Duration: 18 hours 40 minsCourse Lecture TitlesArchaeologys Big BangOde on a Grecian UrnA Quest for the Trojan WarHow to DigFirst Find Your SiteTaking the Search Underwater Cracking the CodesTechniques for Successful DatingReconstructing Vanished EnvironmentsNot Artifacts but PeopleArchaeology by ExperimentReturn to VesuviusGourniaHarriet Boyd and the Mother GoddessTheraA Bronze Age Atlantis?OlympiaGames and GodsAthenss AgoraWhere Socrates WalkedDelphiQuestioning the OracleKyreniaLost Ship of the Hellenistic AgeRiaceWarriors from the SeaRomeFoundation Myths and ArchaeologyCaesarea MaritimaA Roman City in JudeaTeutoburgBattlefield ArchaeologyBathHealing Waters at Aquae SulisTorre de PalmaA Farm in the Far WestRoots of Classical CultureThe Texture of Everyday LifeTheir Daily BreadVoyaging on a Dark Sea of WineShows and CircusesRomes Virtual RealityEngineering and TechnologySlavesA Silent Majority?Women of Greece and RomeHadrianMark of the IndividualCrucible of New FaithsThe End of the WorldA Coroners ReportA Bridge across the Torrent

    Course Lecture Titles - (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture) 1. Theseus 2. Achilles and Agamemnon 3. Hector 4. Odysseus 5. Lycurgus 6. Solon 7. Croesus 8. Xerxes 9. Leonidas 10. Themistocles 11. Pausanias 12. Pericles 13. Anaxagoras, Phidias, and Aspasia 14. Sophocles 15. Thucydides 16. Alcibiades 17. Nicias 18. Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War 19. Lysander and Socrates 20. The Trial of Socrates 21. Xenophon, Plato and Philip 22. Alexander the Great 23. Pyrrhus 24. Cleopatra

    2353Taught by Elizabeth VandiverWhitman CollegePh.D., The University of Texas at Austin

    But what were ancient battles really like? What weapons, tactics, armor, training, and logistics were used? And what were the crucial factors that could turn the tide of battle, giving one side victory and consigning the other to slaughter, capture, or, at best, escape to fight another day?A professor of classics and history at The Pennsylvania State University and the teacher of our immensely popular course, The History of Ancient Rome, Dr. Garrett G. Fagan has devoted extensive study to ancient warfare. In these 24 lectures he takes you into the thick of combat in some of the most notable battles fought in the Mediterranean region from prehistoric times to the 4th century A.D.

    general Norman Schwarzkopf. But who was this great king of Macedon? And why is he so legendary?Go beyond the myth and learn about the man who changed the face of the ancient world and laid the foundation for the great traditions of the Roman Empire - all in fewer than 12 years. These 36 spellbinding lectures take you deep inside the world of Alexander to witness the astonishing feats of military genius that made his name renowned for millennia after his death.Through this detailed portrait, you'll go beyond the legends and the myths to truly understand what made Alexander great. Along the way, several Alexanders emerge: the military general, Macedonian king, Persian emperor, Egyptian pharaoh, and leader of the Hellenic League. You learn about the many aspects of this extraordinary individual - his passions, extraordinary talents, and the training that helped mold his character. You'll learn how battles were fought and won in the ancient world and examine Alexander's great martial achievements within this larger military history. You'll also head onto the battlefield to analyze some of Alexander's Average triumphs, including the Battle of the Granicus River and the Battle of the Hydaspes River.Alexander's empire did not survive beyond his lifetime, but his legacy has cast a long shadow on the history of the West. Join Professor Harl for this journey into the world of Alexander and see how the Western world - and, indeed, our world - still bear the marks of this legendary conqueror.

