Studies in Ancient Civilisations and Religious Studies (WE 3)

• Zusätzliches Lehrangebot Altertumswissenschaften

  E16yA1.1
  • 13990 Basic Course
    Medicine in the Ancient World (Cale Johnson)
    Schedule: Di 12:00-14:00 (Class starts on: 2025-04-15)
    Location: Arnimallee 10, Raum 010
    

    Information for students

    For this course, please enrol via Campus Management. If this is not possible, enrol via the form "Modul-, Lehrveranstaltungs- und Prüfungsanmeldung" when you decide to take the course. You can find the form on the website of the Studienbüro Geschkult. Please submit this document to the Studienbüro within the same time frame you would have to enrol in your courses via Campus Management. The workload of the course equals: attendance 30 hours, preparation and wrap-up 90 hours, exam preparation and exam 120 hours. For a term paper you need to write 5000 words. By attending also the companion course “13991 - Ancient Medicine in Translation” the workload equals 450 hours. For questions regarding credits you will have to approach your BA- or MA advisor of your study program.

    Comments

    The course will survey the development of medicine in Mesopotamia, draw important parallels with contemporary Egyptian medical practice, and also look at the spread of originally Mesopotamian traditions into several Aramaic dialects. These materials and traditions represent the most important examples of disciplinary medicine prior to the advent of Greco-Roman medicine and we will also look at any possible links between these traditions and the Greco-Roman world. We will focus in particular on the emergence of technical literature in Mesopotamia, how technical compendia anchored specific disciplines and indoctrinated its would-be practitioners, and the specific pathways through which these materials were transmitted to other medical traditions. There is a companion reading seminar for those interested in reading some texts in translation.

  • 13991 Reading Course
    Ancient Medicine in Translation (Cale Johnson)
    Schedule: Do 14:00-16:00 (Class starts on: 2025-04-17)
    Location: Arnimallee 10, Raum 010
    

    Information for students

    For this course, please enrol via Campus Management. If this is not possible, enrol via the form "Modul-, Lehrveranstaltungs- und Prüfungsanmeldung" when you decide to take the course. You can find the form on the website of the Studienbüro Geschkult. Please submit this document to the Studienbüro within the same time frame you would have to enrol in your courses via Campus Management. The workload of the course equals: attendance 30 hours, preparation and wrap-up 180 hours, exam preparation and exam 120 hours. For a term paper you need to write 5000 words. By attending also the companion course “13990 - Ancient Medicine in Translation” the workload equals 450 hours. For questions regarding credits you will have to approach your BA- or MA advisor of your study program.

    Comments

    This course serves as both a discussion section for the lectures and secondary literature readings in “Medicine in the Ancient World” as well as the primary context in which we will read and discuss ancient texts in translation. Although these primary documents in translation will be in a number of different ancient genres, including diagnostic texts and therapeutics prescriptions, we will also look at letters, law codes and mythological texts that are relevant to ancient medicine. No knowledge of ancient languages or writing systems is required, although we will occasionally look at selected passages in transliteration and translation. The bulk of the class will, however, focus on texts in English translation. Students are strongly encouraged to take this course in combination with “Medicine in the Ancient World” as a single module. This course will be taught in English.

  • 13992 Seminar
    Text Assemblage Lab (Cale Johnson)
    Schedule: Mi 10:00-12:00 (Class starts on: 2025-04-16)
    Location: Arnimallee 10, Raum 010
    

    Additional information / Pre-requisites

    For this course, please enrol via Campus Management. If this is not possible, enrol via the form "Modul-, Lehrveranstaltungs- und Prüfungsanmeldung" when you decide to take the course. You can find the form on the website of the Studienbüro Geschkult. Please submit this document to the Studienbüro within the same time frame you would have to enrol in your courses via Campus Management. The workload of the course equals: attendance 30 hours, preparation and wrap-up 90 hours, and portfolio 120 hours. Together with the companion course LV 13995, the workload equals 300 hours. For questions regarding credits you will have to approach your BA- or MA advisor of your study program."

    Comments

    This course takes a step-by-step practical approach to assembling textual materials into a useful format or working environment. At the same time, the course will deal with thematic issues such as archives, filing systems, textual criticism, media studies and conceptual metaphor theory, based on weekly readings from different secondary literatures. The ideas from these materials will be dealt with informally in the active work of the lab, but the secondary literature will also be discussed separately in the Text Assemblage Colloquium, which will meet separately. We presuppose that each participant needs to have at least one year of an ancient semitic language before beginning the lab. Please contact the conductor of the course via wissensgeschichte@geschkult.fu-berlin.de. Ideally, participants in the course will develop their own dataset of open linked data that can, in turn, be used as the raw material for future work in digital humanities or programmatic approaches to philological data. Each term we will, depending on the participants, focus on a single type of textual artifact from a single time and place, so the course can be repeated.

