Get an insider’s look at some of history’s most awe-inspiring structures in these 24 lectures presented by Professor of Classics Steven L. Tuck. As you make your way through storied sights like Persepolis, Hadrian’s Villa, Weiyang Palace, and the Palace of Montezuma II, you’ll explore the meaning of power and the ways it operated in societies across the globe.

The palaces of rulers past and present are truly a sight to behold. Marvel at Weiyang, China’s Endless Palace, about 11 times the size of Vatican City. Tour the gorgeous gardens at the Palace of Versailles, lined with bronze statues inspired by Dionysus, Apollo, and the four elements. Take a ride on the floating palaces, from the Syracusia of 240 BC, which stood an impressive three decks tall and boasted a library and gymnasium, to Cleopatra’s perfumed pleasure ship and Caligula’s luxurious bejeweled vessels.

The Architecture of Power: Great Palaces of the Ancient World offers an insider’s look at some of history’s most awe-inspiring structures. In 24 lectures presented by Professor of Classics Steven L. Tuck of Miami University, you will not only get a glimpse into imposing and magnificent sites, but you will also experience many that are inaccessible to the public—and even some that no longer exist. As you make your way through these storied sites, you’ll also delve into an exploration of the meaning of power and the ways it operated in societies across the globe. You’ll learn how rulers impressed, intimidated, survived, maintained control, and much more.

The Perpetuation of Power

These lectures will reveal a real-world Game of Thrones, where many rulers behaved ruthlessly toward the conquered and presided over their own people with an iron fist. This will to intimidate was often reflected in the immense size and luxury of palaces, built to a scale and degree of opulence that could overwhelm the commoner and elicit awe in neighbors and enemies alike.

However, they also reflected the rulers’ insecurities. Everyone from the Egyptian pharaohs to Saddam Hussein lived under constant threat of assassination and uprisings. Therefore, you’ll learn how the palaces offered protection, both internally and externally.

Besides the sheer size and grandeur of the buildings, leaders manipulated their elaborate living spaces in a variety of ways, including:

• Location: The placement of a structure within its environs has an impact on how its authority is perceived. This is one way the Egyptian pharaohs established themselves as dominant, even more powerful than priests.
• Materials: Using rare materials was a clear display of status, from the bronze doors of Persepolis to the numerous fountains and pools lining Saddam’s palaces in a land where water is scarce.
• Imported plants and animals: Perhaps most impressive was the collection of over 40 species of plants as well as domesticated lions and elephants roaming the gardens of the Assyrian palace at Nimrud. This demonstrated the king’s power over not only man but also nature.
• Artwork: This included paintings and sculptures as well as imposing stone reliefs which would often depict the ruler as a victorious conqueror or in some way honored by the gods.

Meet a Colorful Cast of Characters

Equally as fascinating as the buildings themselves are the rulers who occupied them. You’ll get acquainted with pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who completely redefined Egypt, ushering in a new era and placing himself as an intermediary between his subjects and the sun god. You will hear the captivating stories of Ashurnasirpal II, whose larger-than-life accounts of big-game hunting, immense banquets, and rousing military conquests are enthrallingly depicted in inscriptions throughout the palace at Nimrud. Then there’s Caligula, whose flare for spectacle and excess have become hallmarks of decadence and lavish living that continue to be reflected in modern ideas of wealth and celebrity.

But with great power comes great responsibility. Professor Tuck shows how public and private personas were deeply intertwined for these rulers. As with today’s politicians, the luxurious lifestyles came at a cost, with their primary duty being to serve the people over which they ruled. For instance, Egyptian pharaohs were expected to maintain order in the natural world. Imagine if your life hinged on whether or not the Nile flooded!

Professor Tuck also highlights the notable individuals who managed to excavate these palaces brick by brick so we can marvel over them today. Many of these excavations occurred two hundred or more years ago, without the convenience of modern technology. In some cases, as with the efforts to uncover and reconstruct some of the famous floating vessels of ancient rulers, it took hundreds of years of failed attempts before archaeologists successfully recovered the structures.