    Over the course of 36 insightful lectures, you'll follow the Egyptians, the Mycenaean Greeks, the Persians, the Carthaginians, and others as they rise to glory, create administrative and military structures, clash with one another, and eventually collapse.Professor Dise immerses you in the political, administrative, and military details of these thrilling civilizations, analyzing three basic questions: How did this particular empire emerge? How was it governed and defended? How and why did it ultimately fall? These questions raise a host of profound issues on the growth, development, and failures of vast imperial systems.Grounded in a chronological approach, you'll find no better guide through the palatial halls, administrative offices, and war-torn battlefields of these empires than Professor Dise. Each lecture is packed with a range of rich sources on which our current understanding of the ancient Near East rests, including cuneiform tablets, colorful narratives, and archaeological remains.As you comb through these intriguing records, you quickly become more informed about how the past is recorded and passed down to subsequent generations. Spanning thousands of years of human history and encompassing regions both familiar and forgotten, this course is a remarkable tour through the farthest reaches of the ancient world - in all its marvelous diversity.

    Most scholars are historians of either Greek or Roman history and perform research solely in that specific field, an approach that author and award-winning Professor Robert Garland considers questionable.In these 36 passionate lectures, he provides an impressive and rare opportunity to understand the two dominant cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world in relation to one another - a relationship that has virtually no parallel in world history. He shows you how these two very different cultures intersected, coincided, and at times, collided.You'll discover the extraordinary culture that we call Greco-Roman: a unique fusion of civilizations that encompasses statecraft, mythology, language, philosophy, fine arts, architecture, science, and much else. Who were the Greeks and the Romans? How did they organize their societies? How did they interact?In this unique integrated historical approach, you'll see how Greece and Rome's relationship resembled a marriage: two distinct personalities competing in some areas, sharing in others, and sometimes creating a new synthesis of the two civilizations. And you'll consider their more substantive cultural differences, including religion, their views of foreigners, and their ways of thinking.You'll delight in the variety of sources - literature, archaeology, the visual arts, coinage, inscriptions - that Professor Garland draws upon to assemble a fascinating and complex picture of these two great civilizations. And you'll appreciate how he keeps Greece and Rome focused on how this material affects us today.

    You also study what it was like to live in the late antique world: How did people earn their livings?What was the role of women in society? What distinguished the great cities of the era?Nothing in Rome's previous experience compared with the ferment of late antiquity, which saw the unpredictable growth of new institutions, states, religions, and arts. After taking this course you will never think of the barbarians and the "fall" of Rome in quite the same way again. Your imagination will be alive with the incidents, innovations, and peoples of an exciting era that gave birth to us all: late antiquity.