  • 13993 Lecture
    Introduction to Astronomy and Astrology in the Ancient World (Antonius Ossendrijver)
    Schedule: Di 10:00-12:00 (Class starts on: 2025-04-15)
    Location: Arnimallee 10, Raum 010
    

    Information for students

    If it is not possible to enrol for this course via Campus Management, please enrol via the form "Modul-, Lehrveranstaltungs- und Prüfungsanmeldung" when you decided to take the course. Please submit this document to the Studienbüro within the same time frame you would have to enrol in your courses in Campus Management, namely within the first two or three weeks of the course. The workload of the course equals 240 hours: attendance 30 hours, preparation and wrap-up 90 hours, presentation and Hausarbeit (5000 words) 120 hours. For questions regarding credits you will have to approach your BA- or MA advisor of your study program.

    Comments

    The lecture introduces central topics from the astral sciences (astronomy, celestial divination, astrology, cosmology) of the ancient world with a focus on Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Greco-Roman world. Topics to be covered are methodological aspects of research on ancient astral science; the reconstruction of ancient practices and theories based on original sources.

  • 13994 Seminar
    Mythology from the Sumerians to the Presocratics I (Cale Johnson)
    Schedule: Do 10:00-12:00 (Class starts on: 2025-04-17)
    Location: Arnimallee 10, Raum 010
    

    Additional information / Pre-requisites

    For this course, please enrol via Campus Management. If this is not possible, enrol via the form "Modul-, Lehrveranstaltungs- und Prüfungsanmeldung" when you decide to take the course. You can find the form on the website of the Studienbüro Geschkult. Please submit this document to the Studienbüro within the same time frame you would have to enrol in your courses via Campus Management. The workload of the course equals: attendance 30 hours, preparation and wrap-up 90 hours, exam preparation and exam 120 hours. For a term paper you need to write 5000 words. By attending also the companion course in the next semester the workload equals 450 hours. For questions regarding credits you will have to approach your BA- or MA advisor of your study program."

    Comments

    This seminar looks at the broad history of written myth, ranging from southern Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC, through the Hurro-Hittite and Ugaritic myths, to their earliest manifestation in Greek myth. This course focuses in particular on how myths are transformed and reinterpreted as they pass from one culture or written tradition into the next, on the origins of commentary traditions in text and image, and on whether or to what extent modern theories of mythology can contribute to our understanding. Each seminar meeting will combine lecture, discussion and reading of ancient mythical sources in English translation. The course will be taught chronologically over two semesters, so students are strongly encouraged to take course both courses as part of a single module. This course will be taught in English, 2 hours per week.

  • 13995 Colloquium
    Text Assemblage Colloquium (Cale Johnson)
    Schedule: Mi 12:00-14:00 (Class starts on: 2025-04-16)
    Location: Arnimallee 10, Raum 010
    

    Additional information / Pre-requisites

    For this course, please enrol via Campus Management. If this is not possible, enrol via the form "Modul-, Lehrveranstaltungs- und Prüfungsanmeldung" when you decide to take the course. You can find the form on the website of the Studienbüro Geschkult. Please submit this document to the Studienbüro within the same time frame you would have to enrol in your courses via Campus Management. The workload of the course equals: attendance 15 hours, preparation and wrap-up 45 hours. Together with the companion course LV 13992, including portfolio, the workload equals: 300 hours. For questions regarding credits you will have to approach your BA- or MA advisor of your study program."

    Comments

    This course is meant as a discussion section and open forum for the secondary literature introduced in the LV 13992 “Text Assemblage Lab”. In addition, however, graduate and PhD students will also occasionally present their ongoing research and discuss its relevance for the topics dealt with in the Text Assemblage Lab and the Colloquium. All students enrolled in the Text Assemblage Lab are strongly encouraged to take the Colloquium as well, but graduate students without the necessary ancient language training are encourage to take the Colloquium alone. This course will meet for two hours every other week, hence 1 SWS total for the semester.

  • 14143 Advanced seminar
    Digital Humanities and Data Sustainability: A hands-on practical approach (Christian Dane Casey)
    Schedule: Di 14:00-16:00 (Class starts on: 2025-04-15)
    Location: 2.2063 Seminarraum (Fabeckstr. 23/25)
    

    Additional information / Pre-requisites

    English

    Comments

    In this course, we will learn about the available techniques for collecting and disseminating digital data for humanistic projects, with a special emphasis on sustainability. A common problem when working on academic projects is that funding provides only for the collection or creation of data, not their longterm preservation. But there are ways of designing around this problem and creating online resources that remain permanently free and accessible. In order to learn these techniques, we will build an online resource from the ground up and then make it available forever. Students will receive course credit for regular attendance in class and an academic citation for their work on the project.

    Suggested reading

    Casey, C. (2023) “Building Digital Projects to Outlive Their Funding”, Avar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Life and Society in the Ancient Near East . London, UK, 2(2), pp. 355–378. doi: 10.33182/aijls.v2i2.2835.