From Aksum to Athens: African Antiquity (ARTHIST 278C, CLASSICS 278, CLASSICS 378A)

Located in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, the ancient city of Aksum is a site of cultural exchange and cosmopolitanism. In this course, students will learn more about Aksum's art, language, and history; they will also situate Aksum alongside Greece and Rome as another ancient empire focused on expansion. As the course title suggests, this course presents Aksum an important starting point ("from") from which inclusive studies of antiquity can emerge. By discarding the Greco-Roman hegemony of "antiquity," students will learn to make way for a plural model of the past.