    Every night we surrender it gratefully, only to get it back in the morning. We recognize that we have it, but we can never be sure anyone else does. Consciousness, this unique and perplexing mental state, has been the subject of debate for philosophers and scientists for millennia. And while it is widely agreed within contemporary philosophy that consciousness is a problem whose solutions are likely to determine the fate of any number of other problems, there is no settled position on the ultimate nature of consciousness.What is the most promising way to study this subject? What are the implications that arise from the fact that we have consciousness? What are the ethical and moral issues raised by its presence—or its absence? Questions like these are at the heart of Consciousness and Its Implications, 12 thought-provoking lectures delivered by distinguished philosopher and psychologist Daniel N. Robinson. Rather than merely explain away consciousness, or hide behind such convenient slogans as "it's all in your brain," Professor Robinson reviews some of the special problems that philosophers, psychologists, scientists, and doctors face when taking on such a vexing topic.What Is Consciousness? Much of what we do every day is done without our being directly conscious of the steps taken to complete the task: riding a bicycle, taking a walk, humming a tune. But as natural as this state is, it stands as a very serious threat to any number of core convictions and assumptions in both philosophy and science. One of the overarching goals of this intriguing course is to make clear just what about consciousness serves as such a challenge to these convictions and assumptions.But what makes Consciousness and Its Implications so engaging is more than just the nature of the questions it poses and the issues it tackles. It's the way in which Professor Robinson, the consummate teacher and scholar, conveys this goal in four main points, each of which you explore in depth in these lectures.Consciousness seems to require, for its full understanding, a science not yet available. What distinguishes consciousness from all else is its phenomenology—that is, the act of being conscious is different from all other facts of nature. Conscious awareness is a power that, at times, can be so strong as to greatly affect our senses. The powers of consciousness vary over the course of a lifetime; as such, they can become subject to disease and defect.Throughout the course, Professor Robinson brings this riveting topic vividly to life with real-world examples and striking anecdotes. Review the case of Deep Blue, the IBM computer that in 1997 shocked the world by defeating a human, the chess grand master Garry Kasparov. Does Deep Blue's ability to "outsmart" a human being constitute a kind of consciousness? Or is it a reflection of the human minds that created this complex computer? Consider the case of the sleepwalker, who moves around with purpose and mimics behaviors we see in everyday life, but can remember nothing upon awakening. How does this mental state relate to human consciousness? What would be lost if we lived our entire lives as sleepwalkers?Study the case of a comatose patient who lives in an unbroken sleep state but, after a miraculous recovery, recalls having heard doctors speak about her. How do we interpret this patient's ability to perceive the surrounding world while in a coma? Does the patient's experience reflect some in-between mental state we've yet to define? Look at the case of a child with autism who can perform complicated mental tasks but lacks the most basic human attribute: empathy. How does this inability to imagine other minds affect the child's capacity to enjoy the full experience of human consciousness? Using compelling examples such as these, Professor Robinson weaves a riveting tale of the human condition that will change the way you think about your own mind.Professor Robinson also draws on the wisdom of the world's greatest thinkers—from the ancient Greeks to today's top scientists—to shed light on some of the ethical debates involved in any examination of consciousness. These include John Locke, whose famous "Prince and the Cobbler" hypothesis raised questions about the relationship between one's personal identity and one's body; Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose "Beetle in a Box" scenario holds implications for how we define consciousness both inside and outside ourselves; and Aristotle, who led a pointed discussion on the relationship between the physical world and what he referred to as "real being."You also enter the lab and explore the impact of modern physics and medicine on our understanding of the self. Pondering questions ranging from the most fundamental—"Why are we here?"—to contemporary quandaries about artificial intelligence and the medical decision to prolong life, you'll gain new insights into the complexity of how great minds define consciousness.Consciousness and Its Implications is a chance for you to view this deep and profound subject from all angles. A distinguished scholar in philosophy and neuropsychology, Professor Robinson incorporates many disciplines—psychology, physics, philosophy, medicine—to explore these abiding questions. So embark on a challenging and wholly satisfying exploration of this unique, mysterious, and essential mental faculty. The knowledge you'll gain in this course is not only intriguing—it is crucial to understanding the nature of humanity and the social and ethical obligations that define us all.

    24 Lectures / 30 minutes per lecture.1. Why the Middle Ages?2. Demography and the Commercial Revolution3. Those Who Fought—The Nobles4. The Chivalric Code5. Feudalism6. Those Who Worked—The Peasants7. Those Who Worked—The Townspeople8. Women in Medieval Society9. Those Who Prayed—The Monks10. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Movement11. Heretics and Heresy12. The Medieval Inquisitions13. Jews and Christians14. The Origins of Scholasticism15. Aquinas and the Problem of Aristotle16. The First Universities17. The People's Crusade18. The Conquest of Jerusalem19. The Norman Conquest20. Philip II of France21. Magna Carta22. Empire versus Papacy23. Emperor Frederick II24. Looking Back, Looking Forward

