(new course, not ancient epidemic or contemporary critique)
Trinity College January Term 2015
How old is the idea of life after death? Why were ancient Near Eastern zombies usually friendly? In this intensive class we’ll study the archaeology of death, as well the Bible, the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Epic of Gilgamesh. We’ll find out where biblical ideas of the afterlife came from, learn why most ancient people would not have wanted to go to heaven, and find out what they wanted instead.
Class will include field trips to an old local graveyard as well as the Met’s amazing array of Greek and Egyptian funerary monuments where the dead eat with the living…without eating them.
sethlsanders 