2023-24

The course introduces students to aspects and areas of the splendid civilization that Byzantium developed.  The course examines various matters, such as Byzantine society, daily life in city and countryside, state administration, philanthropy, education, the Church, monasticism and the refulgence cast by Byzantium over her neighbours.  It also offers an analysis of medieval Greek literature and intellectual culture.  It does not, however, deal with the various art forms that reached a peak in Byzantium (These matters are dealt with in detail in courses concerning Byzantine art).

The course deals with the life of Muhammad and his career as a religious, political and military leader (570-632). It examines the creation and the evolution of the first Islamic community, firstly in Mecca and later in Medina. Different aspects of pre-Islamic Arab society (religion, culture, economy, social stratification, racial organisation and others.) are analysed, as well as how they affected Islam and, in their turn, how they were affected by the new religion

The course examines the various forms of Greek folk handicraft, such as pottery, wood carving, copper working and the work of silver- and goldsmiths, weaving, painting and architecture. The course also examines folk theatre and the popular cinema, in terms of context, technique, subject and form and its products. Particular reference is made to traditional technology, to workshops and to their economic relations, to the social position of skilled workmen, product distribution networks and their contribution to the formation of popular taste.

The course forms an introduction to new methods of molecular biology, with emphasis on the study of ancient DNA, related both to archaeology and forensics. It also examines the basic principles of population genetics and its application to physical anthropology and archaeology. The course employs the study of the geographical distribution of the genetic traces of contemporary and prehistoric populations in an attempt to reconstruct their biological history. The course is accompanied by practical sessions in the Laboratory of Anthropology of the Department.