Adam T Rabinowitz

Digital Approaches to Antiquity: History and Material Culture

This graduate seminar will offer an introduction to a range of digital approaches applied to the study of ancient history and Classical archaeology. It will cover both critical perspectives on digital technologies in Classics and archaeology, and a set of tools and methods with practical applications for research, analysis, and dissemination. Topics will include digital archaeology; spatial humanities; social network analysis; VR, AR, and 3D models; computational photography; metadata, Linked Data, and the Semantic Web; agent-based modeling; data management; and digital publication.

It is intended that this seminar will be eligible to be counted toward the Graduate Portfolio in Digital Studies currently going through the approval process.

Grading policy: the course grade will be based on one review of an online digital project or a public project with a significant digital component (15%), an in-class presentation of a critical perspective on digital approaches to antiquity (10%), contributions to class discussions and to a public media platform to be determined (40%), and a final research project that is either born digital or has a significant digital component (35%).

Readings: Readings will be drawn from a variety of journals and edited volumes, including Internet Archaeology and the Proceedings of the Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference, as well as from the following books:

Barker, E., S. Bouzarovski, C.B.R. Pelling, and L. Isaksen, eds. 2014. New Worlds out of Old Texts: Approaches to the Spatial Analysis of Ancient Greek Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bodard, G., and S. Mahony, eds. 2010. Digital Research in the Study of Classical Antiquity.

Farnham: Ashgate.

Brughmans, T., A. Collar, and F. Coward, eds. 2016. The connected past: challenges to network studies in archaeology and history. Oxford University Press.

Gabriel, B., and R. Matteo, eds.. 2016. Digital Classics Outside the Echo-Chamber: Teaching, Knowledge Exchange & Public Engagement. Ubiquity Press. doi:10.5334/bat.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

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.

Classical Archaeology: Methods and Approaches

The archaeology of the Classical world is an enormously wide-ranging field, encompassing archaeological fieldwork of all kinds over thousands of miles.  This course will be your introduction to this diverse and fascinating discipline, both in terms of its scope and its methods.  Not only will we study the “core” of the Classical world in Greece and Italy through an examination of major sites and artifacts, we will also focus on the methods that have stimulated important new discoveries and ideas in recent decades.  We will consider how Classical archaeology has developed since its origins in the 18th and 19th centuries and focus on key debates and innovations in the field.  In addition, we will discuss important methodological principles such as numismatics, field survey, excavation techniques, and artifact analysis.  Several units of the course will be anchored in particular archaeological sites that exemplify the topics under discussion.

Carries the Global Cultures and Ethics & Leadership flags.

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

Fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Classical Archaeology: Methods and Approaches

The archaeology of the Classical world is an enormously wide-ranging field, encompassing archaeological fieldwork of all kinds over thousands of miles.  This course will be your introduction to this diverse and fascinating discipline, both in terms of its scope and its methods.  Not only will we study the “core” of the Classical world in Greece and Italy through an examination of major sites and artifacts, we will also focus on the methods that have stimulated important new discoveries and ideas in recent decades.  We will consider how Classical archaeology has developed since its origins in the 18th and 19th centuries and focus on key debates and innovations in the field.  In addition, we will discuss important methodological principles such as numismatics, field survey, excavation techniques, and artifact analysis.  Several units of the course will be anchored in particular archaeological sites that exemplify the topics under discussion.

Carries the Global Cultures and Ethics & Leadership flags.

Food, Health, and Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean

Food is a major issue in contemporary culture: where it comes from, who has access to it, how it's prepared and consumed, how it affects our health. Furthermore, a number of current theories about nutrition base their approach on claims about the foodways of people in the past. It is therefore worthwhile to examine the actual evidence for the way past cultures produced, consumed, and thought about food. The ancient Mediterranean is a particularly good laboratory for this sort of investigation: it provides us with evidence from numerous and diverse sources, including literature, art, and archaeology, including the study of human remains. We can use this evidence to compare the relation between food and culture in antiquity with contemporary food issues, and to evaluate claims about the health and diet of ancient peoples.