 Discover How Structures Reveal Social Hierarchies

Hierarchies were reflected in everything, from the dining hall seating and arrangement of rooms, to even the positioning of individuals in decorative sculptures and murals. You’ll learn how one relief sculpture lining the staircase leading to the mighty Gate of All Nations in Persepolis was intended to keep visitors in their place, both literally and figuratively. This subservience to rank is also illustrated in the famed terra cotta army from the Qin Dynasty.

In palaces ranging from ancient Assyria and Egypt to Italy and China, courtyards, chambers, and throne rooms were designed in such a way that only the highest-ranking members of society had private access to the ruler. At the same time, large public spaces were included to encourage interaction between the leader and his people, with the degree of interaction varying between regimes and cultures.

Additionally, many rulers held lavish banquets featuring thousands of servings of wild meat, imported vegetables, and exotic spices. These banquets provided an opportunity for rulers to both demonstrate their generosity and their military might, as most of this food frequently came from conquered lands.

Symbolic Meaning in the Past and Present

Palaces are more than just the homes of rulers. Their design and decoration reflect the public images and political needs of their occupants. And on an even deeper level, you’ll see how every aesthetic decision is representative of the culture and regime’s collective values. Professor Tuck demonstrates how design motifs can carry universal significance, reappearing across continents over time. He also reveals the ways in which design evoked not only power, but also ideals of order and balance. For example, in China’s Weiyang Palace, the architectural alignment was intended to create harmony with the surrounding landscape and exemplified the vital balance of Yin and Yang. In fact, the appearance of a palace is so important to its function in society that any alterations or “makeovers” would often signify shifts in culture as well as a change of regime.

You will also look at the way the world and our conception of power via architecture has not changed as much as you might think; palaces are not just relics of a bygone era. Although today’s major structures may not resemble the palaces of ancient Rome and Egypt on the surface, if you look closer you’ll see many iconographic similarities, even in the most mundane and unexpected places. Such similarities can be found in department story layouts, modern political structures like the White House and Houses of Parliament, and even Amazon headquarters in Seattle.

 A Visual Feast with a Favorite Professor

Whether you are planning a trip to visit ancient sites or simply experiencing history from the comfort of your own home, The Architecture of Power is designed to be experienced in a flexible and accessible way. The lectures are arranged in a loose chronology, but each can be experienced individually, in any order or timeframe you prefer.

This course is brought to life with over 700 images including graphics, maps, floor plans, reconstructions, artwork, portraits, artifacts, and interior and exterior photos. You will even see reconstructions and floor plans from palaces that are notoriously inaccessible to the public—and some that no longer exist beyond what history has recorded of them.

Professor Tuck’s engaging and deeply knowledgeable presentation is supported by his own archaeological experience in Europe and Egypt, as well as tours he has led in Italy and Greece. Even for familiar topics such as the Renaissance, he digs deep beneath the surface, revealing unexpected insights and new perspectives.

Throughout the lectures, Professor Tuck doesn’t just present history as a collection of facts and figures, but rather reinforces how everything has contributed to the big picture. While he does delve into the intricacies of design, he’s equally invested in their profound implications for society. After taking this course, you’ll see these places and what they mean—in the past, as well as today—in a whole new way.

About the Author

Professor Steven L. Tuck is Professor of Classics at Miami University. After earning his B.A. in History and Classics at Indiana University, he received his Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Michigan. He held the postdoctoral Arthur and Joyce Gordon Fellowship in Latin epigraphy at The Ohio State University.

An esteemed teacher, Professor Tuck received the 2013 E. Phillips Knox Teaching Award, Miami University’s highest honor for innovative and effective undergraduate teaching. In addition, the Archaeological Institute of America, North America’s oldest and largest organization devoted to archaeology, presented him with its Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2014. He also has been named a Distinguished Scholar and an Altman Faculty Scholar at Miami University.

Professor Tuck has conducted archaeological fieldwork and research in Italy, Greece, England, and Egypt. He has directed more than a dozen study tours in Italy, concentrated on the city of Rome and the area around the Bay of Naples, including Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Island of Capri. He has given more than 50 public lectures, including as a national lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America.

Professor Tuck is the author of numerous articles featured in international journals on such topics as the lives of sailors in the Roman navy, the schedule of gladiatorial games at Pompeii, the decorative program of the amphitheater at Capua, the professional organizations of spectacle performers, Roman sculpture, and triumphal imagery across the ancient Roman world. He is the author of the forthcoming A History of Roman Art, a lavishly illustrated introduction to the topic.

