This site was developed as an open educational resource (OER) for the CUNY / Brooklyn College course, ARTD 3105 The Development of the Silk Road, taught by Professors Jennifer L. Ball and Shuming Lu.
Course Description: In 324CE, Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, creating what scholars now refer to as the Byzantine Empire. From 324 to 1453, the Byzantine Empire existed as a major power in the Mediterranean World. Its artists negotiated its Roman past with its Christian present, innovating new modes of depicting the world in art and architecture. In this class we will examine works from the early through late Byzantine periods, questioning Byzantine identity in the arts. Drawing from a wide geographic range, we will consider the Byzantine Empire as a site of cross-cultural interaction and exchange, and ask how art objects expressed the diversity and power of the Empire.
An exploration of the art and architecture of the Silk Road across Afro-Eurasia, from the Han Dynasty (2nd century BCE) until the spread of colonialism (17th century). Some discussion of the contemporary Silk Road will also be included. Subjects covered: the history of art, the rise and interaction of Islam and Buddhism, and the economic and diplomatic context that facilitated the development and expansion of the Silk Road, the Silk Road today.
Cultural and socio-political developments in the aftermath of Alexander’s conquests from western Anatolia to the Indus, including Egypt and the edges of Arabia. Focused regional studies, evincing the plurality of cross-cultural exchange. Broad surveys of developments in warfare, economy, the arts, myth, religion, and family structures, demonstrating common cross-regional developments. (Not open to students who have completed Core Curriculum 3209.)
A historical survey covering the Roman civil wars that led to the Principate (Imperial Period), Julio-Claudian Period and subsequent Dynasties, finishing with crises of the third century CE, the transformation into the divided Dominate (post 284 CE) and finally reunified and re invented under Constantine. The diversity of the Roman experience across its vast geographical territory, different ethnic and religious groups, and social hierarchies is emphasized. This course is the same as History 3024. Prerequisite: English 1 or permission of the chairperson.
John William White's First Greek Book was originally published in 1896. The book contains a guided curriculum built around the language and vocabulary of Xenophon’s Anabasis. This digital tutorial is an evolving edition that is designed to run on both traditional browsers, tablet devices, and phones. Each lesson includes drill and practice exercises in addition to the text itself. The site also includes tab-delimited files for all of the vocabulary and grammar that can be imported into flashcard programs.
For more information about the design of the tutorial, you can read an article that was published in Volume 107, Number 1, Fall 2013 of the journal Classical World on pages 111-117 or a presentation from the 2013 meeting of the Digital Classics Association. An article about the audiences and usage statistics for the tutorial entitled An Open Tutorial for Beginning Ancient Greek has been published in a volume of papers entitled Word, Space, Time: Digital Perspectives on the Classical World. edited by Gabriel Bodard & Matteo Romanello and published by Ubiquity Press.
You can use these pages to study Ancient Greek online. As you complete the drill and practice exercises in each chapter, you will earn drachmas to help track your progress. The exercises keep track of the questions you have missed and presents those to you more often. Information about your progress is stored in a cookie on your computer. You can clear all of this data on the settings page.
When you have successfully completed all of the exercises in a chapter, you will have ten drachmas. You will lose drachmas as time passes so you know when you need to review chapters again.
Survey of the social, cultural, and political development of western Europe between 500 and 1300. Topics include: the Germanic conquest of the ancient Mediterranean world; the Carolingian Renaissance; feudalism and the breakdown of political order; the crusades; the quality of religious life; the experience of women; and the emergence of a revitalized economy and culture in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
This course is an investigation of the Roman empire of Augustus, the Frankish empire of Charlemagne, and the English empire in the age of the Hundred Years War. Students examine different types of evidence, read across a variety of disciplines, and develop skills to identify continuities and changes in ancient and medieval societies. Each term this course is different, looking at different materials from a variety of domains to explore ancient and mideveal studies. This version is a capture of the course as it was taught in 2012, and does not reflect how it is taught currently.
Materials compiled for a Latin American Culture course on Caribbean society and culture. Seven units include: Pre-Colonial; Conquest and Genocide; Slaveholding System; Slavery & Capitalism; Caribbean Thinkers; Cold War & Development; Transnationalism and Diaspora.
A repository for the GC Classics Department to work towards a more diverse and inclusive environment while also engaging in the wider dialogue with the field and academics at large.
A repository for the GC Classics Department to work towards a more diverse and inclusive environment while also engaging in the wider dialogue with the field and academics at large.
This subject introduces the history of science from antiquity to the present. Students consider the impact of philosophy, art, magic, social structure, and folk knowledge on the development of what has come to be called "science" in the Western tradition, including those fields today designated as physics, biology, chemistry, medicine, astronomy and the mind sciences. Topics include concepts of matter, nature, motion, body, heavens, and mind as these have been shaped over the course of history. Students read original works by Aristotle, Vesalius, Newton, Lavoisier, Darwin, Freud, and Einstein, among others.
Aspects of the tragic as a mode of literature and a quality of lived experience pursued in readings that extend from the warfare of the ancient world to the experiences of modern life. Authors include Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Shakespeare, Balzac, Tolstoy, Ibsen, Conrad, Dinesen, Faulkner, and Camus. Includes viewing of at least two films. "Tragedy" is a name originally applied to a particular kind of dramatic art and subsequently to other literary forms; it has also been applied to particular events, often implying thereby a particular view of life. Throughout the history of Western literature it has sustained this double reference. Uniquely and insistently, the realm of the tragic encompasses both literature and life. Through careful, critical reading of literary texts, this subject will examine three aspects of the tragic experience: The scapegoat; The tragic hero; The ethical crisis. These aspects of the tragic will be pursued in readings that range in the reference of their materials from the warfare of the ancient world to the experience of the modern extermination camps.
World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500 offers a comprehensive introduction to the history of humankind from prehistory to 1500. Authored by six USG faculty members with advance degrees in History, this textbook offers up-to-date original scholarship. It covers such cultures, states, and societies as Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel, Dynastic Egypt, India’s Classical Age, the Dynasties of China, Archaic Greece, the Roman Empire, Islam, Medieval Africa, the Americas, and the Khanates of Central Asia.
It includes 350 high-quality images and maps, chronologies, and learning questions to help guide student learning. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding their educational experience beyond the textbook. It provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making World History an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.