ARTH 369 Studies in Near Eastern Art and Architecture: The City of Jerusalem

• Thursdays, 11:45am-2:15pm
• Online: Access through Moodle
• Instructor: Braden Scott

Over the centuries, Jerusalem has been called Shalem, Yerushalayim, City of Melchizedek, City of the Great King or City of David, Aelia Capitolina, Prototype of the Heavenly Jerusalem, Bayt al-Maqdis or al-Quds, and City of Peace. This course considers these different attachments to Jerusalem through visual perceptions and artistic representations at the religious, social and political levels. With a focus on the art and architecture of ancient times, we will examine Jerusalem's multifaceted religious narratives, allegiances, and ideas, including the "heavenly" Jerusalem that has existed in the minds of believers and artists since the Hebrew Bible. Beginning with the Bronze Age and the First Temple and Second Temple periods within the greater context of West Asia and Egypt, this attention to Jerusalem's ancient era will be a persistent theme in an extensive study of the city's history that covers the Roman period, Byzantine Jerusalem, the Arab, Crusader and Mamluk periods, the years under Ottoman rule (1517-1917), the British Mandate (1917-1948), Jerusalem's division and reunification (1948-1967), and Israel today. ​