    In this fascinating series of 36 lectures, an award-winning teacher leads you on a vivid journey through Mesopotamian history-from Neolithic times to the age of Alexander the Great-and into the lives of mighty emperors, struggling farmers, ambitious merchants, and palace servants to reveal why this ancient culture occupies such a foundational position in our history.The lectures look back to the time when the first cities arose in Mesopotamia and kings created complex bureaucracies to rule their expanding territories, thus fostering the invention of writing and other technologies. You peer into the lives and fortunes of Mesopotamia's people and learn about the birth of the urban lifestyle.Professor Castor creates a detailed image not only of larger Mesopotamian society but of life on the level of the individual Mesopotamian as well. Among the many fascinating insights into daily Mesopotamian life you examine are how they ate, worked, learned, worshiped, married, and reared children; used scientific ideas to help them order and understand the natural world; engaged with their powerful neighbors in Egypt, Syria, and Anatolia (modern-day Turkey); waged war and experienced peace; and endured the collapse of their cities.

    It lasted 3,000 years, longer than any other on the planet. Its Great Pyramid of Cheops was the tallest building in the world until well into the 19th century and remains the only Ancient Wonder still standing. And it was the most technologically advanced of the ancient civilizations, with the medical knowledge that made Egyptian physicians the most famous in the world.Yet even after deciphering its hieroglyphs, and marveling at its scarabs, mummies, obelisks, and sphinxes, Egyptian civilization remains one of history's most mysterious, as "other" as it is extraordinary. This chronological survey presents the complete history of ancient Egypt's three great Kingdoms: the Old Kingdom, when the pyramids were built and Egypt became a nation under the supreme rule of the pharaoh and the rules of Egyptian art were established; the Middle Kingdom, when Egypt was a nation fighting to restore its greatness; and the New Kingdom, when all the names we know today-Hatshepsut, Tutankhamen, Ramses the Great, Cleopatra, and others-first appeared.Listening Length: 24 hours and 25 minutes

    Eakin of Vanderbilt University argues that it gave birth to the distinct identity of the Americas today by creating a collision between three distinct peoples and cultures: European, African, and Native American. (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)

    One such change was the Agricultural Revolution, with the domestication of plants and animals and a shift in survival strategies from hunting and gathering to farming and animal husbandry. Simultaneous with that was the Urban Revolution, the founding of cities. We discuss the current thinking on these revolutions in human existence and their relationship. Much of that discussion takes place in the context of the earliest city, ?atalh?y?k, and a second Neolithic foundation, Jericho. Both of these also provide material to explore the role of religion in the very earliest communities, to ask its role in city formation, and to explore the place of religious structures in city identity. Burial practices at the two cities also illuminate early ideas of property ownership and the definition of the family home.In the Bronze Age, cities grew most rapidly in civilizations founded in the great river valleys, from the Nile in Egypt, to the Euphrates in Mesopotamia, to the Indus in modern Pakistan and India. In these cities made of mud, we can trace elements of domestic life and civic spaces. Three of the cities, Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley and Kahun and Deir el-Medina in Egypt, have no recognizable public buildings. Yet the reasons for that negative evidence for civic life differ wildly, as do the structures of these societies. At Deir el-Medina, we encounter some of the oldest conclusive evidence for private enterprise in an ancient city. We also begin to see how social organization is reflected in city formation. The Sumerian city of Uruk, the first megacity in world history, provides the model for the monumentalization of religious structures and their integration in the civic space and government of the city. Finally, in the last of the Bronze Age mud-brick cities we will discuss, Amarna in Egypt, we are able to analyze city design as a deliberate means of changing the social structure of Egyptian society. This revolutionary city takes the lessons of Uruk on religion in the service of the state and develops them to reinforce the rule of the pharaoh, Akhenaten. Here, we also introduce the concept of the house as both an economic unit and a domestic space, an important indicator of the role of the house in the ancient city that we examine in Akrotiri, Athens, and Olynthus.In the four Mediterranean Bronze Age cities of Knossos, Akrotiri, Mycenae, and Tiryns, regular stone architecture makes an appearance. These cities, although they arise from different cultures, share some characteristics in common; we will discuss the idea and mechanisms of the spread of culture across the eastern Mediterranean. The theme of the role of religion continues to be an important one, and the size and placement of religious structures and their consequent meanings are debated with material from Knossos, Akrotiri, and Mycenae and comparisons back to ?atalh?y?k. Mycenae and Tiryns are contrasted with Uruk in their dedication of the high ground in the community, not to the gods, but to the king in the placement of his palace complex. This represents a heretofore unprecedented shift in the focus of urban design.Throughout the Neolithic and Bronze ages, it is possible to point out changes in urban forms, but the notion of “progress” in urban design?that is, reactions to what had come immediately before?is only truly visible with the multiple Greek foundations. We will examine a series of Greek cities?beginning with Athens in the 5th century B.C.; followed by Miletus, Olynthus, and Alexandria; and culminating at Pergamon?to illustrate what can be seen as progress in urban design. Athens in the 5th century has interesting correspondences to Uruk and Amarna. But at Miletus, a dramatic change in Greek urban design, Hippodamian planning, was invented and came to dominate the layout of many Greek and Roman cities with its variation of orthogonal planning. Inevitably, a new model of city design emerged that was anti-Hippodamian; the reasons for that are explored in one of the best examples of it, Pergamon.The examination of a number of Roman cities introduces in detail the issues of the benefits and challenges of urban life, particularly in the city of Rome itself. We also see remarkable variations in urban life in the Roman Empire, from Ostia in Italy to Karanis in Egypt. Rather than the standardized experience one might expect, we see regional variation and cultural identities that differ dramatically even across Roman North Africa.Finally, the last great city foundation of antiquity, Constantinople, encourages us to look backwards and chart its influences from the past and to look forward to its role as the model for the Middle Ages.

