COURSE DESCRIPTION
The body is an integral part of experiencing the world, and has been since the time of the ancients. This course explores notions of the body in ancient Greek art, architecture and socio-religious contexts, combining traditional art historical approaches, the finds from archaeological excavation, and anthropologies of movement to consider concepts like the ideal body in Greek sculpture, the gendered body, or the moving body.
The rationale behind this course is the use of new critical concepts in archaeology to study the basic concepts of ancient Greek art and archaeology; while satisfying the curricular requirements of a basic, introductory class, the motivation behind the class is to introduce new ways of thinking about traditional art historical and archaeological materials. In effect, the intention is instead of a slide-and-lecture series of presentations followed by regurgitation of dates and names on exams, students will learn to think critically about the objects and concepts they are studying in a way that will enhance their understanding of how modern society views those concepts in our own world. The aim of this class is for students to understand the role of the body in the ancient world, as it is portrayed or taken into account in the art, architecture and archaeological remains of ancient Greek society. Students should learn to think critically about how a culture’s portrayal of the body in art is a strong indicator of how that society operates on many levels.
STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE
Each class will consist of a 45-minute lecture, 5 minute break, 10-minute presentation by one of the students, and 20-30 minute discussion of that case study (see Assignments and Exams). The course develops chronologically in conjunction with body-related themes, keeping it firmly situated in the Greek world and the material culture associated with each period. In this way, the stage will be set for more in-depth discussions of body theory and case studies.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
case studies: 10%
the body in the world today: 5%
pick your city: 5%
midterm exam: 15%
kinaesthetic approaches: 10%
the body in the world today, part II: 5%
final paper: 15%
final exam: 25%
class participation: 10%
ASSIGNMENTS AND EXAMS
Throughout the semester: case studies (10%)
Beginning in the third week, students will present 1-2 case studies each class period; everyone will have one presentation over the course of the semester. Every class session’s presentation topic can be found on the schedule; you will have the option to change your topic if you feel strongly inspired by another case study, and IF it is still relevant to that session’s framework.
Presentations will be 10 minutes long and should give a brief, solid overview of the chosen case study; the presenter should prepare at least two questions to start the discussion section of class. Each presenter will turn in a 3-5 page paper with a brief (1-2 pages) overview of their presentation, as well as a synthesis (2-3 pages) of the discussion it inspired. These papers will be posted to the wiki within one week from the presentation date for the reference of your classmates when studying for the midterm and final exams.
EVERYONE will present a very short (5 minute) city from Magna Graecia on September 30. These will also be written up and compared with one other city in a 2-3 page paper, to be posted on the wiki by October 7.
You are strongly encouraged to come talk to me at least one week before your presentation in order to plan for the structure and get help with finding sources.
ASSIGNMENT SPECIFICS
Tuesday, September 7: the body in the world today (5%)
How do you think about the body? To get you thinking, read the introduction to Susie Orbach’s Bodies (2009). Find an image somehow related to the body in a familiar world and post it to the wiki, along with 3-4 paragraphs describing an ‘archaeology’ of that body, keeping in mind the readings and discussion(s) up to this point. Explore how you think about the body: what sort of entity does ‘the body’ describe? What kinds of terms commonly describe the body? How is the body in your image different from or similar to other bodies, and what factors go into that similarity/difference? Finally, talk about the ancient body. How does it compare to the modern body? Can we talk about the ancient body the way Susie Orbach talks about the body?
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, October 7: pick your city (5%)
EVERYONE will present a very short (5 minute) city from Magna Graecia on September 30. These will also be written up and compared with one other city in a 2-3 page paper, to be posted on the wiki by October 7.
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, October 19: midterm exam (15%)
The midterm exam will cover all material through Tuesday, October 12. The breakdown of the exam is:
Image IDs (answer 6 out of 10 options; 5 minutes each): 30%
Short Answer (answer 4 out of 6 options; 10 minutes each): 40%
Essay (answer 1 out of 3 options; 20 minutes): 30%
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 23: kinaesthetic approaches (10%)
Read: Tilley, Christopher. 2008. “Body and Image: a phenomenological perspective,” in Body and image: explorations in landscape phenomenology 2. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 15-52.
At the end of his article, Tilley describes some of the questions we can ask about the body in relation to landscapes and images: 1) the body itself, 2) directionality of movement, and 3) relationships to the wider sensory landscape. He then lists basic research questions to guide such an investigation. Explore this notion, either in the context of Greek art and archaeology at large, in terms of one particular object, or images we find in the modern world; or you can critique his argument (or those scholars he reviews) and proposed methodology, among other options. Be prepared to talk about your critiques in class. After discussion, you will have a chance to revise or strengthen your critique as needed and turn it in as a 3-5 page paper on Tuesday, November 30.
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, December 7: the body in the world today, part II (5%)
Return to your original wiki post from two months ago (oh, how the time has flown by!). Post 2-3 paragraphs of how your interpretation has, or has not, changed with regard to the image you posted. What has changed, and why?
