Archive

Have you ever wondered how ancient societies understood the natural world around them? The people of Ancient Greece and Rome conceptualized nature as a mixture of gods and science, peace and terror, prosperity and challenge. Rural farmers, sailing merchants, conquering armies, and urban dwellers all saw nature differently. They expressed their relationship to nature through …

Have you ever wondered what the lives of women were like in the ancient world? Mythology is full of extraordinary women, and, statistically, 50% of every human who lived in ancient times was a woman. Yet finding ancient women can be difficult, given that they were excluded from many of the activities, big and small, …

Have you ever wondered how ancient societies understood the world around them, especially the worst parts? Today we can predict, prevent, and process disasters through scientific technology. Past peoples did not have such luxury, but they still had to make sense of disasters, natural and manmade. CLAS-B 312 serves as an introduction to disasters in …

Have you ever wondered if concepts like “female” or “male,” “woman” or “man” have been consistent across cultures? Or whether past peoples thought about sexual identity, morality, and orientation in the same way that you do? Maybe you’ve heard rumors that Ancient Greece and Rome were basically wild orgies, societies that contributed to their own …

In 79 CE, Mt. Vesuvius erupted on a massive scale, burying a large swath of the prosperous Bay of Naples area under meters of rock, ash, and mud. Cities such as Pompeii and Herculaneum were snuffed out, preserved for millennia until they were rediscovered in the modern era. Almost overnight, Pompeii became one of the …

Why and how did ancient societies represent stories in art? What can pottery and sculpture tell us about the role of story-telling in ancient life? How did visual art serve as a means of powerful communication across cultures and centuries? Explore these questions and more in Myth and Reality in Classical Art. This course is an introduction …

Come explore the material culture of Ancient Rome, a world of gladiators, gods, and generals, emperors, priests, and enslaved. Learn how the Roman army conquered an empire that stretched from Scotland to Syria, Romania to Morocco. Delve into architectural and artistic achievements that would not be matched for millennia. Evaluate how archaeologists draw their conclusions …

Ancient Greece and Rome have inspired filmmakers since the dawn of the Age of Cinema. Their gripping mythology has appeared in numerous renditions of Clash of the Titans, Hercules (Disney or otherwise), and Percy Jackson, and more subtlety in films such as O Brother Where Art Thou and Cold Mountain. Their history and culture lie behind movies such as Gladiator, 300, Pompeii, and any …

If you’ve ever attended a theater performance, listened to an orchestra, or been part of a chorus, you’ve witnessed the legacy of the Classical World. Theater emerged in Athens (Greece) in the 6th century BCE, as part of the worship of Dionysus, the god of overcoming social boundaries (and wine!). Within two centuries it had …

The past is a puzzle with no instructions and mostly missing pieces. Come find out how archaeologists put together what pieces we do have to reconstruct the cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome. Learn how to draw connections using a variety of evidence, including excavation, coins, and sculpture. Explore numerous issues for the study of …