This series takes you on a thematic tour of four important topics in ancient Chinese history, the second session focusing on ethnicity. Justin M. Jacobs, a professor of Chinese history at American University, gives you a nuanced overview based on the latest scholarship and illustrated with copious slides.
This series takes you on a thematic tour of four important topics in ancient Chinese history, the third session focusing on law. Justin M. Jacobs, a professor of Chinese history at American University, gives you a nuanced overview based on the latest scholarship and illustrated with copious slides.
During the Late Bronze Age, the Mediterranean region was the stage on which Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Minoans, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Cypriots, Trojans, and Canaanites interacted—a cosmopolitan world system that came to a dramatic halt in 1177 B.C. Historian Eric Cline surveys a period of achievement, upheaval, and catastrophe as he draws on the newest data on the civilizations of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean and their fates.
We used to think of fossils as being composed of nothing but rock and minerals, but we were wrong. Today, scientists and the science of ancient biomolecules—pigments, proteins, and DNA that once functioned in living, but now extinct, organisms—are opening a new window onto the evolution of life on Earth. Dale E. Greenwalt, a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History, is your guide to these astonishing breakthroughs.
This series takes you on a thematic tour of four important topics in ancient Chinese history, the final session focusing on eunuchs. Justin M. Jacobs, a professor of Chinese history at American University, gives you a nuanced overview based on the latest scholarship and illustrated with copious slides.
The pterosaurs are the flying reptiles so often mistakenly called pterodactyls. Although pterosaurs’ fossils are rarer than those of their dinosaur cousins, we still have a remarkable range of them, from sparrow-sized babies to giants with wingspans of nearly 33 feet. Paleontologist David Hone dives into what we know about these fascinating flying reptiles.
Historian Dan Flores chronicles the epoch in which humans and animals have coexisted in North America—a place shaped by evolutionary forces and momentous arrivals of humans from Asia, Africa, and Europe. These arrivals precipitated a massive disruption of the teeming environment they found. In telling the story, Flores sees humans not as a species apart but as a new animal entering a place that had never seen our like before.
Forty thousand years ago, humans began to paint animals, mysterious symbols, and even people on cave walls. For over a century, researchers have been interested in how these images were created and what they might have meant. Paleolithic archaeologist April Nowell explores cave art and related objects and how cutting-edge technology is leading to a new understanding of the lives of Ice-Age peoples. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
Anatolia’s colorful history has left a windfall of riches—ancient ruins, ornate Byzantine churches, supremely elegant mosques, and splendid Ottoman palaces. In an illustrated series, Serif Yenen, a Turkish-born tour guide and author, highlights the heritage and splendor of ancient Turkey through an examination of some of its cultural gems.
