This course focuses on the history of medieval Europe primarily through the lens of material culture. In addition to manuscripts, we will explore the significance of several categories of historical artifacts including: art, textiles, reliquaries, architecture, pottery, crowns, and jewelry. We will discuss what we can discover about the production, circulation, reception, historic and geographic context, and the meaning attributed to the materials from which these objects were created. This class explores what these objects reveal about the religious, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual history of medieval Europe, beyond what we can learn from medieval texts and how these objects may have been experienced in a pre-modern world.
Required texts and sources:
Course Packet available at University Co-op

(Includes primary sources:  Abbot Suger,  “On the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and its Art Treasures”, Paulinus of Nola, "Poem 27", Theophilus, "An Essay on Diverse Arts" and selected readings by Gregory the Great, Augustine and Isidore of Seville. )

Grading:
Map quiz: 5%
Quizzes (cumulative): 20%
Mid-semester exam (cumulative): 20%
Presentation: 15%
Last exam (cumulative): 20%
Attendance: 10%
Class Participation and Presentation Feedback: 10%

"Ancient Mediterranean World" surveys the major civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Italy from the dawn of the city around 3000 BC through the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 400s AD. Beyond providing a basic historical framework, the course explores the surprising ways in which the various civilizations of the area influenced one another culturally. We will examine interactions between Egyptians, Sumerians, Hittites, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks and Romans, among others. Students will also learn about the different types of evidence, both literary and archaeological, on which knowledge of the ancient world is based. There are two lectures and one discussion section per week.

Carries the Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought course area requirement.

For almost seventy years, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has influenced significantly our understanding of Second Temple Judaism, the formation of the Bible, and the origins of the religious movements of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. This course presents an in-depth study of the Dead Sea Scrolls in order to understand better the development of law, interpretation, ritual, messianism, apocalypticism, and prayer in the late Second Temple period. This course will include discussion of the archaeology of the Qumran community, textual production and transmission in antiquity, scribal practices in antiquity, and pseudonymous authorship.

Intended principally for third-year majors in Classics, Latin, Classical Archaeology, Ancient History and Classical Civilization, this course will take a widely multidisciplinary approach to the cultural concepts of space (a geographically defined location that can be physically occupied) and Place (a space encoded with cultural meaning).  Ranging broadly across Greek and Roman literary, historical, and archaeological sources, students will explore a variety of ancient approaches to the physical world around them, on the level of both landscape and the built environment. Students will also be introduced to some of the online and digital resources that have emerged from the “spatial turn” in the humanities since the 1990s, many of which are focused specifically on the Classical world.

This course carries Writing and Independent Inquiry flags.

Prerequisites:  Upper-division standing and admission to the Classics Honors Program.

Supervised conference course for honors candidates in classics. Three conference hours a week for two semesters.

Majors who plan to seek special honors in Ancient History and Classical Civilization, special honors in Greek, special honors in Latin, or special honors in Classics should apply to the honors adviser for admission to the honors program at least one full academic year before they expect to graduate. A University grade point average of at least 3.00 and a grade point average in the coursework required for the major of at least 3.50 are required for admission. The requirements for graduation with special honors, which are in addition to the requirements of the major, are (1) AHC 679HA and 679HB, Greek 679HA and 679HB, Latin 679HA and 679HB, or Classical Civilization 679HA and 679HB, Honors Tutorial Course, with a grade of A in each half; (2) a University grade point average of at least 3.00 and a grade point average of at least 3.50 in the coursework required for the major and an “A” in each half of the honors tutorial course; and (3) completion at the University of at least sixty semester hours of coursework counted toward the degree.

Requirements for the Honors Thesis

(1.) The student must discuss the Honors program option with the Faculty Academic Advisor.
(2.) The student must fill out and have signed a Conference Course form for the 679HA and 679HB-W courses.
(3.) The student must spend one semester enrolled in 679HA for directed reading and research under a faculty mentor.
(4.) The student must spend one semester enrolled in 679HB-W writing the Honors Thesis. Students should consult a semester academic calendar and consult with their faculty mentors to determine a schedule for completion of the Thesis. A second faculty reader must also review the Thesis.
(5.) The College of Liberal Arts expects a Thesis to require at least 20 pages of reviewed and revised text. Although there is no other required minimum, the Thesis should consist of more substantial output.
(6.) The final version of the Thesis must be turned in to the Department of Classics Undergraduate Advisor in an electronic (PDF) format or bound copy.

This course carries the Independent inquiry flag.

Prerequisite: AHC 679HA.

Supervised conference course for honors candidates in classics. Three conference hours a week for two semesters.

Majors who plan to seek special honors in Ancient History and Classical Civilization, special honors in Greek, special honors in Latin, or special honors in Classics should apply to the honors adviser for admission to the honors program at least one full academic year before they expect to graduate. A University grade point average of at least 3.00 and a grade point average in the coursework required for the major of at least 3.50 are required for admission. The requirements for graduation with special honors, which are in addition to the requirements of the major, are (1) AHC 679HA and 679HB, Greek 679HA and 679HB, Latin 679HA and 679HB, or Classical Civilization 679HA and 679HB, Honors Tutorial Course, with a grade of A in each half; (2) a University grade point average of at least 3.00 and a grade point average of at least 3.50 in the coursework required for the major and an “A” in each half of the honors tutorial course; and (3) completion at the University of at least sixty semester hours of coursework counted toward the degree.

Requirements for the Honors Thesis

(1.) The student must discuss the Honors program option with the Faculty Academic Advisor.
(2.) The student must fill out and have signed a Conference Course form for the 679HA and 679HB-W courses.
(3.) The student must spend one semester enrolled in 679HA for directed reading and research under a faculty mentor.
(4.) The student must spend one semester enrolled in 679HB-W writing the Honors Thesis. Students should consult a semester academic calendar and consult with their faculty mentors to determine a schedule for completion of the Thesis. A second faculty reader must also review the Thesis.
(5.) The College of Liberal Arts expects a Thesis to require at least 20 pages of reviewed and revised text. Although there is no other required minimum, the Thesis should consist of more substantial output.
(6.) The final version of the Thesis must be turned in to the Department of Classics Undergraduate Advisor in an electronic (PDF) format or bound copy.

This course carries the Independent inquiry flag.