________________________________________________________________________
December 10: final paper (15%)
You should post a 250-word abstract and preliminary bibliography (2-3 sources) to the wiki on Thursday, November 4 about the body-related topic you plan to explore for your final paper. I will respond to it by Thursday, November 11 with suggestions and additional bibliography.
The final paper (7-10 pages) is due by Friday, December 10.
________________________________________________________________________
December 17: final exam (25%)
The final exam will focus on material from the second half of the semester, but will be cumulative for the entire semester. The breakdown is similar to the midterm exam, but the exam will be 2.5 hours long instead of 1.5:
Image IDs (answer 12 out of 18 options; 5 minutes each): 30%
Short Answer (answer 4 out of 8 options; 10 minutes each): 40%
Essay (answer 2 out of 6 options; 20 minutes): 30%
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CLASS SCHEDULE: READINGS, TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Thursday, September 2: archaeology in the ancient Greek world
What is Greek art and archaeology? Why, where, and for how long have people been ‘doing’ it? And how can a focus on the body act as a lens through which to explore Greek art and archaeology? Today’s readings introduce some of the background to how and why archaeology is practiced the way it is today, and raise some of the issues that surround the body in archaeology: embodiment, experience, boundedness, gender, otherness, beauty, and scale, among others.
Readings
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 7: how and why should we talk about the body?
Today’s readings push the issues raised last week further. How do these different authors deal with issues like embodiment and gender, how do they propose tackling them in the future? The body has been an integral part of experiencing the world since the beginning of human existence; but has that changed over time? Is there a danger in universalizing the human body, naturalizing our own and applying it to the past?
exercise: the body in the world today
read Orbach, Susie. 2009. Bodies. New York: Picador, 1-17.
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, September 9: traveling bodies
Cycladic figurines have fascinated both the public and academic worlds alike for a long time. This fascination has had serious consequences for the world of art and archaeology’s relationship to antiquities; academics have been excoriated for publishing unprovenienced figurines, while museums fight long, drawn-out legal battles regarding their collecting policies and repatriation. Today’s readings will focus on Cycladic figures and how their travels have influenced our knowledge of them, not just through today’s art market, but through the ancient Mediterranean, as well.
case study: Cycladic figurines
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 14: fighting bodies
Troy, like the Cycladic figurines from last week’s class, has long fascinated both the public and academic worlds alike. Today’s class will explore the world in which Homer’s Troy was situated, what remains of it, and how scholars are still working to explore the world that has captured the imaginations of so many.
case study: Troy
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, September 16: is it me or is it mine?
Today’s class will focus heavily on the notion of the boundedness of the human body raised in the first week of class. Are objects separate from the human body or part of its process? How does that change the way we think about the objects used in the distant past, especially those so closely associated with bodies: dead ones?
case study: grave circles at Mycenae
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 21: figurines at Knossos
What can figurines tell us about conceptions of the body in the ancient world? More specifically, can we read gender and sexuality as understood today into the material culture of the past? If not, how can we study ancient figurines in a way that is more faithful to their original conceptions (and is that possible)? Today’s class will explore figurines from ancient Crete within the context of their larger world.
case study: Knossos
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, September 23: contained bodies
How does architecture affect the way the body moves through and understands space? Today’s class will explore elements of domestic and funerary architecture in the Dark Age and Geometric Greece as they relate to the moving body and the dead body, as they are positioned within the structures we can identify from their remains.
case study: The Heroon at Lefkandi; the House of Tiles at Lerna
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 28: foreign bodies
How different is my body from your body? In the ancient world, Greek bodies were understood as fundamentally different from those of the neighboring ‘barbarians’ – and they were certainly different from those of the creatures of both mythic and natural worlds. Today’s class will focus on depictions of the Greek body and foreign bodies in both sculpture and pottery, exploring how we can try to understand Greek conceptions of the bodies of others and themselves.
case study: monsters and foreigners
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, September 30: foreign lands
Magna Graecia, or ‘Greater Greece,’ was the name for the areas – but particularly cities – in south Italy that were settled by Greeks over several centuries. The land they came to was not empty, but populated with both indigenous peoples and colonists from other areas of the Mediterranean. Today’s class will look at the places these people went and how their remains can help us understand these interactions, particularly in the context of those ever-so-helpful kind of remains: funerary goods and architecture.
case study: Magna Graecia: pick your city
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, October 5: bodies of heroes
Ancient pottery stands as one of the most voluminous, and informative, kinds of artifact from the ancient world for reconstructing ancient life. Vessels, when whole, are known as bodies themselves, so it is in a self-referential way that so many ancient clay vessels depict bodies. Today’s class will explore the relationship between the clay bodies and the bodies depicted on them, as well as look in detail at the portrayal of Homeric scenes on vessels.