Professor Tuck has taught two previous Great Courses: Pompeii: Daily Life in an Ancient Roman City and Experiencing Rome: A Visual Exploration of Antiquity’s Greatest Empire.

Product details

• Full Audiobook MP3 Program
• Full PDF Guidebook Included
• Author by: Professor Steven L. Tuck
• Language: English
• Producers: The Great Courses
• ASIN : 162997577X

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We live in a world of cities – for the first time ever, the majority of the population lives in an urban environment – and reflecting on ancient models of the “city” as a human phenomenon offers important lessons for our culture today.

Cities of the Ancient World is your opportunity to survey the breadth of the ancient world through the context of its urban development. Taught by esteemed Professor Steven L. Tuck, of Miami University, these 24 eye-opening lectures not only provide an invaluable look at the design and architecture of ancient cities, they also offer a flesh-and-blood glimpse into the daily lives of ordinary people and the worlds they created.

Cities of the Ancient World gives you insight into cities large and small, famous and obscure. Ultimately, however, this is a course about people, not just buildings. Studying these cities will give you a new appreciation for the remarkable cultures of the ancient world, from the ruins of Uruk to the Golden Age of Athens, and spur you to reflect on what makes a city survive. More than anything else, Cities of the Ancient World is a course about human beings – what life was like in these cities and how people lived.

Cities of the Ancient World is your opportunity to survey the breadth of the ancient world through the context of its urban development. Taught by esteemed Professor Steven L. Tuck of Miami University, these 24 eye-opening lectures not only provide an invaluable look at the design and architecture of ancient cities, they also offer a flesh-and-blood glimpse into the daily lives of ordinary people and the worlds they created. For instance, you will:

• consider the benefits of living in cities, from mutual defense to trading opportunities;
• compare domestic and public spaces and see what implications these spaces have on politics and society;
• investigate critical infrastructure, including water supply and drainage systems;
• learn about how such common ideas as city blocks and crosswalks were invented; and
• marvel at the elaborate monuments and works of art created in antiquity.

From the world’s first city of Çatalhöyük to the mysteries of the Indus Valley to Constantinople, which served as the hinge between the ancient and medieval worlds, Cities of the Ancient World gives you insight into cities both large and small, famous and obscure. Ultimately, however, this is a course about people, not just buildings. Studying these cities will give you a new appreciation for the remarkable cultures of the ancient world, from the ruins of Uruk to the Golden Age of Athens, and spur you to reflect on what makes a city survive.

Discover a Wide Range of Urban Development

From orderly cities to sprawling suburbs, the ancient world offers the same variety of urban living you find around the world today. By looking at such a wide range of cities, you get a sense of the changing ideas about what it takes to make a city—and it allows you to make connections across time and geography. For example, you’ll trace the development of orthogonal planning, in which cities are constructed in a grid with rectilinear blocks, and find out how it gradually spread around the ancient world.

Using a case-study approach, Professor Tuck shows you the incredible breadth and richness of urban design across the ages:

• Tour the mysterious citadel of Mohenjo-daro, part of the lost civilization of the Indus Valley.
• Consider the Egyptian “company town” of Kahun, which housed paid laborers who built the tombs of pharaohs.
• Explore the Minoan city of Knossos, a labyrinthine metropolis seamlessly integrated into the rocky island landscape.
• Meet Hippodamus of Miletus and find out about his principles of urban design. He is credited with formalizing orthogonal planning.
• View the splendor of Alexandria, the first major city built directly on the seacoast, whose great lighthouse was among the seven wonders of the ancient world.
• Examine Roman infrastructure and find out how building codes helped mitigate fires and other dangers.

Examining the structures of these ancient cities teaches us much about the lives and priorities of their inhabitants. For example, are the city blocks short and walkable? Do zoning laws isolate various ethnic groups and social classes? Do city walls protect from outside invasions? Professor Tuck also demonstrates how ancient peoples dealt with the challenges of infrastructure, waste removal, neighbors, and the environment—issues that will resonate with today’s city dwellers.

