Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor is rated 4.5 out of 5 by 74 .

Rated 1 out of 5 by garyc7 from Not about the Middle East only "Anatolia" December 3, 2018 Great Courses # 363 Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor by Ken Harl Published in 2001 No information on any relation to current (2018) problems in the area. The title is misleading. It should at least be: --- about Anatolia I did not know that he means essentially what is now Turkey. Others may know this, but I did not. I wanted information on what I thot was the “middle East: Israel, Syria, Egypt, etc.” He means “Anatolia” , which I assume many people know as like Turkey. I confess my ignorance. He lists too many kings, rulers, places, etc. with limited explanations of what does it mean. I hoped for him to give explanation & insight of the meanings of the times, he did not do this. Limited graphics, most maps are confusing & not helpful Presentation is very bad, too many: “ums” & ahhs, etc. He does not speak very consistent sentences. He rarely moves away from the podium to read his notes. Great Courses should show him how to put his notes on the teleprompter at the bottom of the camera. This one is going back, with a note to avoid this author.

Rated 5 out of 5 by Mick Mister from Excellent subject matter primer I’ve found this course an excellent primary in areas of acieant history I have not been into deeply. As a result I’ve found things of great interest to dig more deeply into and have begun. Your course is well worth the expense, and is enjoyable to listen to over and over.

Rated 5 out of 5 by GermanHistoryFan from Location, Location, Location Just as Kenneth Harl’s Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations course functions as a gateway to other courses on ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Israel, Anatolia, and Achaean Greece, this course leads to several other Harl lecture series, including Alexander and the Macedonian Empire, the Fall of Paganism and the Origins of Medieval Christianity, the World of Byzantium, the Era of the Crusades, and the Ottoman Empire. What ties them all together is the location—the Anatolian peninsula, also known as Asia Minor. Asia Minor has a dual geographic character, as Harl points out. Its core consists of a high and windswept plateau abutting the Pontic and Anti-Taurus mountain ranges. Its climate—dry in the summer and very cold in the winter--and grassy terrain resemble that of Central Asia. Surrounding the core is a fringe of warm low-lying coastlands facing the Black, Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. While the plateau had early trade and cultural connections with Syria and Mesopotamia, the coastlands interacted with and became part of the Greek world, until the Turkish takeover toward the end of the Middle Ages. Asia Minor is also a mosaic of sacred landscapes, which each successive civilization has “rewritten” with its own shrines, temples and tombs, sometimes erecting them atop or near their predecessors at springs or on mountaintops. Harl sees special continuity in the Anatolians’ devotion to the goddess, whether it be the mother goddess of ancient farm villages, the Phrygian and Greek Cybele, or the Virgin Mary. Speaking of civilizations, Asia Minor has hosted a long parade of them: the ancient Neolithic town of Çatal Hüyük from around 7000 BC and similar communities, the Bronze-Age Hittite Empire that ended around 1180 BC, the city of Troy (which Harl identifies with the “Wilusa” of Hittite records) in the northwest, the Iron-Age Luvian/Neo-Hittite kingdoms of the southeast, the Phrygians in the center and north, the Lydians, Lycians and Carians in the west, the classical Greeks—at first independent and then under Persian, Macedonian and Roman rule--the medieval Greeks/Byzantines, and finally the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks. Each invasion (excepting the Macedonians and Romans) brought a new language, new religious ideas, new artistic styles, and new political institutions, yet the invaders sometimes borrowed and perpetuated what they found. Turkish mosques, for example, strongly resemble the Hagia Sophia and other Byzantine domed churches. I highly recommend this course as a standalone or as an introduction to all those others I named above. Its combination of geography with human history is like no other Teaching Company course. There are a lot of good maps, with copies in the guidebook, and great photos of ancient, medieval and early modern cult sites. My only major complaint is the usual one about Harl, an extremely well-informed and organized yet undisciplined lecturer, umming, uhhing, hesitating, and stumbling throughout. There is also a minor mistake in the first lecture, when he attributes the famous quote of Ottoman Turkey being the “sick man of Europe” to Tsar Nicholas II rather than Nicholas I. On the plus side, Harl has an enjoyable sense of humor. In Lecture 15 he mentions that he likes to share his high opinion of Roman Empress Julia Domna with his students, to the point that one wrote in an exam that she was the love of Harl’s life, but history “screwed” them by putting them centuries apart.

Rated 5 out of 5 by MarleysGhost from Another Solid Harl Course This is the fifth course I’ve taken from Professor Harl, the others being “Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations”, “The Era of the Crusades”, “The Barbarian Empires of the Steppes”, and “Vikings”. Dr. Harl has his usual delivery: fast with a lot of dates, place names and persons. This course suffers a bit on audio, unless you have a pretty good understanding of ancient Asia Minor, or access to a good atlas of ancient civilizations. There are plenty of maps provided in the course materials, but they are not nearly so good as the ones in the video version of “Barbarian Empires” or “Vikings”. However this should not detract from the overall course material presented. In 24 lectures we move from Neolithic Anatolia and the Hittites to the rise (and eventual decline) of the Ottoman Empire. The course takes an interesting view of the history of Asia Minor by considering the rise and fall of the dominant cultures of the area as kings form empires and then they are supplanted by other empires and lines of kings. An interesting approach and one that fits in with the course title. I’m a fan of Professor Harl’s courses and as such perhaps ignore what other reviewers see as his weaknesses. For example, his “uhs” and other verbal tics. I’d rather have a professor with full command of his subject, who is not reading from a teleprompter or even very many notes, but rather knows where he is going, how to get there, and takes time for a few diversions along the way, than one who can’t deviate from prepared text at all. Of course this is my preference and others may well feel differently. A few high notes: The lecture on Constantinople filled out a lot about the city and times that I sort of knew, but not well; the transition lectures from the Neolithic age to the Hittites were particularly interesting, although as usual much has to be informed speculation, rather than hard facts; and finally I loved the last third of lectures where the flow from the early Christians to Byzantium, its rise, decline and rebirth to the Crusaders and the Muslim hegemony was seamless and consistent.

Rated 3 out of 5 by Dr Mac from Poor in presentation The presentation was poorly done. His use of "ah' was overwhelming and distracting. His maps were very busy as to make it difficult to discover of where he was speaking. He would introduce a new group without giving background information. I labored through this course, but did find some areas enlightening.

Rated 4 out of 5 by Solo from Interesting History I'm a lover of History. This video was the most interesting history of Asia Minor. It moved fast but still entertaining.

Rated 4 out of 5 by Ark1836 from A Little Too Broad This course was not exactly what I was expecting. From the title, I was expecting the course to focus on the ancient past more than it did. This course spans from the earliest civilizations of Asia Minor up to the Middle Ages. Since the course only has twenty-four lessons, this meant going through some major topics pretty fast. While I felt the scope was too broad for this course, Professor Harl is one of the best Great Courses professors and his skill as a teacher overcame the deficiencies. I learned a lot from the course, even if I would have preferred a more narrow focus.