About the lecture:
The Mesopotamian system that evolved over a period of more than a millennium and a half, from the early spurt of the Uruk Expansion in the second half of the fourth millennium to the crisis of the 1700s BCE, displayed a clear set of system dynamics, evolved full institutions and reached beyond its core area. The first part of the talk presents the system and argues that its master institution was religious. The second part of the talk looks at how the system changed as a result of the emergence of The Hittite Empire, which became one of its great powers from around 1750 BCE onwards. The third part of the talk discusses the tenuous ties between the Hittite empire and its western neighbours, particularly Ahhiyawa/Mycene. In conclusion, Prof. Neumann discusses the possibilities of a genealogical link between the system and the subsequent system of Greek city states that emerged from around 800 BCE onwards. These remain weak. The case for the system as a precursor of the Greek city states can nonetheless be made, but then on analytical and not genealogical grounds.
About the lecturer:
Iver B. Neumann is Director at The Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway and Adjunct Professor at the Museum of Cultural history, University of Oslo, Norway. He holds doctorates in Politics (Oxford) and Social Anthropology (Oslo) and was Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics 2012-2017. His latest book is Diplomatic Tenses: A Social Evolutionary Perspective on Diplomacy (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2020).
To attend in person or online, please register at events@roma.uio.no by 28 September.