of the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman periods in the eastern Mediterranean. We will study the major sites that archaeologists have uncovered, the written accounts, and how this collection of evidence helps us understand life in the ancient world. Counts toward the Classical Studies minor.