Weigh the Evidence to Reconstruct Daily Life

More than anything else, Cities of the Ancient World is a course about human beings—what life was like in these cities and how people lived. Professor Tuck assumes the role of a historical detective and examines the archaeological and written evidence for each city we visit. Some cities such as Mohenjo-daro are incredibly mysterious, so we can only deduce who may have lived there and what their lives might have been like. In other cities, including Athens, Rome, and Constantinople, we have a wealth of official records and written accounts that give us a complete picture of everyday life.

One of the many treats of this course is being able to walk through these cities as if in the shoes of an ordinary citizen. From the gender-segregated symposia in Athens to the array of social classes in the Roman baths to the patriotic citizenry on the frontier edges of the Roman Empire, Professor Tuck gives you a three-dimensional feel for everyday life in the ancient world:

• See how the temples of Çatalhöyük and the ziggurats of Uruk suggest cities first emerged to accommodate religious structures, and that agriculture soon followed.
• Study the layout of Amarna, the revolutionary capital of Egypt, and connect city planning with the ideology of social control.
• Trace the average day of a shoemaker as he travels through the streets of Athens.
• Experience two perspectives of daily life in Rome, first as a well-to-do citizen and then as a poor immigrant.
• Visit the unique Roman satellite community of Ostia, which appears to have been an entirely middle class city, with no extremes of wealth or poverty.

The urban layouts and archaeological records give you a remarkable window into each city, as well as the relationships among the cities—and in some cases, clues about why certain cities failed. As you travel from the Indus Valley in the east to Algeria in the west, and from far-flung outposts to imperial capitals, you’ll learn about trade, economies of scale, and the development of communal identity, which plays an especially important role in an increasingly globalized world.

Case Studies Build on Themselves

Professor Tuck’s approach in this course—presenting each city as a case study—allows you to experience the course in many ways. Each lecture is a self-contained episode, but they build on each other to create a vivid and complete picture of life from the earliest civilizations to the beginning of the Middle Ages. This comprehensive portrait will change the way you look at our modern world.

As you’ll discover, cities are here to stay. Considering the lessons from ancient cities—how they succeeded and why they failed—will make a difference in how we live in communities today or plan new ones for the future. The designs, challenges, and solutions to urban life you’ll encounter in Cities of the Ancient World have been with us for thousands of years, and studying communities in antiquity provides valuable insight into what it means to be human—and makes for good citizenship as we build the cities of the future.

About the Author

Professor Steven L. Tuck is Professor of Classics at Miami University. After earning his B.A. in History and Classics at Indiana University, he received his Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Michigan. He held the postdoctoral Arthur and Joyce Gordon Fellowship in Latin epigraphy at The Ohio State University.

An esteemed teacher, Professor Tuck received the 2013 E. Phillips Knox Teaching Award, Miami University’s highest honor for innovative and effective undergraduate teaching. In addition, the Archaeological Institute of America, North America’s oldest and largest organization devoted to archaeology, presented him with its Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2014. He also has been named a Distinguished Scholar and an Altman Faculty Scholar at Miami University.

Professor Tuck has conducted archaeological fieldwork and research in Italy, Greece, England, and Egypt. He has directed more than a dozen study tours in Italy, concentrated on the city of Rome and the area around the Bay of Naples, including Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Island of Capri. He has given more than 50 public lectures, including as a national lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America.

Professor Tuck is the author of numerous articles featured in international journals on such topics as the lives of sailors in the Roman navy, the schedule of gladiatorial games at Pompeii, the decorative program of the amphitheater at Capua, the professional organizations of spectacle performers, Roman sculpture, and triumphal imagery across the ancient Roman world. He is the author of the forthcoming A History of Roman Art, a lavishly illustrated introduction to the topic.

Professor Tuck has taught two previous Great Courses: Pompeii: Daily Life in an Ancient Roman City and Experiencing Rome: A Visual Exploration of Antiquity’s Greatest Empire.

Product details

• Full Audiobook MP3 Format
• Full PDF Guidebook Included
• Listening Length: 11 hours and 48 minutes
• Author: Steven L. Tuck, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Steven L. Tuck
• Release Date: July 25, 2014
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN B00M3R7KIS

The post Cities of the Ancient World appeared first on EASY Digital Pro.