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  2. Television
  3. Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World

TELEVISION

Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World

Series: Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World
4.4
(54)
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Episodes
48
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.

Related Subjects

  • Educational

Episodes

1. Taking on the Other Side of History

31m

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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