This class will investigate food and drink in the ancient Mediterranean world from France and Italy to Egypt and Mesopotamia and from the late Neolithic to Late Antiquity, with a particular focus on Greek and Roman culture. We will read primary textual sources to understand what people thought about what they ate; we will look at ancient art to see how ancient peoples represented eating and drinking; we will examine archaeological evidence to see what the textual and artistic sources don’t tell us; and we will explore the field of bioarchaeology, which applies scientific analyses to plant, animal, and human remains to illuminate questions of diet, health, and nutrition in the past. By studying the values, social practices, and nutritional choices reflected in ancient foodways, we will come to a better understanding of the relationship between food, health and culture in both the past and the present.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Food, Drink, and the Body in Classical Archaeology

This course will explore material and iconographic evidence for the production, consumption, and social meaning of food and drink, and for their effects on the human body, in the Greek and Roman worlds.

Although the focus of the course will be primarily archaeological, we will also bring literary and historical sources to bear on the relationship between human beings and the things they ingest. In addition, we may venture beyond the bounds of the Greek and Roman world to discuss comparative evidence from other places and times, and there will be extensive consideration of social and anthropological theory related to eating and drinking. Students will be expected to present and lead discussion of various articles, and the course will culminate in a research paper on a topic developed by each student. Students will also be required to write a formal book review of a book related to the subject of the course.

Grades will be based on article presentations, participation in discussion, the book review, and the final research paper. Readings will be placed on physical reserve or will be available in digital form through Blackboard. Primary texts will be read in translation, although students with a knowledge of Greek and/or Latin are encouraged to read in the original languages.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Classical Archaeology: Methods and Approaches

The archaeology of the Classical world is an enormously wide-ranging field, encompassing archaeological fieldwork of all kinds over thousands of miles.  This course will be your introduction to this diverse and fascinating discipline, both in terms of its scope and its methods.  Not only will we study the “core” of the Classical world in Greece and Italy through an examination of major sites and artifacts, we will also focus on the methods that have stimulated important new discoveries and ideas in recent decades.  We will consider how Classical archaeology has developed since its origins in the 18th and 19th centuries and focus on key debates and innovations in the field.  In addition, we will discuss important methodological principles such as numismatics, field survey, excavation techniques, and artifact analysis.  Several units of the course will be anchored in particular archaeological sites that exemplify the topics under discussion.

Carries the Global Cultures and Ethics & Leadership flags.

Archaic Greece: Society and Culture

This course will cover a particularly interesting time in ancient Greek history: the Archaic period, which stretches from the time of Homer in the late 8^th century BC to the Persian Wars at the beginning of the 5^th century BC. During this time, many of the attributes that we think of as characteristic of “typical” Greek culture – the polis, or city-state; the symposium, or drinking-party; columnar temples; life-sized statues; figural vase-painting; lyric poetry – first emerged, as Greek-speakers worked out what they wanted their communities to look like, who they wanted to emulate, and how they wanted to distinguish themselves from each other and from their neighbors. Over the course of the semester, we will consider this period of massive disruption and change from a variety of perspectives, including literature, history, material culture, and art-history. Although our primary focus will be on the textual sources for the period, in translation, we will also pay close attention to the role of archaeology in helping us to understand the transformations that took place in Greek culture and society during this time.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

Fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

I have taught this course in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. In both 2015 and 2016, students in this course won first place for their research papers in an annual University-wide Information Literacy Award competition.

Within the last hundred years, the world has seen a transportation revolution, a communication revolution, and most recently an information revolution, not to mention two world wars and dozens of political revolutions of varying merit and success. Our own battles are increasingly fought with digital tools, with the results instantly visible in full color on television or YouTube. In this time of lightning-fast change, why should anyone care about a war that may or may not have been fought 3200 years ago, or read a poem about that war composed by, or written down by, or cobbled together by someone, or several people, or a host of anonymous bards somewhere between 400 and 600 years after that war was supposed to have taken place? At a glance, it seems a little ridiculous to spend a semester at the beginning of the 21st century thinking about Troy.

Look again. The Iliad is arguably the very first work of literature in the Western tradition, the ancestor of all the character-driven novels and movies that are a fundamental part of modern culture. For more than 2500 years, the broader narrative of the Trojan War has provided people and societies with a story they could use to work through their own experiences of war, violence, and human relationships. Its themes and characters reappear throughout Western art and literature, and the mutations they undergo provide a powerful tool to understand the cultures and times that produced them. And the irresistible 19th-century desire to find the historical truth behind the legend led, in large part, to the development of the discipline of Classical Archaeology. Even the inanimate finds from the first excavation at Troy refuse to give up their hold on the present: the golden treasure that Heinrich Schliemann smuggled out of the Ottoman Empire was carried from the smoldering ruins of Berlin to Moscow, where it was dramatically rediscovered when another empire crumbled. Scholars now fight each other over Homer's value to modern education, while the general public enjoys Brad Pitt as Achilles. The Iliad resonates even more powerfully at this moment in history, in which the experience of war, bitter hatreds, and the destruction of cities is yet again all too familiar. The Trojan War, it seems, is still not over. In the end, what could be better to think about for a semester in the early 21st century?

