Study programme Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean Worlds

The following courses are mandatory for all students of the specialisation Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean Worlds:

Historiography and Theory

Focusing on (political) culture and cultural memory, we will discuss processes such as cultural transfer, (state) religion, power and ideology, as well as mechanisms of identity formation and conflicts with a formative impact within the area under discussion. The programme’s overarching approach of the Mediterranean, in both a geographical and a chronological sense, allows for comparisons within the Greco-Roman world, and between the Greco-Roman world and its successors in the West (e.g. the Carolingian Empire) and the East (e.g. the Byzantine Empire or the Islamic Caliphates). Thus, this course lays the foundation for other courses within the MA-programme, including the students’ own research projects.

Research Seminar: City Life in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean

Throughout history, cities have functioned as the backbone of regions, kingdoms, sultanates, caliphates and empires. Cities have been engines of innovation, melting pots of people and cultural exchange, economic hotspots and centers of social and political power play. This course examines city life in the Mediterranean in the Graeco-Roman, early Byzantine, Medieval and Islamic worlds. While deliberately taking a long-term perspective, the course will demonstrate how our artificial chronological boundaries and east-west divides are not particularly useful when studying developments and patterns in city life. Analyzing cities of various sizes, the course will deal with themes such as infrastructure, urban design, city government, public and private spaces, and cultural exchange. Building on a broad range of written sources and archaeological evidence, it invites students to confront their existing views on city life with new insights gained from current scholarly debates.