case study: Homeric themes on pottery
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, October 7: bodies of gods, houses of gods
Ancient Greek gods were portrayed in human form, and the presence of the god in the temples of ancient Greek religion was central to its operation. But in what ways were gods understood to be ‘present’ – and how did their bodily representations convey that? What does it imply about the ancient Greeks that they understood their gods to be like themselves?
case study: Delphi
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, October 12: fallen bodies, bodies in pain
Evident emotion and pain say something about Greek conceptions of the body in their art. But do all bodies express the same emotions in the same way? Today’s class will attempt to understand what we can say about embodied emotion as manifested in Greek art and architecture.
case study: Temple of Aphaia at Aegina
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, October 14: bodies on the walls, bodies on the floors
What is it like for a body to move through a space that is covered in bodies and depictions of the spaces they occupy? Why would the ancient Greeks portray bodies on their walls and floors, anyway? This class will investigate these questions through wall paintings and floor mosaics, situating them as medium-specific experiences for bodies in the ancient world.
case studies: Tomb of the Diver at Poseidonia; pebble mosaics in Greece
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, October 19: review for midterm exam.
_______________________________________________________________________
Thursday, October 21: midterm exam.
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, October 26:
case study: Phidias and Polykleitos
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, October 28: beautiful (gendered) bodies
The world over, the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens is one of the most famous buildings. But what can its structure and decoration tell us about ancient Athenians? Today’s class will look at the building and its friezes in the context of ideas of beauty and gender, as well as contemporary comparisons.
case study: Parthenon
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 2: urban bodies and suffering bodies
As important as the Parthenon is to understanding the Greek classical period, it cannot really be understand removed from the world in which it was situated. Today’s class will explore the city of Athens and think about how the details of moving through the city would have influenced the way the inhabiting or visiting it might have understood both the city and themselves.
case study: Acropolis
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, November 4: finding bodies
As has been emphasized several times over the course of the semester, funerary goods and architecture are one major way art historians and archaeologists have understood the ancient body and how it reflects contemporary norms and ideals. What do rich and monumental tombs tell us about the people in them and the people who actually made them, and even the people who visit them or even just see them?
case study: Royal Tombs at Vergina
**Final paper abstracts due**
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 9: love(ing)ly bodies
What was love in the ancient world? Can you see it in their art? Today’s class will continue an exploration of beauty and gender from earlier weeks with a specific focus on how love and lust can be identified in ancient art.
case study: Knidian Aphrodite
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, November 11: Public bodies, performing bodies
In the ancient world, separation of the sacred and the state would have been an odd concept: there were no separable realms that could be termed ‘secular’ or ‘religious’, because both were inextricably intertwined in the daily lives of the ancient Greeks. This week’s class will explore the role of sanctuaries in the ancient Greek world, with an eye toward elucidating how bodily practice would have informed the ancient people’s understanding of both.
case study: Pergamon
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 16: Private bodies
Mosaics have already been shown to be an important part of understanding interior space. Today we will focus on mosaics in private, domestic spaces, continuing an exploration of how spaces shape the body, and vice versa.
case study: Hellenistic mosaics: Alexandria, Delos, Pergamon
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, November 18: Greek art in the RISD Museum.
No readings; prepare for kinaesthetic approaches assignment (due Tuesday, November 30)
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 23: sensing the body
How does the way we view and handle art and artifacts affect the way we understand them? How integral is movement to understanding the world? (Answer: very.) What kind of affect does the very material out of which art, artifacts and architecture are fashioned have on the human body’s perception of it? Today’s class will center around touching and moving around ancient material culture: the interaction of it with the body rather than just looking at it.
exercise: Kinaesthetic approaches
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, November 25: Thanksgiving break: no class.
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 30: Remembering the Greek past in the Roman period
How do we remember the past? This week’s class will look at some of the ways the Greeks remembered their past in the Roman world. (It will also be a good review of some of the things we’ve looked at over the course of the semester.)
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, December 2: can we understand the ancient body?
How do we differentiate between understanding our own bodies and understanding those of others, much less those bodies from several millennia ago? What kind of challenges do we face in understanding the ancient body? How does an investigation of past notions of the body change the way we view our own?
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, December 7: understanding the body: can we even understand our own?
Today’s class continues the discussion from last week on how understanding past bodies affects the way we understand our own. In the end, what is the importance of studying the ancient past, whether through the lens of the body or any other approach?
exercise: the body in the world today part II
________________________________________________________________________
Friday, December 10: final paper due.
________________________________________________________________________
December 17: final exam
The body is an integral part of experiencing the world, and has been since the time of the ancients. This course explores notions of the body in ancient Greek art, architecture and socio-religious contexts, combining traditional art historical approaches, the finds from archaeological excavation, and anthropologies of movement to consider concepts like the ideal body in Greek sculpture, the gendered body, or the moving body.
