Admission requirements
Basic knowledge of Sumerian grammar and the cuneiform script.
Description
Sumerian was the primary written language of Southern Mesopotamia until about 1700 BC. It is known to us from more than 100,000 inscriptions and clay tablets that cover a wide range of topics. Apart from large numbers of administrative records, we have many thousands of texts with a historical, legal, religious, or literary content. Studying them gives access to arguably the best documented culture from the Third Millennium BC. During this course the student selects and studies under supervision a corpus of Sumerian texts and writes a paper on this corpus. The student also participates in the BA course Sumerian literary texts, where we will treat a selection of literary texts from the Old Babylonian period.
Course objectives
Students will be able to read, translate, and interpret Sumerian texts independently and put them into their historical and cultural context.
Timetable
Please consult the Classics and Ancient Civilizations website.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Tutorials on the basis of the student’s needs and interests
Course Load
Total course load 10 EC x 28 hours= 280 hours:
26 (13 × 2) hours for attending the seminars;
48 hours preparing the seminars;
30 hours preparing the mid-term assignment;
26 hours preparing the written examination;
150 hours studying the selected text corpus, attending the tutorials, and writing the paper.
Assessment method
Assessment
Assessment will be in three parts:
a mid-term assignment of about forty lines of Old Babylonian literary Sumerian not treated in class (20% of the final grade);
a written exam on the subject matter of the seminar (30% of the final grade);
a final paper of c. 5000 words on the selected text corpus (50% of the final grade).
Weighing
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average.
Resit
Both the written exam and the final paper must have a grade above 5.49 and can be repeated if their grade is lower.
Inspection and feedback
Students will be invited to discuss their paper and the other results for this seminar (mid-term assignment and exam) individually with the teacher, as soon as the results have been published.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used for:
course material
communication
Reading list
To be provided at the beginning of the course.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about registration in uSis is available in English and Dutch.
Exchange and Study Abroad students: please see the Study Abroad/Exchange website for information on how to register.
Contact
Remarks
None