Reading Homer as an anthropologist

What happens when you stop thinking of the Iliad as a work of fiction but instead see it as a primary text to help explain an ancient society?
That’s what archaeologist Tara Carter does in lecture 21 and lecture 22 of her great UC San Diego course Prehistory and the Birth of Civilization (feed).
She presents the [...]

Why we stopped foraging and started farming

The invention of agriculture was probably the most important change in human history but scholars argue about why it happened, and propose three main conflicting theories.
These theories, and the difficulties in domesticating plants and animals are the subjects of lectures 14 and 15 in UCSD anthropologist Tara Carter’s great course, Prehistory and the Birth of [...]

Archaeologist Isabelle Pafford teaches new course

University of Santa Clara archaeologist Isabelle Pafford is back with a new course about heroic narratives, Heroes & Heroism (iTunes). The course covers heroic figures in ancient works like the Iliad, the Gilgamesh epic, and the Bhagavad Gita, and explores the historical background behind these tales.
Pafford has many fans among my readers who have praised [...]

Two great new anthropology classes

MMW1 Prehistory and the Birth of Civilization (feed), Tara Carter, UC San Diego.
UCSD is presenting three different versions of this course, but Carter’s is my hands-down favorite. She relates the story of hominid evolution and the birth of social organization with infectious enthusiasm. So far the course has brought us up to the [...]

Abraham’s hometown and other archaeological tales

Here’s a heads up for all you archaeology groupies: the archaeology museum at the University of Pennsylvania has an excellent lecture series on iTunes U, Great Sites of the Ancient World (iTunes).
Leading off the series, archaeologist and curator Richard Zettler tells the fascinating tale of Ur of the Chaldees (iTunes), the hometown of the biblical [...]

The fall of Rome

Book Review: The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins.
I was surprised to learn that many historians are writing a history in which the Roman Empire never fell,  and of a late antiquity that was a mostly peaceful “accommodation” with Germanic tribal culture.
Oxford University historian Ward-Perkins offers an antidote to this [...]

The World of the Hebrew Bible

We know a lot about the ancient Israelites because an anthology of their literature, the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, is still part of our culture.
But who were the writers of these ancient texts and why did they shape their stories the way they did? What was the mental world of their listeners, their background [...]

Archaeology sheds light on the Dark Ages

We’re used to a world of dense economic networks, advancing technology and rapid communication. It is similar in many ways to the late Roman Empire, with its roads and aqueducts and long-distance trade.
So, what happened to that world when barbarians sacked the city of Rome in 410 AD? Oxford University historian and archaeologist Bryan [...]

Top 50 Ancient History Blogs

Learn-gasm has a list of the Top 50 Ancient History Blogs. Many are dormant blogs, with the latest posts 1 or 2 years old. Others  are dead-ends with “file not found” messages.  Still, they’re fun to browse. Check out Ancient Transportation, which has photos of models of ancient Roman wagons.
(Hat tip to Paleojudaica.)

Knowledge tidbits

I often chance upon tasty tidbits of knowledge as I browse the web’s buffet of podcasts, academic courses and blogs. In this new feature I will serve up some of these intellectual hors d’oeuvres. I invite you to serve up your own tidbits in the comments. I only ask that you provide a reference [...]