The rationale behind this course is the use of new critical concepts in archaeology to study the basic concepts of ancient Greek art and archaeology; while satisfying the curricular requirements of a basic, introductory class, the motivation behind the class is to introduce new ways of thinking about traditional art historical and archaeological materials. In effect, the intention is instead of a slide-and-lecture series of presentations followed by regurgitation of dates and names on exams, students will learn to think critically about the objects and concepts they are studying in a way that will enhance their understanding of how modern society views those concepts in our own world. The aim of this class is for students to understand the role of the body in the ancient world, as it is portrayed or taken into account in the art, architecture and archaeological remains of ancient Greek society. Students should learn to think critically about how a culture’s portrayal of the body in art is a strong indicator of how that society operates on many levels.
STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE
Each class will consist of a 45-minute lecture, 5 minute break, 10-minute presentation by one of the students, and 20-30 minute discussion of that case study (see Assignments and Exams). The course develops chronologically in conjunction with body-related themes, keeping it firmly situated in the Greek world and the material culture associated with each period. In this way, the stage will be set for more in-depth discussions of body theory and case studies.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
case studies: 10%
the body in the world today: 5%
pick your city: 5%
midterm exam: 15%
kinaesthetic approaches: 10%
the body in the world today, part II: 5%
final paper: 15%
final exam: 25%
class participation: 10%
ASSIGNMENTS AND EXAMS
Throughout the semester: case studies (10%)
Beginning in the third week, students will present 1-2 case studies each class period; everyone will have one presentation over the course of the semester. Every class session’s presentation topic can be found on the schedule; you will have the option to change your topic if you feel strongly inspired by another case study, and IF it is still relevant to that session’s framework.
Presentations will be 10 minutes long and should give a brief, solid overview of the chosen case study; the presenter should prepare at least two questions to start the discussion section of class. Each presenter will turn in a 3-5 page paper with a brief (1-2 pages) overview of their presentation, as well as a synthesis (2-3 pages) of the discussion it inspired. These papers will be posted to the wiki within one week from the presentation date for the reference of your classmates when studying for the midterm and final exams.
EVERYONE will present a very short (5 minute) city from Magna Graecia on September 30. These will also be written up and compared with one other city in a 2-3 page paper, to be posted on the wiki by October 7.
You are strongly encouraged to come talk to me at least one week before your presentation in order to plan for the structure and get help with finding sources.
ASSIGNMENT SPECIFICS
Tuesday, September 7: the body in the world today (5%)
How do you think about the body? To get you thinking, read the introduction to Susie Orbach’s Bodies (2009). Find an image somehow related to the body in a familiar world and post it to the wiki, along with 3-4 paragraphs describing an ‘archaeology’ of that body, keeping in mind the readings and discussion(s) up to this point. Explore how you think about the body: what sort of entity does ‘the body’ describe? What kinds of terms commonly describe the body? How is the body in your image different from or similar to other bodies, and what factors go into that similarity/difference? Finally, talk about the ancient body. How does it compare to the modern body? Can we talk about the ancient body the way Susie Orbach talks about the body?
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, October 7: pick your city (5%)
EVERYONE will present a very short (5 minute) city from Magna Graecia on September 30. These will also be written up and compared with one other city in a 2-3 page paper, to be posted on the wiki by October 7.
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, October 19: midterm exam (15%)
The midterm exam will cover all material through Tuesday, October 12. The breakdown of the exam is:
Image IDs (answer 6 out of 10 options; 5 minutes each): 30%
Short Answer (answer 4 out of 6 options; 10 minutes each): 40%
Essay (answer 1 out of 3 options; 20 minutes): 30%
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 23: kinaesthetic approaches (10%)
Read: Tilley, Christopher. 2008. “Body and Image: a phenomenological perspective,” in Body and image: explorations in landscape phenomenology 2. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 15-52.
At the end of his article, Tilley describes some of the questions we can ask about the body in relation to landscapes and images: 1) the body itself, 2) directionality of movement, and 3) relationships to the wider sensory landscape. He then lists basic research questions to guide such an investigation. Explore this notion, either in the context of Greek art and archaeology at large, in terms of one particular object, or images we find in the modern world; or you can critique his argument (or those scholars he reviews) and proposed methodology, among other options. Be prepared to talk about your critiques in class. After discussion, you will have a chance to revise or strengthen your critique as needed and turn it in as a 3-5 page paper on Tuesday, November 30.
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, December 7: the body in the world today, part II (5%)
Return to your original wiki post from two months ago (oh, how the time has flown by!). Post 2-3 paragraphs of how your interpretation has, or has not, changed with regard to the image you posted. What has changed, and why?
________________________________________________________________________
December 10: final paper (15%)
You should post a 250-word abstract and preliminary bibliography (2-3 sources) to the wiki on Thursday, November 4 about the body-related topic you plan to explore for your final paper. I will respond to it by Thursday, November 11 with suggestions and additional bibliography.
