The Department researches the ancient societies of Northern Africa, the Mediterranean, and Western Asia and offers modules in Ancient Cultures, Biblical Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Latin and Classical Legal Culture. Our material covers Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia, the Levant (Syria, Jordan, Palestine/Israel), Anatolia (Turkey), Mesopotamia (Iraq), Persia (Iran), Greece and Rome. Our courses include languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew), material culture (architecture, archaeology, art), literature, historiography, philosophy, mythology, epic, drama and more. Our department is both research-driven and student-focused. We teach students how to critically engage with primary evidence and scholarship, to take a critical distance from their own context and use antiquity as a lens through which to think about modern issues and problems.
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