This course is about Homer and the ancient world, but even more than that, it is about the persistence of the past. I will ask you to become familiar with the stories of Troy, the world in which they were first written down, and the world to which they seem to refer. I will then ask you to use that familiarity to look at the way themes, images, characters and events from the Trojan War are used and transformed from antiquity to our own time. We will discuss together what those transformations mean for the places and times in which they occurred, including the present. In the process, you will encounter the birth of modern archaeology, the decipherment of Linear B, Greek and Roman art and literature, World War II, academic politics, post-traumatic stress disorder, and Hollywood.

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.

Food, Health, and Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean

Food is a major issue in contemporary culture: where it comes from, who has access to it, how it's prepared and consumed, how it affects our health. Furthermore, a number of current theories about nutrition base their approach on claims about the foodways of people in the past. It is therefore worthwhile to examine the actual evidence for the way past cultures produced, consumed, and thought about food. The ancient Mediterranean is a particularly good laboratory for this sort of investigation: it provides us with evidence from numerous and diverse sources, including literature, art, and archaeology, including the study of human remains. We can use this evidence to compare the relation between food and culture in antiquity with contemporary food issues, and to evaluate claims about the health and diet of ancient peoples.

This class will investigate food and drink in the ancient Mediterranean world from France and Italy to Egypt and Mesopotamia and from the late Neolithic to Late Antiquity, with a particular focus on Greek and Roman culture. We will read primary textual sources to understand what people thought about what they ate; we will look at ancient art to see how ancient peoples represented eating and drinking; we will examine archaeological evidence to see what the textual and artistic sources don’t tell us; and we will explore the field of bioarchaeology, which applies scientific analyses to plant, animal, and human remains to illuminate questions of diet, health, and nutrition in the past. By studying the values, social practices, and nutritional choices reflected in ancient foodways, we will come to a better understanding of the relationship between food, health and culture in both the past and the present.

Required texts: J. Wilkins and S. Hill, Food in the Ancient World (Wiley-Blackwell, 2006) (ISBN 978-063123551); J.-L. Flandrin, M. Montanari, A. Sonnenfeld, Food: A Culinary History (Penguin, 2000) (ISBN 978-0140296587); A. Dalby and S. Grainger, The Classical Cookbook: Revised Edition (Getty Museum , 2012) (ISBN 978-1606061107)

Grades will be based on participation in in-class discussions (20%), weekly blog posts (10%), two short (5-6 page) writing assignments (15% each = 30%), a midterm exam (20%) and a final exam (20%).

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

Fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag.

Grading:

Course requirements include frequent quizzes, an interactive group project, class participation, and three hour-long in-class exams. Grading will be roughly as follows: participation (15%), group project (10%), quizzes (15%), and exams (3 x 20% each = 60%).Required Texts:

• Exploring the World of the Ancient Greeks (J. Camp and E. Fisher, Thames and Hudson, 2010: ISBN 0500288747)
• Homer, Odyssey (trans. Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1997: ISBN 0140268863)
• Thucydides on Justice (P. Woodruff, Hackett, 1993: ISBN 0872201686)
• Ten Plays by Euripides (trans. P. Roche, Signet Classics, 1998: ISBN 0451527003)
• Four Texts on Socrates (T. West, Cornell University Press, 1998: ISBN 0801485746)

Optional Text:Herodotus, The Histories (trans. R. Waterfield, Oxford UP, 2008: ISBN 9780199535668) (an online interactive text of Herodotus will be our primary reading, so buy this only if you feel more comfortable with a paper copy)

Other readings will be made available in digital form.

This course will introduce students to the physical remains of Ancient Greek culture from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period.  The course will cover all sorts of archaeological evidence, from temples to vases to bones, but it will concentrate on the categories of architecture, sculpture, and painting (especially on ceramics). Through the examination and discussion of this evidence, students will develop a broad knowledge of Ancient Greek material culture, and a sophisticated understanding of the ways we can interpret it.  A focus on stylistic and formal changes and continuities in objects and monuments across time will help us look at long-term issues such as intercultural contact and sociopolitical development.  At the same time, in-depth treatments of particular remains and their contexts will address more specific questions of daily life, art, and ritual.

Fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

Greeks away from Home: Greek settlement in the Western Mediterranean and the Black Sea

This course will focus on the ancient Greek diaspora that took place between the 8th and the 6th centuries B.C., when Greeks from the Aegean established new communities from the Mediterranean coast of Spain to the Sea of Azov. Although this movement is traditionally referred to as “Greek colonization”, the Greeks themselves referred to these settlements as apoikiai, or “homes away from home.” The term “colonization” has been called into question in recent years, and scholars have been searching for new theoretical models to describe and explain the complex tangle of factors -- social, political, economic, religious -- that led Greeks to settle new areas and that conditioned the subsequent development of those settlements. This course will consider both historical and archaeological sources and their contributions to this discussion.

We will begin by exploring the notion of “colonization” and the theoretical discourse surrounding it, and we will examine alternate explanatory and descriptive models for this phenomenon in the Greek world. We will also address comparative  evidence for other ancient “colonial” movements (e.g. Phoenician, Hellenistic, and Roman), to better understand the idiosyncrasies of the Greek experience. Once we have established a basic theoretical and historical framework, we will spend the rest of the course on a series of archaeological and historical case-studies of individual sites, in which we will investigate both their local context and their development across time. Specific sites will be agreed on by the class, but the regions covered will include the Western Mediterranean (Sicily, South Italy, Spain and France), the Southern Mediterranean (Cyrenaica and Egypt), and the Black Sea.

Each student will be responsible for the investigation of a particular site, which will ideally play a significant role in a final seminar paper. Students will be expected to present articles, a site-based case study, and their research papers. Students will also be required to write a formal review (BMCR style) of a book relevant to the topic of the course. Grades will be based on participation in class discussions, article and case-study presentations, the book review, and the final research paper. Readings will be placed on physical reserve or will be available in digital form through Canvas. Primary texts will be read in English translation, although students with a knowledge of Greek and/or Latin are encouraged to read in the original languages.

Recommended text: J. Boardman, The Greeks Overseas, 4th ed. (1999), ISBN 978-0500281093

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag.

Grading:

Course requirements include frequent quizzes, an interactive group project, class participation, and three hour-long in-class exams. Grading will be roughly as follows: participation (15%), group project (10%), quizzes (15%), and exams (3 x 20% each = 60%).

Required Texts:

Exploring the World of the Ancient Greeks (J. Camp and E. Fisher, Thames and Hudson, 2010: ISBN 0500288747)

Homer, Odyssey (trans. Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1997: ISBN 0140268863)

Thucydides on Justice (P. Woodruff, Hackett, 1993: ISBN 0872201686)

Ten Plays by Euripides (trans. P. Roche, Signet Classics, 1998: ISBN 0451527003)

Four Texts on Socrates (T. West, Cornell University Press, 1998: ISBN 0801485746)

Optional Text:

Herodotus, The Histories (trans. R. Waterfield, Oxford UP, 2008: ISBN 9780199535668) (an online interactive text of Herodotus will be our primary reading, so buy this only if you feel more comfortable with a paper copy)

Other readings will be made available in digital form.

This course will focus on the ethnographic component of the Histories of Herodotus: that is, his discussion of the customs and cultures of non-Greek peoples, especially in books 3 and 4. Scholars continue to argue over the extent to which these descriptions accurately depict the neighbors of the Greeks, and the extent to which they reflect Herodotus' literary strategies rather than reality. Initially the accounts of the Egyptians, Persians and Scythians were taken as literal evidence for historical realities; then they were reinterpreted as symbolic narratives of the Other, a mirror for Greek identity; and more recently a middle course between these two poles has been charted. We will explore the primary text, the way it has been analyzed in scholarship across time, and the archaeological remains on the ground that relate to Herodotus' claims. In the process, we will discuss the modern concept of ethnography and the relevance of comparative anthropological evidence for the study of the ancient Mediterranean.