The final paper (7-10 pages) is due by Friday, December 10.
________________________________________________________________________
December 17: final exam (25%)
The final exam will focus on material from the second half of the semester, but will be cumulative for the entire semester. The breakdown is similar to the midterm exam, but the exam will be 2.5 hours long instead of 1.5:
Image IDs (answer 12 out of 18 options; 5 minutes each): 30%
Short Answer (answer 4 out of 8 options; 10 minutes each): 40%
Essay (answer 2 out of 6 options; 20 minutes): 30%
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CLASS SCHEDULE: READINGS, TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Thursday, September 2: archaeology in the ancient Greek world
What is Greek art and archaeology? Why, where, and for how long have people been ‘doing’ it? And how can a focus on the body act as a lens through which to explore Greek art and archaeology? Today’s readings introduce some of the background to how and why archaeology is practiced the way it is today, and raise some of the issues that surround the body in archaeology: embodiment, experience, boundedness, gender, otherness, beauty, and scale, among others.
Readings
- Pedley, John. 2002. “Introduction,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 10-25.
- Davis, Jack L. 2007. “Doing Archaeology in the Classical Lands: The Greek World,” in Classical Archaeology, ed. Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 53-68.
- Csordas, TJ. 1994. “Introduction: the body as representation and being-in-the- world,” in Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self, ed. TJ Csordas. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1-24.
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 7: how and why should we talk about the body?
Today’s readings push the issues raised last week further. How do these different authors deal with issues like embodiment and gender, how do they propose tackling them in the future? The body has been an integral part of experiencing the world since the beginning of human existence; but has that changed over time? Is there a danger in universalizing the human body, naturalizing our own and applying it to the past?
- Boric, Dusan and John Robb. 2008. “Body theory in archaeology,” in Past Bodies: Body-Centered Research in Archaeology, ed. Dusan Boric and John Robb. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1-7.
- Hamilakis, Yannis, Mark Pluciennik and Sarah Tarlow. 2002. “Introduction: Thinking through the body,” in Thinking through the Body: Archaeologies of Corporeality, ed. Yannis Hamilakis, Mark Pluciennik and Sarah Tarlow. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1-21.
- Joyce, Rosemary A. 2005. “Archaeology of the body,” Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 139-158.
- suggested: Gallagher, Shaun. 2005. “The terms of embodiment,” in How the Body Shapes the Mind. New York: Clarendon, 17-39.
exercise: the body in the world today
read Orbach, Susie. 2009. Bodies. New York: Picador, 1-17.
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, September 9: traveling bodies
Cycladic figurines have fascinated both the public and academic worlds alike for a long time. This fascination has had serious consequences for the world of art and archaeology’s relationship to antiquities; academics have been excoriated for publishing unprovenienced figurines, while museums fight long, drawn-out legal battles regarding their collecting policies and repatriation. Today’s readings will focus on Cycladic figures and how their travels have influenced our knowledge of them, not just through today’s art market, but through the ancient Mediterranean, as well.
- Pedley, John. 2002. “The Aegean in the Third Millennium, c. 3000-2000 BC,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 26-41.
- Broodbank, Cyprian. 2002. “Paint, Paddles, and the Politics of Value,” in An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 247-275. (optional: Chapter 9, “Ulysses without sails,” pp. 276-315)
- Gill, David W. J. and Christopher Chippindale. 1993. “Material and Intellectual Consequences of Esteem for Cycladic Figurines,” American Journal of Archaeology 97.4: 601-659.
case study: Cycladic figurines
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 14: fighting bodies
Troy, like the Cycladic figurines from last week’s class, has long fascinated both the public and academic worlds alike. Today’s class will explore the world in which Homer’s Troy was situated, what remains of it, and how scholars are still working to explore the world that has captured the imaginations of so many.
- Pedley, John. 2002. “The Middle Bronze Age, c. 2000-1550 BC,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 42-61.
- Rose, C. Brian. 1998. “Troy and the Historical Imagination,” The Classical World 91.5: 405-413.
- check out: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/troia/eng/index.html
case study: Troy
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, September 16: is it me or is it mine?
Today’s class will focus heavily on the notion of the boundedness of the human body raised in the first week of class. Are objects separate from the human body or part of its process? How does that change the way we think about the objects used in the distant past, especially those so closely associated with bodies: dead ones?
- Pedley, John. 2002. “The Late Bronze Age, c. 1550-1100 BC,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 62-105.
- Malafouris, Lambros. 2008. “Is it ‘me’ or is it ‘mine’? The Mycenaean sword as a body-part,” in Past Bodies: Body-Centered Research in Archaeology, ed. Dusan Boric and John Robb. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 115-122.
case study: grave circles at Mycenae
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 21: figurines at Knossos
What can figurines tell us about conceptions of the body in the ancient world? More specifically, can we read gender and sexuality as understood today into the material culture of the past? If not, how can we study ancient figurines in a way that is more faithful to their original conceptions (and is that possible)? Today’s class will explore figurines from ancient Crete within the context of their larger world.
