Centralisation and Control in Antiquity

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2015:

85 hours

Enrolment in 101AA Ph.D.- Arts or MR-ARTSTHS Master of Arts programs.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This seminar re-examines our ideas about how powerful and centralized ancient states actually were, by comparing state-based ideological claims of power and legitimacy with the ways these asserted ideologies contrasted with the realities of actual organization on the ground. Much of the difficulty in understanding the degree of centralization and control in ancient states stems from the lack of congruence among textual, artistic, and archaeological data sources. These methodological issues often mask the evidence for heterogeneity, instability, and resistance in ancient state societies. Topics to be covered will include: models of state power, integration, and heterogeneity; the limits of textual and archaeological data; state and royal ideologies of control, “invisible” sectors in ancient states, and rural strategies of resilience and resistance. We will examine case studies drawn from the Near East and other areas.

To provide advanced intensive instruction in a topic or area of scholarship in the humanities, social sciences or creative arts. A student who completes this subject should have:
• enhanced knowledge of the topic or area of scholarship taught in the module,
• an ability to reflect upon their own research work in relation to the content of the module, and
• enhanced engagement with leading-edge research in Arts today.

Written work of 2,000 words, due four weeks after the end of the teaching period (80%)

Written work of 500 words, due during the teaching period (20%)

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

The subjects will contribute, through teaching and discussion with academic staff and peers, to developing the skills and capacities identified in the University-defined Graduate Attributes for the PhD, in particular:
• the capacity to contextualise research within an international corpus of specialist knowledge,
• an advanced ability to evaluate and synthesise research-based and scholarly literature,
• an advanced understanding of key disciplinary and multi-disciplinary norms and perspectives relevant to the field.