This course is also intended as a trial of new digital approaches to ancient texts. It will serve as a test-bed for a digital interface for Herodotus that provides interactive tools for mapping and network analysis. The Hestia2 project -- an initiative of the Open University UK -- builds on both the existing Hestia project, which maps the places mentioned in Herodotus' work, and the GAPVis project, which seeks to extract spatial and relational information from texts related to the ancient world (http://gap.alexandriaarchive.org/gapvis/index.html#index). These tools are meant to allow students and the general public to extract new meaning from ancient texts, and they will not require any technical expertise beyond the ability to use a web browser. The course will include a brief introduction to digital tools and resources for geography and networks in ancient studies. Students will be expected to make use of these tools and those developed by the Hestia2 project for both in-class discussions and research assignments.

All readings of ancient sources will be in translation, although students with the appropriate language skills will be encouraged to work directly with the original texts in their research.

This course carries the Writing Course and Independent Inquiry flags.

Grades will be based on participation in in-class discussions (25%), two short digital-resource assignments (20%), the presentation of an article or issue (15%), and a significant research paper that students will draft and revise over the course of the semester (40%).

Required texts:

• The Landmark Herodotus (Anchor Books, 2009)
• R. Munson, ed., Herodotus: Volume II (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Food, Health, and Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean

Food is a major issue in contemporary culture: where it comes from, who has access to it, how it's prepared and consumed, how it affects our health. Furthermore, a number of current theories about nutrition base their approach on claims about the foodways of people in the past. It is therefore worthwhile to examine the actual evidence for the way past cultures produced, consumed, and thought about food. The ancient Mediterranean is a particularly good laboratory for this sort of investigation: it provides us with evidence from numerous and diverse sources, including literature, art, and archaeology, including the study of human remains. We can use this evidence to compare the relation between food and culture in antiquity with contemporary food issues, and to evaluate claims about the health and diet of ancient peoples.

This class will investigate food and drink in the ancient Mediterranean world from France and Italy to Egypt and Mesopotamia and from the late Neolithic to Late Antiquity, with a particular focus on Greek and Roman culture. We will read primary textual sources to understand what people thought about what they ate; we will look at ancient art to see how ancient peoples represented eating and drinking; we will examine archaeological evidence to see what the textual and artistic sources don’t tell us; and we will explore the field of bioarchaeology, which applies scientific analyses to plant, animal, and human remains to illuminate questions of diet, health, and nutrition in the past. By studying the values, social practices, and nutritional choices reflected in ancient foodways, we will come to a better understanding of the relationship between food, health and culture in both the past and the present.

Required texts: J. Wilkins and S. Hill, Food in the Ancient World (Wiley-Blackwell, 2006) (ISBN 978-063123551); J.-L. Flandrin, M. Montanari, A. Sonnenfeld, Food: A Culinary History (Penguin, 2000) (ISBN 978-0140296587); A. Dalby and S. Grainger, The Classical Cookbook: Revised Edition (Getty Museum , 2012) (ISBN 978-1606061107)

Grades will be based on participation in in-class discussions (20%), weekly blog posts (10%), two short (5-6 page) writing assignments (15% each = 30%), a midterm exam (20%) and a final exam (20%).

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

Fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce students to the physical remains of Ancient Greek culture from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period.  The course will cover all sorts of archaeological evidence, from temples to vases to bones, but it will concentrate on the categories of architecture, sculpture, and painting (especially on ceramics). Through the examination and discussion of this evidence, students will develop a broad knowledge of Ancient Greek material culture, and a sophisticated understanding of the ways we can interpret it.  A focus on stylistic and formal changes and continuities in objects and monuments across time will help us look at long-term issues such as intercultural contact and sociopolitical development.  At the same time, in-depth treatments of particular remains and their contexts will address more specific questions of daily life, art, and ritual.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement; it may also be counted as an elective.

Grades will be based on in-class quizzes (10%), participation in discussions both in class and online (15%), a group project (15%), two hour exams (15% each) and a comprehensive final exam (30%).  The required text below will be supplemented by frequent readings in electronic form posted on Blackboard.

Texts: J. G. Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology. 5th edition, 2012.

This course continues the introduction to reading Ancient Greek begun in Greek 506. We will complete Luschnig’s Introduction to Ancient Greek and then, if time permits, we will read selections from ancient Greek authors, with an emphasis on Attic Greek (Xenophon, Plato, and the orators). There will be daily assignments on grammar, vocabulary, and translation. Regular attendance and active participation are essential. Grades will be based on participation/preparedness (10%); homework (5%); quizzes (15%); two hour exams (22.5% each); and a final hour exam (25%). Prerequisite: Greek 506 or equivalent (i.e. one semester of Greek). This course can be counted for partial fulfillment of foreign language requirements.