- Alberti, Benjamin. 2001. “Faience goddesses and ivory bull-leapers: the aesthetics of sexual difference at late bronze age Knossos,” World Archaeology 33: 189- 205.
- Morris, Christine and Alan Peatfield. 2002. “Feeling Through the Body: Gesture in Cretan Bronze Age Religion,” in Thinking through the Body: Archaeologies of Corporeality, ed. Yannis Hamilakis, Mark Pluciennik and Sarah Tarlow. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 105-120.
- Hitchcock, Louise A. 1997. “Engendering domination: a structural and contextual analysis of Minoan Neopalatial bronze figurines,” in Invisible People and Processes: Writing Gender and Childhood into European Archaeology, ed. Jenny Moore and Eleanor Scott. London and New York: Leciester University Press, 113-130.
case study: Knossos
________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, September 23: contained bodies
How does architecture affect the way the body moves through and understands space? Today’s class will explore elements of domestic and funerary architecture in the Dark Age and Geometric Greece as they relate to the moving body and the dead body, as they are positioned within the structures we can identify from their remains.
- Pedley, John. 2002. “The Dark Age and Geometric Greece, c. 1100-700 BC,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.,106- 125.
- Nevett, Lisa. 2007. “Housing and Households: the Greek World,” in Classical Archaeology, ed. Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne. Malden, MA: Blackwell. (read Domestic Space in the Early Iron Age: Defining a ‘House’, pp. 205-209)
- Whitley, J. “Cycles of Collapse in Greek Prehistory: The House of the Tiles at Lerna and the ‘Heroon’ at Lefkandi,” in Explaining Social Change: Studies in Honour of Colin Renfrew, ed. J. Cherry, C. Scarre and S. Shennan. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. 193-201.
- Weiberg, Erika. 2007. “The house: perceptions of the bounded space,” in Thinking the Bronze Age: Life and Death in Early Helladic Greece. Boreas: Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilization 29. Uppsala: Uppsala Universiteit, 27-57.
case study: The Heroon at Lefkandi; the House of Tiles at Lerna
________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, September 28: foreign bodies
How different is my body from your body? In the ancient world, Greek bodies were understood as fundamentally different from those of the neighboring ‘barbarians’ – and they were certainly different from those of the creatures of both mythic and natural worlds. Today’s class will focus on depictions of the Greek body and foreign bodies in both sculpture and pottery, exploring how we can try to understand Greek conceptions of the bodies of others and themselves.
- Pedley, John. 2002. “The Orientalizing Period, c. 700-600 BC,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 126-151.
- Morris, Sarah P. 2007. “Linking with a Wider World: Greeks and ‘Barbarians’,” in Classical Archaeology, ed. Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 383-400.
- Stewart, Andrew. 1997. “Beyond the Walls,” in Art, Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 182-204.
case study: monsters and foreigners
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Thursday, September 30: foreign lands
Magna Graecia, or ‘Greater Greece,’ was the name for the areas – but particularly cities – in south Italy that were settled by Greeks over several centuries. The land they came to was not empty, but populated with both indigenous peoples and colonists from other areas of the Mediterranean. Today’s class will look at the places these people went and how their remains can help us understand these interactions, particularly in the context of those ever-so-helpful kind of remains: funerary goods and architecture.
- Coldstream, J.N. 2003. “Italy and Sicily: Trade and Colonies,” in Geometric Greece 900-700 BC. London and New York: Routledge, 221-245.
- Frederiksen, R. 1999. “From Death to Life. The Cemetery of Fusco and the Reconstruction of Early Colonial Society,” in Ancient Greeks West and East, ed. Gocha R. Tsetskhladze. Leiden: Brill, 229-266.
case study: Magna Graecia: pick your city
- Cerchiai, Lorena Jannelli and Fausto Longo. 2002. The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum.
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Tuesday, October 5: bodies of heroes
Ancient pottery stands as one of the most voluminous, and informative, kinds of artifact from the ancient world for reconstructing ancient life. Vessels, when whole, are known as bodies themselves, so it is in a self-referential way that so many ancient clay vessels depict bodies. Today’s class will explore the relationship between the clay bodies and the bodies depicted on them, as well as look in detail at the portrayal of Homeric scenes on vessels.
- Pedley, John. “Archaic Greece, c. 600-480 BC,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 152-207.
- Clark, A.J. 2002. Understanding Greek Vases. Getty Trust Publications, 1-20, 65-151 passim
- Woodford, Susan and Margot Loudon. 1980. “Two Trojan Themes: The Iconography of Ajax Carrying the Body of Achilles and of Aeneas,” American Journal of Archaeology 84.1: 25-40.
case study: Homeric themes on pottery
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Thursday, October 7: bodies of gods, houses of gods
Ancient Greek gods were portrayed in human form, and the presence of the god in the temples of ancient Greek religion was central to its operation. But in what ways were gods understood to be ‘present’ – and how did their bodily representations convey that? What does it imply about the ancient Greeks that they understood their gods to be like themselves?
