This class is part of NYU’s CORE program, which is meant to provide NYU’s students with a foundational academic experience in the liberal arts. The course is intended to fulfill one of the history requirements of the CORE program. Given my reticence about the project of reconstructing a single history of ancient Israel, I have designed this class in a such a way that students are led through the sources of evidence, major institutions, and some of the major aspects of everyday life in ancient Israel. One of the main themes of this course is the critical understanding of the concept of history and the process of history-making both in the ancient world and today. To this end, the final project of the course will be for the students to explore museums around NYC in order to create their own virtual exhibit on one aspect of ancient Israel. Throughout the semester, we will be discussing issues related to antiquities trade, museum collections, curation, and the relationship between material culture and literary works.

The syllabus for the course can be found here: Ancient Israel Syllabus – Spring 2020

The syllabus for the fully remote version of this course can be found here: Ancient Israel Syllabus – Fall 2020 (Remote)

Details about Virtual Exhibit final project (and its related paper assignment):

Final Project Description (Remote Version)
Guide to Online Museum Collections (Ancient Israel)
Paper 3 (Preliminary to Final Project)