Texts: C. A. E. Luschnig, An Introduction to Ancient Greek. 2nd edition, 2007.

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag.

Grading:

Course requirements include frequent quizzes, an interactive group project, contributions to an online discussion board, two midterms, and a final exam. Grading will be roughly as follows: discussion board (5%), group project (10%), quizzes (15%), midterms (2 x 20% = 40%), and final exam (35%).

Required Texts:

Exploring the World of the Ancient Greeks (J. Camp and E. Fisher, Thames and Hudson, 2010: ISBN 0500288747)

Homer, Odyssey (trans. Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1997: ISBN 0140268863)

The Landmark Herodotus (R. Strassler, Anchor, 2009: ISBN 1400031141)

Aeschylus, Oresteia (trans. Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1984: ISBN 0140443339)

Thucydides on Justice (P. Woodruff, Hackett, 1993: ISBN 0872201686)

Ten Plays by Euripides (trans. P. Roche, Signet Classics, 1998: ISBN 0451527003)

Four Texts on Socrates (T. West, Cornell University Press, 1998: ISBN 0801485746)

Other readings will be made available in digital form.

Classical archaeology, the first branch of archaeology to emerge as a coherent discipline, is both burdened and enriched by its heritage. Long pressed into the service of historical research or confined to a fairly narrow compass of art historical inquiry, it has broadened its scope dramatically over the last half century to include almost every possible aspect of the material remains of past human activity. Methods and perspectives developed in other fields, from social theory to literary criticism to anthropology, are increasingly incorporated into the classical archaeologist’s toolkit. At the same time, classical archaeology is intimately connected with the study of ancient Mediterranean languages and literatures, and those who seek to carry out -- or use the results of -- archaeological research in the Classical world must be aware of the particular set of issues raised by this connection.

This thematically-organized seminar provides a forum for the exploration and discussion of the intellectual principles and debates that inform modern archaeologies of the Bronze Age Aegean and the Classical Greek and Roman worlds. It is intended both for students who expect to carry out archaeological research and for students of history or literature who seek a better understanding of the issues surrounding the collection and interpretation of the archaeological evidence they may draw on in their own work. Students will be expected to evaluate a wide variety of arguments, principles, and methods introduced through readings, presentations by guest speakers and the students themselves, electronic media, and visits to various campus or regional resources (the GIS center, SAMA, etc.). Subject matter may include, on the one hand, such theoretical topics as historiography, landscape, gender, colonial and post-colonial studies, agency and habitus, ethnicity and identity, the ancient economy, and mortuary analysis; and, on the other hand, such applied topics as epigraphy and numismatics, the study of ceramics, principles of field survey, remote sensing and geophysical prospection, excavation methodologies, GIS and computer applications, archaeometric analyses, and various other technologies and approaches. 

Texts:

B. Trigger, A History of Archaeological Thought, 2nd ed. (Cambridge 2006: ISBN 978-0521600491)

M. Johnson, Archaeological Theory: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell 2010: ISBN 978-1405100151)

S. Alcock and R. Osborne, Classical Archaeology, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell 2012: ISBN 978-1444336917)

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag.

Grading:

 Course requirements include frequent quizzes, an interactive group project, class participation, and three hour-long in-class exams. Grading will be roughly as follows: participation (15%), group project (10%), quizzes (15%), and exams (3 x 20% each = 60%).

Required Texts:

Exploring the World of the Ancient Greeks (J. Camp and E. Fisher, Thames and Hudson, 2010: ISBN 0500288747)

Homer, Odyssey (trans. Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1997: ISBN 0140268863)

The Landmark Herodotus (R. Strassler, Anchor, 2009: ISBN 1400031141)

Thucydides on Justice (P. Woodruff, Hackett, 1993: ISBN 0872201686)

Ten Plays by Euripides (trans. P. Roche, Signet Classics, 1998: ISBN 0451527003)

Four Texts on Socrates (T. West, Cornell University Press, 1998: ISBN 0801485746)

Other readings will be made available in digital form.

CC380: Food, Drink, and the Body in Classical Archaeology

This course will explore material and iconographic evidence for the

production, consumption, and social meaning of food and drink, and for

their effects on the human body, in the Greek and Roman worlds.