- Pedley, John G. 2005. “Sanctuary Histories: Delphi,” in Sanctuaries in the Sacred in the ancient Greek world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 135-153.
- Vernant, Jean-Pierre. 1989. “Dim Body, Dazzling Body,” in Fragments for a History of the Human Body, Part One, ed. Michael Feher, with Ramona Naddaff and Nadia Tazi. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 18- 43.
- Tanner, Jeremy. 2001. “Nature, culture and the body in classical Greek religious art,” World Archaeology 33.2: 257-276.
case study: Delphi
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Tuesday, October 12: fallen bodies, bodies in pain
Evident emotion and pain say something about Greek conceptions of the body in their art. But do all bodies express the same emotions in the same way? Today’s class will attempt to understand what we can say about embodied emotion as manifested in Greek art and architecture.
- Politt, J.J. 1972. “Consciousness and Conscience,” in Art and Experience in Classical Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 15-63.
- Pedley, John. 2002. “The Period of Transition, c. 480-450 BC,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 208-238.
case study: Temple of Aphaia at Aegina
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Thursday, October 14: bodies on the walls, bodies on the floors
What is it like for a body to move through a space that is covered in bodies and depictions of the spaces they occupy? Why would the ancient Greeks portray bodies on their walls and floors, anyway? This class will investigate these questions through wall paintings and floor mosaics, situating them as medium-specific experiences for bodies in the ancient world.
- Pedley, John. 2002. “The Period of Transition, c. 480-450 BC: Pottery and wall painting,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 238-243.
- Dunbabin, Katherine M. 1999. “Origins and Pebble Mosaics,” in Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 5-17.
- Nevett, Lisa. 2007. “Housing and Households: the Greek World,” in Classical Archaeology, ed. Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne. Malden, MA: Blackwell. (read The Fifth and Fourth Centuries: Spatial Organization and Social Control, pp. 211-215)
case studies: Tomb of the Diver at Poseidonia; pebble mosaics in Greece
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Tuesday, October 19: review for midterm exam.
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Thursday, October 21: midterm exam.
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Tuesday, October 26:
- Pedley, John. 2002. “The High Classical Period, c. 450-400 BC,” in Greek Art and Archaeology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 244-285.
- Politt, J.J. 1972. “The World Under Control,” in Art and Experience in Classical Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 97-110.
case study: Phidias and Polykleitos
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Thursday, October 28: beautiful (gendered) bodies
The world over, the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens is one of the most famous buildings. But what can its structure and decoration tell us about ancient Athenians? Today’s class will look at the building and its friezes in the context of ideas of beauty and gender, as well as contemporary comparisons.
- Hawley, Richard. 1998. “The Dynamics of Beauty in Classical Greece,” in Changing Bodies, Changing Meanings: Studies on the Human Body in Antiquity, ed. Dominic Montserrat. London: Routledge, 37-54.
- Younger, John G. 1997. “Gender and Sexuality in the Parthenon Frieze,” in Naked Truths: Women, sexuality, and gender in classical art and archaeology, ed. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow and Claire L. Lyons. London and New York: Routledge, 120-153.
case study: Parthenon
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Tuesday, November 2: urban bodies and suffering bodies
As important as the Parthenon is to understanding the Greek classical period, it cannot really be understand removed from the world in which it was situated. Today’s class will explore the city of Athens and think about how the details of moving through the city would have influenced the way the inhabiting or visiting it might have understood both the city and themselves.
- Camp, John M. 2001. “Classical Athens,” in The Archaeology of Athens. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 59-105.
- Sennett, Richard. 1994. Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company. (read Chapter 1: Body and City [15-67] and Chapter 2: The Cloak of Darkness [68-86]).
case study: Acropolis
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Thursday, November 4: finding bodies
As has been emphasized several times over the course of the semester, funerary goods and architecture are one major way art historians and archaeologists have understood the ancient body and how it reflects contemporary norms and ideals. What do rich and monumental tombs tell us about the people in them and the people who actually made them, and even the people who visit them or even just see them?
- Politt, J.J. 1972. “The World of the Individual,” in Art and Experience in Classical Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 136-194.
- Burns, Lucilla. 2004. “Intimations of Opulence: Macedon and the fourth century BC,” in Hellenistic Art from Alexander the Great to Augustus. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 79-99.
case study: Royal Tombs at Vergina
**Final paper abstracts due**
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Tuesday, November 9: love(ing)ly bodies
What was love in the ancient world? Can you see it in their art? Today’s class will continue an exploration of beauty and gender from earlier weeks with a specific focus on how love and lust can be identified in ancient art.
