Unit name | Material Remains of the Past |
---|---|
Unit code | CLAS20059 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Professor. Momigliano |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Classics & Ancient History |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit introduces students to a wide variety of sources available to ancient historians: these sources include archaeological evidence broadly speaking, i.e. material evidence of various cultural practices: from sculpture to potsherds, from buildings to weapons, and from pollen to bones; they also include more specialized evidence related to epigraphy (inscriptions on various media), numismatics (coins), and papyrology (texts written on papyri). Students will also be introduced to the disciplines and sub-disciplines that study material remains, as well as relevant methodological and interpretative issues. They will also explore the contribution of the study of material remains to specific historical questions.
On successful completion of this unit, students will:
lectures + break-out seminars
1. Group presentation analysing a material object, with accompanying handout (5 minutes per student). 30% [assessing ILOs 2, 3, & 4]
2. Essay. 3,000 words. 70% [assessing all ILOs]
C. Brunn and J. Edmondson, The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy (2015)
M. Crawford ed., Sources for Ancient History (1983)
J. M. Hall, Artifact & Artifice: Classical Archaeology and the Ancient Historian, (2014)
C. Howgego, Ancient History from Coins (1995)