This course is an introductory survey of the urban centers of the ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian,
and Mediterranean worlds. In this course students will explore the development of urbanism in
these areas by studying the archaeological remains from the cities of ancient Mesopotamia,
Egypt, Greece, and Rome, from the Neolithic period until the foundation of Constantinople in
the fourth century A.D. The course will focus on comparing the characteristics of urbanism and
the archaeological evidence for urbanization in different cultures. Upon successful completion of
the course, students will be able both to define what constitutes a “city” in each of the cultural
contexts that we have studied and to identify the unique traits that each of the cultures studied
brings to the urban equation.