HNAA10152U Women in the Ancient World (3rd to 1st millennia BCE).

Volume 2014/2015
Education
Udbydes efter studieordning for tilvalgsstudiet på BA-niveau i Nærorientalsk arkæologi, 2007-ordningen eller

Master’s Programmes in Ancient and Medieval Near Eastern Studies the 2008
Content

In recent decades,  the study of the role of women in ancient societies, a topic for a long neglected by historians and archaeologists, has developed into a rich discussion on the visibility of women and their agency in the societies of ancient civilizations. Nevertheless, although the spread of gender studies has had a considerable impact on ancient history and archaeological research, theoretical approaches on the role of women and the female gender have been in their infancy in various disciplines, resulting in overviews simply aimed at identifying women in ancient sources or in applying theoretical models stemming from assumptions on given socio-economic and cultural contexts in other cultures.

The primary goal of this interdisciplinary-based course, which is the result of  a collaboration between the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research at the SAXO Institute and the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies (TORS), is to expose students to the direct sources of a textual, iconographical, and archaeological nature which may enable scholars to reconstruct women’s daily lives and activities under  socio-economic, political, and religious perspectives. The second goal constitutes the acquisition of a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives in the analysis of female agency in different human activities, for example, in the realm of textile production and consumption.

This course will examine current archaeological, historical and philological international research into women and their roles in ancient societies from the third to the first millennium BCE from different geographical and cultural areas of the ancient world. The world of women in the Aegean, Egypt and the Near East (specifically focused on Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran) will be explored as regarding women’s activities in different contexts (palace and domestic contexts; elite and non-elite social milieux; economics, politics and religion), and according to different and complementary methodological approaches involving literary studies, history, archaeology, and history of religions.

Its aims are to analyse and discuss with the students the main sources for the reconstruction of the daily life of women in past societies, to develop a critical approach to the ideologically-oriented description of women in written sources, and to promote a theoretical discussion on female gender in the ancient societies in question and in other cultural contexts as well.

The course presents the current research and results of  some of Europe’s foremost scholars working at  or collaborating with the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research, an interdisciplinary centre of excellence located at the Saxo Institute. e The archaeologists, historians and philologists from a range of countries, collaborating as guest lecturers in this course are e.g.

  • Dr. Joanne Cutler: Women in the Minoan World: Archaeological, Iconographic, and extual Perspectives.
  • Dr. Małgorzata Siennicka: Aegean Women – An Archaeological Approach.
  • Dr. Hedvig Landenius Enegren: Women in First Millennium BCE Cyprus.
  • Dr. Giovanni Fanfani: Women in Greek Lterature: An Overview on Genres, Cultic Implications and Socio-politic Contexts.
  • Dr. Salvatore Gaspa: Women in theAssyrian      Empire: Women in the Economy, Politics, and Daily life of the First World      Empire.
  • Dr. Berit Hildebrandt: Women in the Epics of Homer.
  • Dr. Cécile Michel: Women’s Voices: Assyrian Merchants’ Wives and Daughters at the Beginning of the 2nd Millennium BCE.
  • Dr. Miguel-Ángel Andrés Toledo: Righteous Women and Whores in      Zoroastrian Sources.
  • Dr. Benedetta Bellucci / Dr. Matteo Vigo: Spinning Fate.The Alleged Role of the Hittite Women in Lifecycle: Texts and      Contexts.
  • Dr. Susanne Kerner: Women in 3rd mill Mesopotamia, their Role in Politics      and Economics.
  • Dr Rachael J Dann: Women in Ancient Egypt.

Course objectives:

The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the female world and of female gender-based aspects in the economies, cultures, politics, and religions of the ancient world. It will enable students specifically to:

  • Understand the role of women in ancient societies of the Aegean, Anatolian, Mesopotamian, and Iranian areas ineconomy, politics, culture, and religion.
  • Acquire a critical approach to ideologically-oriented written sources depicting women and an nterdisciplinary approach combining archaeological, iconographical, and textual sources in the analysis of female agency in past civilizations.
Learning Outcome

BA 2007-tilvalgsordning:
Kronologiske, regionale og temaorienterede studier (fagelementkode HNAB10151E)

KA 2008-ordning:
Branch Studies (Grenvalg) HNAK03231E, HNAK03241E, HNAK03251E, HNAK03281E

please note that these books are available in the university libraries in the Royal Library).

 S.L. James & S. Dillon (eds.), A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, Wiley, Hoboken (2012).

M.W. Chavalas (ed.), Women in the Ancient Near East: A Sourcebook, Routledge, London-New York (2014) (especially chapters nos. 1, 6, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b, 11).

M.L.S. Sørensen, Gender Archaeology, Polity Press (2000).

K. Hays-Gilpin & D.S. Whitley (eds.), Reader in Gender Archaeology (1998).

D. Bolger, Gender through time in the Ancient Near East, Altamira (2008).

 Further bibliography will be provided on the first day of the course and via ABSALON.

Being able to read English, French and German.
The course will comprise a number of lectures given by scholars both of the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies and the SAXO institute (CTR) which will further enrich the discussion with various historical/​archaeological contexts and methodological approaches.
Students have to prepare a group presentation.
Each lecture will include an introductory part illustrating the state of the art of the research on women and female gender studies in the scholarly sector in question. Given the interdisciplinary profile of the course and the variety of languages and scripts of the written sources involved, the ancient texts mentioning women will be presented and discussed in translation under the guidance of the lecturer. The course will thus enable the students to approach texts stemming from various geographical and cultural regions of the ancient world without having to learn the different writing systems and the main epigraphical and philological problems connected to these languages and texts, although key-concepts of these ancient scripts (e.g. Hittite and Akkadian cuneiform script, Avestan) and textual corpora will be briefly introduced in the lectures.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 40
  • Lectures
  • 28
  • Preparation
  • 344,5
  • Total
  • 412,5
Credit
15 ECTS
Type of assessment
Other
Criteria for exam assesment