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Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World

Series: Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World

4.4

(54)

Episodes

Rating

TVPG

Year

2012

Language

English

Publisher

The Great Courses

About

Go beyond the abstract dates and figures, kings and queens, and battles and wars that make up so many historical accounts in The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World. In 48 richly detailed lectures, Professor Robert Garland of Colgate University covers the breadth and depth of human history from the perspective of the so-called ordinary people.

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Episodes

1. Taking on the Other Side of History

31m

The past comes alive when you consider the imaginary lives of ordinary people - the citizens, soldiers, and slaves who lived on the other side of history. In this course, you'll ask questions that many textbooks never ask.

2. Being Paleolithic

32m

What does it mean to be human? Take a look at the lives of our ancestors, from ancient hominids to Homo erectus to the earliest humans. Picture yourself as a Neanderthal, whose life was dominated by the environment, and discover the significance of the human mind, language, and art in the Old Stone Age.

3. Living in Mesopotamia

31m

Step into the world's earliest permanent settlement - the river banks in Mesopotamia. The development of agriculture was a revolution because it allowed humans to live permanently in one place, which led to the invention of writing, the creation of laws, an increase in trade, and technological innovations such as the wheel.

4. Being Egyptian

32m

What was it like to be an ancient Egyptian? Travel to the world's first Western civilization and explore everyday life during the New Kingdom era. You'll learn about the richness of the Nile, the conservatism and stability of the society, and relics that have survived across millennia - hieroglyphics, papyri, art, and more.

5. Belonging to an Egyptian Family

31m

Professor Garland takes you deep inside the lives of an ordinary Egyptian family, from marriage, fertility, and the rights of its women, to social gatherings a couple might host or attend. You'll experience the house, its furniture, and even the cosmetics - all the elements of everyday life.

6. Practicing Egyptian Religion

31m

Egyptian religion was a hierarchical affair, and since common people were not allowed in the temples, they mainly left it to the priests to pray on their behalf. You'll meet some of the gods - Hathor, Amun-Re, Osiris - and learn about the myths attached to them. You'll also learn the ins and outs of the Egyptian priesthood.

7. Being a Dead Egyptian

30m

Mummies. The Book of the Dead. Tomb robbers. Death was big business in ancient Egypt, and in this lecture you'll discover Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife and the journey from this world to the next. You'll learn how to make a mummy and how to get past Osiris at the gates to the afterlife.

8. Being an Egyptian Worker

31m

As an ancient Egyptian, you might have been a farmer, a herdsman, a craftsman, a hunter, or, most dangerously, a miner. Take a tour of people in the professions that would been available to you in the village of Deir el-Medina - from educated scribes to the craftsmen who built royal tombs.

9. Being Minoan and Mycenaean

33m

While most ancient civilizations sprang up near rivers, Minoans and Mycenaeans lived in a thalassocracy - an empire based on control of the sea. This lecture surveys life on the island of Santorini, including the threat of earthquakes and volcanoes, the shift of power from Crete to mainland Greece, and life in the Greek Dark Age.

10. Being Greek

31m

Explore the world of the Greek polis and of true democracies run by ordinary citizens - that is, free male citizens. Women were cut off from society and kept in the home, and slaves performed much of the labor. After seeing the broad strokes of this society, you'll go inside the mind of a juror casting his ballot at the trial of Socrates.

Extended Details

SeriesOther Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World

Closed CaptionsEnglish

Artists

The Great CoursesDirector

The Great CoursesProducer

Robert GarlandActor

Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World

Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World

About

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