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Module Overview
Explore the real historical relationships between Europe and the Middle East, which have involved not only conquest, but also commerce in goods, technology, and learning. Focus in on the transmission, loss, and rediscovery of knowledge about the remote antiquity of the Middle East.
Essay
Framing the Issues
- How Did Medieval Europeans Encounter the Antiquity of the Ancient Near East?
- How did Europeans learn about the Middle East and its past in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries CE?
- Whose antiquity is Near Eastern antiquity?
Examining Stereotypes
Image Resource Bank
After the British helped drive the French armies out of Egypt, the Rosetta Stone was among the trophies of victory. It is now displayed in the British Museum, where visitors are provoked to ask who, if anybody, owns this key to the heritage of ancient Egypt. [IMAGE GALLERY]
Learning Resources
Matthew W. Stolper
Professor of Assyriology and the John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies, Emeritus
Classroom Connections
LESSON 1: Imaging the Near East: Examining Historic Images in a Modern Context
LESSON 2: Modern media: bridging the gap to the past
