The archaeology of empires

What it covers

Towards the beginning of the first millennium BCE the Assyrian state in northern Mesopotamia started to expand its borders. The military and economic ideology of conquest that motivated this expansion created a new kind of political entity - the empire. When the Assyrian Empire finally collapsed, its territory was quickly taken by the Babylonians and Medes, who in turn were conquered by the Persian Empire, which, after 200 years of dominion over a territory stretching from the Mediterranean to the mountains of Afghanistan, itself fell to the army of Alexander of Macedon and his generals. In this unit you will examine how the material culture recovered by archaeology - from the palaces, royal texts, and art of the elite to the houses and weapons of those they conquered - can tell us how these early empires extended their power to neighbouring communities, and how these communities adapted to, and sometimes resisted, the encroaching empires that surrounded them. You will explore how archaeology and ancient texts have been interpreted in the past and what new insights we might be able to gain by applying new models to this evidence. You will relate what we can find out about past empires to what we know about present political systems, and discover how the study of cultural heritage can bridge the gap between then and now.

Assessment

When and where