    Gladstone. Disraeli. Dickens. Meet the pioneering, paradoxical Britons of the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). Through peaceful and gradual change they built one of the world's first industrial democracies—in a class-bound society with a powerful landed aristocracy and a negative view of business. They gloried in a globe-spanning and relatively humanely run empire—even as it distracted them from underlying economic weaknesses that presaged Britain's 20th-century decline. They were also intensely sentimental—yet ignored extreme squalor and hardship in their midst.Consider these other apparent contradictions:They became history's first campaigners against slavery and pursued a host of reformist, often religiously inspired causes with zeal and vision—yet tolerated child labor and the Opium War.They were quick to exploit new technologies, including the steam engine, cast-iron construction, and gas lighting—yet lost their economic leadership to Germany and America.The Victorians created the cityscape of modern Britain—visible today except for what was destroyed by bombing in World War II—while consciously trying to re-create earlier styles.They faced rapid and sweeping scientific, historical, and technological shifts—yet avoided massive upheavals that tore at other European and Atlantic societies in their day.And in their trademark style, the Victorians even reformed cricket, turning it from a riotous diversion for hard drinkers and gamblers into a byword for flannel-clad decency and goodhearted fair play that crossed class lines and brought together the best features of democracy and aristocracy.Victorian Britain: Strengths and FoiblesThis course is a chronological journey into the Victorian story with all its strengths and foibles and invites you to reflect on its lessons both positive and negative.You move from the unexpected ascension to the throne of teenaged Princess Victoria in 1837 to her death in 1901 as the Boer War neared its end.You learn about the lives of Victorian women; the situation facing working people and the rise of trade unionism; Victorian achievements in art, literature, architecture, and music; and what Leonard Woolf called "the seriousness of games" and of leisure-time activities as windows on Victorian life.You discuss the important role played by Christianity as a force for both principled adherence to tradition and principled pursuit of change; and the influence of science and the debates over its impact that animated the Victorians.You learn what the Victorians believed about education; the questions raised by Britain's rule over its Empire, the problems of poverty and crime; the discoveries of Victorian explorers in Africa; and more.All in all, you will find it a remarkable tour of a remarkable age. And one of the highlights of it, as Professor Patrick N. Allitt explains, is something that never happened.The Dog That Did Not BarkArthur Conan Doyle's stories about Sherlock Holmes are among the best-loved literary legacies from the Victorian age. In one of them, "Silver Blaze" (first published in London's Strand magazine in December 1892), a crucial piece of evidence is something that did not happen—what Holmes calls "the curious incident" of the dog that did not bark.In Britain there was nothing like the French Revolution, the revolutions of 1848, the Paris Commune, the Italian and German wars of unification, or the American Civil War.Understanding how the British and their institutions managed peacefully to accommodate and manage the currents of change is one of the main themes in this course.And the change was vast. With the culmination of the Industrial Revolution, Britain had gone decisively from being a mostly rural and agricultural society to being a land of large industrial cities.Much of the credit, Professor Allitt argues, goes to able leaders.Gladstone