Alternative Histories Through Art and Archaeology (CLAM045A)
This module description relates to the academic year 2011/2.
| Lecturer(s) | Prof B Borg (module director), Dr Elena Isayev |
|---|---|
| Credit Value | 30.00 |
| ECTS Value | 15.00 |
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Co-requisites | CTHM005 and CTHM006 |
| Duration of Module | Terms 1 and 2 |
| Total Student Study Time | 110 hours (including 20 hours teaching and seminars) |
Aims
The module provides a framework for critical discussion of historical and socio-cultural themes through the analysis and interpretation of material and visual culture as well as other forms of archaeological evidence. It addresses key debates on the construction and transformation of ancient communities, exploring notions of identity, cult, language, economy as well as forms of settlement and political organisation. A closer look at art and architecture provides the basis for an examination of the ancient viewer, representations of the self and 'other', as well as ways of reading image and space. Overall the course aims to give students the tools to access those histories and ideologies which appear unattainable through the literary sources alone, allowing for the expansion of existing narratives and challenging the underlying models which inform our understanding of key historical and cultural processes and constructs.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Module-specific skills:
An understanding and appreciation of the qualities and methods of using material and visual culture. The ability to work critically with different types of material/archaeological evidence and to use them in effective combination as a tool of historical and socio-cultural analysis and reconstruction.
Discipline-specific skills:
ability to collate and analyse widely different types of evidence, much of which is incomplete and ambiguous in its significance; to draw independent inferences about the relationship of myth to its cultural and historical context; to reflect critically on the origins, development and significance of traditional stories in one's own and another culture.
Personal and key skills:
the ability to apply key bibliographical skills, the latest forms of information retrieval, as well as word-processing skills. The ability to think autonomously and analytically on the basis of written and visual sources and secondary literature; to construct and defend a sustained argument (both in written form and orally); to work with instructor and peers in an independent, constructive and responsive way.
Learning/Teaching Methods
Two-hour whole group sessions; discussion based on prior study of set-text, prescribed secondary reading and handout material, with student presentations. Written assignments returned individually with tutorial guidance.
Assignments
Two oral presentations, and two 4000 word essays.
Assessment
Two oral presentations (20%) and two 4000 word essays (80%).
Syllabus Plan
Topics chosen from the following:
A) Archeo-Historical Section:
Material culture and historical questions
Approaches and Theories of interpretation
Explaining change: Crisis, Growth, Migration and New Trends
B) Visual Culture and Society
Visual Theory and History of Viewing
Reading Imagery in Pre-Classical Civilisations
i. Egypt
ii. Assyria
Art and Elite Space: Palaces in Macedon, Persia and Egypt
The visual culture of gender in Archaic and Classical Greece
Art and Kingship: Achaemenid Persia, Ptolemaic Egypt and Julio-Claudians
Persepolis
Representations of Greeks and Foreigners
Reception of Classical imagery in the West 1500 - today
Museology
C) Methods and Tools
Excavation Techniques: What the historian needs to be aware of
Archaeological Surveys: The assets and the dangers
The Organic Material
Epigraphic Evidence
Museology and display
Indicative Basic Reading List
S.E. Alcock et al. (eds), Empires. Perspectives from Archaeology and History (Cambridge 2001),
G. Barker, A Mediterranean Valley (Leicester 1995).
M. Biddiss, M. Wyke (eds), The uses and abuses of Antiquity (1999),
R. Brandt, L. Karlsson, From Huts to Houses transformations of Ancient Societies (1997/ 2001).
R. Brock, S. Hodkinson, Alternatives to Athens varieties of Political Organization (Oxford 2000)
D. Buitron Oliver, The Interpretation of Architectural Sculpture in Greece and Rome (London 1997)
E. Chilton (ed.), Material Meanings. Critical approaches to the interpretation of material culture (Salt Lake City 1999).
J. Elsner, Art and the Roman Viewer (Cambridge 1995).
D. Fredrick, The Roman Gaze. Vision Power and the Body (Baltimore, London 2002).
E. Gombrich, Art and Illusion (Princeton 2000, 11th ed.).
E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian (Oxford 1989).
I. Hodder, Symbols in Action. Ethnoarchaeological studies of material culture (Cambridge 1982).
P. Horden, N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea (Oxford 2000).
S. Jones, The Archaeology of Ethnicity. Constructing Identities in the Past and Present (London 1997).
E.N.B. Kampen et al., Sexuality in Ancient Art (Cambridge 1996).
S. Shennan (ed.), Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity (London 1989)
M. T. Stark (ed.), The Archaeology of Social Boundaries (Washington and London 1998)
