Ancient and Medieval Civilizations

Course Description:

This course provides a survey of Western traditions from the beginnings through the end of the Middle Ages. The Mediterranean Sea and the territories surrounding its shores has been a cultural crossroad for several millenniums. The movement of products, technologies and people but also ideas and beliefs have shaped a dynamic and malleable concept of Western culture and civilization. Valencia, on the westernmost side of the Mediterranean Sea, throughout more than two thousand years of history, has witness the arrival of Greek and Phoenicians traders, the transformations from a small Roman military colony into a Roman imperial capital. The conquest of the Christian Visigoth city by Islamic troops from northern Africa created a flourishing Al-Andalus town, Balensiya. Centuries later, the medieval Crown of Aragon conquered and settled the area, laying the foundation of the present day city. Material footprints, patterns of thinking and institutions of all these cultures and periods are traceable on Valencia?s urban and rural landscapes, a perfect setting for the course field trips: Roman ruins, Islamic origin irrigated fields, monasteries and castles.

Book Title: Western Civilisations. Brief Edition
Book Author(s): Judith G. Coffin & Robert C. Stacey
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.;
Edition: 2nd Revised edition (10 Feb 2009)
ISBN Number: 978-0393932652

Course Outline

1. The Ancient World. The Near East and the Mediterranean Sea

2. Greece. The Classical World.

3. The Roman Mare Nostrum. Between tradition and modernity

4. New people for an old Empire. Germanic people and its legacy

5. The Iberian Peninsula and the Islamic conquest. An historical particularity

6. A New World View: Al-Andalus, Muslim kingdom in continental Europe

7. Europe in the year 1000.

8. A continent in transition. Case study: the Crown of Aragon and the conquest of Valencia.

9. Settlers, religion and feudalism

10. The urban splendour of the 15th century. The example of Valencia?s Golden Age

11. Cultural Renaissance and economic crisis of the 16th century

*The course will include visits to several historic sites and ancient landscapes (Roman, Visigoth, Islamic remains and landscapes, and Middle Ages castles and monasteries).