People and Things: Everyday Life in the Ancient World
The course aims to form a holistic understanding of the multifaceted process of the development of technology, material culture, and spiritual culture in historical retrospect, as well as to study the patterns of this process. Material culture is a crucial component of human society’s culture, largely determining the specific features of the development of spiritual culture and art. Without understanding the principles of the emergence and development of things, a systematic study of culture as a whole is impossible.
Material culture occupies a very special place in any society (ancient, traditional, modern). Things (or artefacts) have surrounded us from the very moment of the appearance of humankind – already in the Australopithecus of Makapansgat 3.5 million years ago, the first objects indicating the beginning of symbolic activity are known. Later, with each turn of humanity’s development, the world of things became more complex and branched out, until it almost completely replaced the natural environment for us. Artefacts from early eras are often well preserved and identified by researchers during archaeological excavations, which makes it possible to study very distant historical periods.
From the appearance of writing onward, our knowledge of the world of objects begins to expand significantly. What did people make, how and why? What was the organisation of production processes that met the material, spiritual, and creative needs of society, and why did the sacralisation of technologies arise? What level of techniques and technologies did the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt, the Neolithic population of Siberia, the inhabitants of Australia, or the pre‑Samoyedic tribes of the Arctic possess? Who invented the standard of beauty? How did the invention of tattooing affect the development of civilisation? It is precisely these questions that the course “People and Things: Everyday Life in the Ancient World” is designed to answer.
The course is structured thematically and chronologically against the background of general historical and cultural processes, and is supplemented by written and creative assignments on the topics studied. The main emphasis is on the development of technologies and the material culture of society. The following are examined: existing technologies; everyday life features; housebuilding and fortification; household utensils; tools and weapons; clothing; cult objects; decorative and applied arts objects; transport, and much more. Special attention is given to the natural, cultural, and social conditions that determined the development of society and cultural diffusion.