Unit information: The Minoans in 2022/23

Unit name	The Minoans
Unit code	CLAS37018
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Momigliano
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None,
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None.
Units you may not take alongside this one	None.
School/department	Department of Classics & Ancient History
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Unit Information

The historian C.G. Starr once famously remarked that ‘Minoan civilization is the only great civilization created in the twentieth century’ (Starr 1984). This unit examines the rediscovery, interpretation, and reception of this ‘civilisation’, which flourished in Crete during the 3rd-2nd millennia BC, and formed the background of many Greek myths and legends (such as Theseus and the Minotaur, and the labyrinth of King Minos). The unit starts with an analysis of the political and intellectual environment of late 19th-early 20th Europe, in which Minoan Crete was rediscovered, and examines how this affected contemporary interpretations and representations of this civilisation. Some of these interpretations have dominated scholarship on the ‘Minoans’ for generations, and some continue to be popular today (e.g. the notion of the Minoans as Europeans and worshippers of a Great Mother Goddess). The unit also examine how the ‘Minoans’ have been appropriated and portrayed in other fields, from Freudian psychoanalysis to modern literature, architecture, and painting.

The aims of the unit are to:

• acquire knowledge and understanding of the historical and intellectual environment in which Minoan Crete was rediscovered; of the dominant and alternative interpretations of the character and nature of this civilisation; of aspects of the material culture of Bronze Age Crete; and of the reception of the ‘Minoans’ in modern literature, art, psychoanalysis, etc.

• enable students to use the knowledge acquired in seminars and through independent research to construct coherent, relevant and critical arguments concerning the interpretative issues raised by the literary and visual sources studied.

• develop skills in oral and written communication.

Your learning on this unit

On successful completion of this unit, students should:

• have acquired knowledge and understanding of the historical and intellectual environment in which Minoan Crete was rediscovered; the dominant and alternative interpretations of the character and nature of this civilisation; aspects of the material culture of Bronze Age Crete; and examples of the reception of the ‘Minoans’ in modern literature, art, psychoanalysis, etc.

• be able to use the knowledge acquired in seminars and through independent research to construct coherent, relevant and critical arguments concerning the interpretative issues raised by the texts, images and artefacts studied.

• have had the opportunity to develop their skills in oral and written communication, by making seminar presentations, taking part in seminar discussions, and producing an essay and a written examination.

How you will learn

1 x 2 hour seminar and 1 x 1 hour seminar per week

How you will be assessed

3,000 word essay (100%).

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. CLAS37018).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.