Although the focus of the course will be primarily archaeological, we

will also bring literary and historical sources to bear on the

relationship between human beings and the things they ingest. In

addition, we may venture beyond the bounds of the Greek and Roman

world to discuss comparative evidence from other places and times, and

there will be extensive consideration of social and anthropological

theory related to eating and drinking. Students will be expected to

present and lead discussion of various articles, and the course will

culminate in a research paper on a topic developed by each student.

Students will also be required to write a formal book review of a book

related to the subject of the course.

Grades will be based on article presentations, participation in

discussion, the book review, and the final research paper. Readings

will be placed on physical reserve or will be available in digital

form through Blackboard. Primary texts will be read in translation,

although students with a knowledge of Greek and/or Latin are

encouraged to read in the original languages.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course will introduce students to the physical remains of Ancient Greek culture from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period.  The course will cover all sorts of archaeological evidence, from temples to vases to bones, but it will concentrate on the categories of architecture, sculpture, and painting (especially on ceramics). Through the examination and discussion of this evidence, students will develop a broad knowledge of Ancient Greek material culture, and a sophisticated understanding of the ways we can interpret it.  A focus on stylistic and formal changes and continuities in objects and monuments across time will help us look at long-term issues such as intercultural contact and sociopolitical development.  At the same time, in-depth treatments of particular remains and their contexts will address more specific questions of daily life, art, and ritual.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement; it may also be counted as an elective.

Grades will be based on in-class quizzes, on-line discussions and assignments, two hour exams and a comprehensive final exam.  The required text below will be supplemented by frequent readings in electronic form on reserve on BlackBoard.

Texts:
J. G. Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology. 4th edition, 2007.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course continues the introduction to reading Ancient Greek begun in Greek 506.  Starting with a brief review, we shall complete the basic grammar and move on to read passages from various Greek authors.

Daily assignments covering grammar, vocabulary, composition, and translation will enable the diligent student to acquire a firm grasp of Attic Greek.  Regular attendance is essential.

Prerequisite:  Greek 506 or equivalent (i.e. one semester of Greek).

This course can be counted for partial fulfillment of foreign language requirements.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

C C 383 Studies in Classical Civilization:

Studies in various aspects of Greek and Roman literature, history, and culture.

C C 348 Topics in Ancient Civilization:

The development and progress of ancient civilization, including history, philosophy, literature, and culture. No knowledge of Greek or Latin is required.

Everyone knows about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but how many people can actually name them or even say where they were located? These feats of engineering, artistic and architectural majesty were spread across the ancient world from Babylon to Egypt to Greece. Many of them are now lost, but others remain. In this course we will explore the physical evidence for the Seven Wonders and also consider their cultural context and historical importance, as well as their significance for later writers and travelers. We will use these objects, sites and monuments to explore issues related to the study of the ancient past, but also the reception of that past in the modern era. Classes will combine lecture and discussion. Students will be required to present in class and to conduct a research project. The course has no prerequisites. It carries a Global Cultures flag and may be counted as an elective.

C C 380 Seminar in Classical Archaeology:

Topics given in recent years include methods and theory, Greek and Roman Naples, landscape archaeology, and Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

Fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.

Advanced archaeological instruction and research in classical archaeology.

Prerequisites: Upper-division standing and consent of instructor.

This course continues the introduction to reading Ancient Greek begun in Greek 506.  Starting with a brief review, we shall complete the basic grammar and move on to read passages from various Greek authors.

Daily assignments covering grammar, vocabulary, composition, and translation will enable the diligent student to acquire a firm grasp of Attic Greek.  Regular attendance is essential.

Prerequisite:  Greek 506 or equivalent (i.e. one semester of Greek).

This course can be counted for partial fulfillment of foreign language requirements.

Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course is meant to introduce students to this complex and intriguing culture and to its legacy in our own society. We will look at ancient Greece on its own terms through the examination of primary sources of all types -- literary, artistic, archaeological -- in an attempt to develop a more detailed and nuanced understanding of Ancient Greek society and culture between the Bronze Age and the Hellenistic period. We will also place the discussion of these sources in the context of the shifting meaning of Ancient Greece in the modern world, from the Homeric romanticism of Heinrich Schliemann to the meaning of democracy in the 21st century. Within a roughly chronological framework, lectures will examine Greek literature to discover what the Greeks said about themselves; Greek art and archaeology to understand how people lived and to hear the voices of those -- women, children, slaves, foreigners and outsiders -- who left no written testimony; and modern controversies to see what the Greeks say about us.

Fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

Carries the Global Cultures flag.

Fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought Course area requirement.