and Disraeli"The first was Victoria herself," he says, "who came to the throne at a time when the monarchy was at a low ebb thanks to the foibles and derelictions of her predecessors. Her example of probity and assurance helped make the monarchy a symbol of stability and national unity that served Britain well. Therefore, the age deserves to be named after her for more than accidental reasons."But above all were the two great prime ministers, the Liberal William Gladstone (1809-1898) and the Conservative Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881). Between them they dominated the political landscape and played crucial roles in helping Britain absorb and creatively adapt to the massive changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution and the rise of democracy.Each in his own way was a remarkable character, and their clashes and collaborations (whether overt or tacit) are justifiably the stuff of legend.Victorian FirstsVictorian Britain was the first society to:go from majority illiterate to near-universal basic literacyabolish public executions, in 1868offer free universal public schooling, beginning with Prime Minister William Gladstone's Education Act of 1870build railroads, steam-powered mills, and iron-hulled shipscreate a public building lit by electric lights (the Savoy Theatre in London, custom-built for Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta productions in 1881).British doctors such as Sir Joseph Lister were early advocates of such innovations as anesthesia and sterile procedure, while Florence Nightingale essentially invented modern nursing during the Crimean War.British engineers and architects were the first to build with cast iron and plate glass, creating such magnificent structures as Scotland's Firth of Forth railroad bridge (still standing) and London's Crystal Palace.A Chorus of Victorian VoicesOne of the joys—and for professional historians, challenges—of studying Victorian history is the sheer wealth of sources. It was a literate age, and one of the first societies in which statistics were systematically collected, analyzed, and reported on.Queen Victoria herself was a faithful diarist and kept up a huge and lively correspondence. Among the highlights quoted in these lectures are the 21-year-old queen's excited and warmly amorous impressions of her husband-to-be Prince Albert, her contrasting thoughts about Gladstone and Disraeli, and her touching and revealing letter of condolence to Mary Todd Lincoln, written only a few years after Victoria herself had been suddenly and tragically widowed—and from which she never recovered.A Wealth of Information from a Well-Documented EraProfessor Allitt also cites:Disraeli's tart opinion of Gladstone, as well as a letter of Disraeli's to the queen that stands as a minor masterpiece of artful flattery (no wonder she liked him best)Gladstone's explanation of why he, as a devout Christian, favored the controversial step of seating an atheist member of Parliamenta clergyman's hilarious parody of the turgid prose of "social Darwinist" Herbert SpencerWinston Churchill's description of what he experienced during the last full-dress cavalry charge in British military history at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898recollections of affairs by the unknown author of My Secret Life, an 11-volume memoir of one middle-class man's travels through the sexual underworlda Lancashire housemaid's remembrance of what Christmas was like for servantsa reforming journalist's heartrending account of hardship and deprivation among poor children in Londonan Evangelical reformer's horrified account of the boisterous, alcohol-soaked festivities surrounding village holidays.The End of an EraWhen Queen Victoria died in 1901, she left behind a nation indelibly marked by the Victorian legacy, for good and for ill.