- Burns, Lucilla. 2004. Hellenistic Art from Alexander the Great to Augustus. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. Read the Introduction (pp.10-25) and Chapter 5 Themes in Hellenistic Art (pp. 131-154).
- Stewart, Andrew. 1997. Art, Desire, and the Body in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (read Chapter 5: Of War and Love [pp. 86-107] and Chapter 8: Erotica [pp. 156-181]).
case study: Knidian Aphrodite
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Thursday, November 11: Public bodies, performing bodies
In the ancient world, separation of the sacred and the state would have been an odd concept: there were no separable realms that could be termed ‘secular’ or ‘religious’, because both were inextricably intertwined in the daily lives of the ancient Greeks. This week’s class will explore the role of sanctuaries in the ancient Greek world, with an eye toward elucidating how bodily practice would have informed the ancient people’s understanding of both.
- Burns, Lucilla. 2004. “Public Life: Hellenistic cities and sanctuaries,” in Hellenistic Art from Alexander the Great to Augustus. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 79-99.
- Kästner, Volker. 1998. “The Architecture of the Great Altar at Pergamon,” in Pergamon: Citadel of the Gods: archaeological record, literary description and religious development, ed. Helmut Koester. 137-162.
- Osborne, Robin. 2007. “Cult and Ritual: The Greek World,” in Classical Archaeology, ed. Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 246-62.
- Bell, Catherine. 1997. Ritual : Perspectives and Dimensions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 72-76.
case study: Pergamon
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Tuesday, November 16: Private bodies
Mosaics have already been shown to be an important part of understanding interior space. Today we will focus on mosaics in private, domestic spaces, continuing an exploration of how spaces shape the body, and vice versa.
- Burns, Lucilla. 2004. “Private Life: the Hellenistic house and tomb,” in Hellenistic Art from Alexander the Great to Augustus. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 100- 130.
- Dunbabin, Katherine M. 1999. “The invention of tessellated mosaics: Hellenistic mosaics in the east,” in Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World. 18-37.
- Nevett, Lisa. 2007. “Housing and Households: the Greek World,” in Classical Archaeology, ed. Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne. Malden, MA: Blackwell. (read: Into the Hellenistic Period: Housing as Status Symbol, pp. 216-219).
case study: Hellenistic mosaics: Alexandria, Delos, Pergamon
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Thursday, November 18: Greek art in the RISD Museum.
No readings; prepare for kinaesthetic approaches assignment (due Tuesday, November 30)
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Tuesday, November 23: sensing the body
How does the way we view and handle art and artifacts affect the way we understand them? How integral is movement to understanding the world? (Answer: very.) What kind of affect does the very material out of which art, artifacts and architecture are fashioned have on the human body’s perception of it? Today’s class will center around touching and moving around ancient material culture: the interaction of it with the body rather than just looking at it.
- Tilley, Christopher. 2008. “Body and Image: a phenomenological perspective,” in Body and image: explorations in landscape phenomenology 2. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 15-52.
- O’Neill, Maire E. 2006. “Corporeal Experience: A Haptic Way of Knowing,” Journal of Architectural Education 55.1: 3-12.
- Stewart, Andrew. 1997. “Tooling the body,” in Art, Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 43-60.
exercise: Kinaesthetic approaches
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Thursday, November 25: Thanksgiving break: no class.
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Tuesday, November 30: Remembering the Greek past in the Roman period
How do we remember the past? This week’s class will look at some of the ways the Greeks remembered their past in the Roman world. (It will also be a good review of some of the things we’ve looked at over the course of the semester.)
- Alcock, Susan E. Archaeologies of the Greek Past: Landscape, Monuments, and Memories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Read Chapter 2, Old Greece Within the Empire; Chapters 1 and 3 strongly recommended)
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Thursday, December 2: can we understand the ancient body?
How do we differentiate between understanding our own bodies and understanding those of others, much less those bodies from several millennia ago? What kind of challenges do we face in understanding the ancient body? How does an investigation of past notions of the body change the way we view our own?
- Shilling, Chris. 2008. “The challenge of embodying archaeology,” in Past Bodies: Body-Centered Research in Archaeology, ed. Dusan Boric and John Robb. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 145-151.
- Laderman, Carol. 1994. “The embodiment of symbols and the acculturation of the archaeologist,” in Embodiment and Experience: the existential ground for culture and self, ed. TJ Csordas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 183-200.
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Tuesday, December 7: understanding the body: can we even understand our own?
Today’s class continues the discussion from last week on how understanding past bodies affects the way we understand our own. In the end, what is the importance of studying the ancient past, whether through the lens of the body or any other approach?
- Gallagher, Shaun. 2005. “Introduction,” in How the Body Shapes the Mind. New York: Clarendon, 1-11.
- Orbach, Susie. 2009. “Bodies in Our Time” and “What are Bodies for?” in Bodies. New York: Picador, 19-32 and 165-180.
exercise: the body in the world today part II
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Friday, December 10: final paper due.
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December 17: final exam
