Course Description
Examination of the archaeological, literary, and environmental evidence for the ancient city of Athens, from the Dark Ages through the Roman period, with special emphasis on the creation of the polis, its social, economic, and cultural systems, and its place within the wider Greek world.
Athena Title
Ancient Athens
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in CLAS 4340, CLAS 6340
Non-Traditional Format
This version of the course will be taught as writing intensive, which means that the course will include substantial and ongoing writing assignments that a) relate clearly to course learning; b) teach the communication values of a discipline—for example, its practices of argument, evidence, credibility, and format; and c) prepare students for further writing in their academic work, in graduate school, and in professional life. The written assignments will result in a significant and diverse body of written work (the equivalent of 6000 words or 25 pages) and the instructor (and/or the teaching assistant assigned to the course) will be closely involved in student writing, providing opportunities for feedback and substantive revision.
Prerequisite
CLAS 1000 or CLAS 1000E or CLAS 1000H or CLAS 1010 or CLAS 1010E or CLAS 1010H or CLAS 1020 or CLAS 1020E or CLAS 1020H or CLAS 3000 or CLAS 3010 or CLAS(ANTH) 3015 or CLAS(ANTH) 3015E or CLAS 3030 or CLAS 3040 or CLAS3050 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students will: **know the archaeological, literary and environmental evidence for ancient Athens, from the Dark Ages through the Roman period **know the key archaeological sites and museum collections for ancient Athens **know how to use a variety of primary (including archaeological) and secondary (including web resources) sources to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of ancient Athens **understand the place of Athens within the wider Greek world **understand the processes of state formation **engage in critical analysis and synthesis of the various categories of evidence for ancient Athens **produce writing appropriate to the subject of Athenian topography and history and to the disciplines of classics and classical archaeology. The writing assignments for this course are 1. Workshop Postmortems: short (e.g., 300-400 words) discussions of workshops that occur throughout the semester. These are low stakes assignments; there are generally four workshops per semester. Each postmortem is due by class time of the next class after the workshop. 2. A 20-minute long PowerPoint presentation and written text to accompany the PowerPoint presentation for a walking tour of ancient Athens to be taken by a historical figure in a particular year. This is a collaborative project for which students work in teams to create the presentation and written text. This is a high stakes assignment; all tours will be presented on the last days of class; all members of the team will receive the same grade. The description of the Athens in the walking tour and of the historical narrator must be historically and archaeologically accurate; the accompanying text will therefore need to include footnotes and a Works Cited page. Students may be as creative with this assignment as they wish, as long as they follow traditional research parameters. 3. A research paper (including a prospectus and first draft both of which will be read and commented on by the professor and WIP TA). This is a high stakes assignment, with three due dates: one for prospectus, one for first draft and one for final draft. The topic of the research paper should arise from work on the walking tour; other topics may be approved by the professor. For all assignments, students should consult the “Manual for Writing Papers in Classical Archaeology” and the “Information about Writing Assignments” posted on eLC for special tips, information, directions, etc.
Topical Outline
**Introduction: chronology, geography, source materials **Dark Ages: manipulation of the Mycenaean past, evolution of the polis, re-emergence of art, role of sanctuaries in state formation **Athens in the Archaic Period: development of the agora, Peisistratus on the Akropolis, social and political reforms, cultural milieu **Athens in the Classical Period: Perikles on the Akropolis, war and the archaeological record, dedications and the epigraphic record, changing values **Athens in the Hellenistic Period: Socrates and philosophy, intellectual power of the city, Athens and the Attalids, housing the poor and the elite **Athens in the Roman Period: Athens and the Second Sophistic, Pausanias, Hadrian in Athens, Athenian twilight **Ethics and Archaeology: the special case of Athens