The class running Winter Quarter 2006
Main class page - Eight great archaeological sites
After two lectures about the history of archaeology and a sketch of European prehistory and ancient history, the course will run through the eight sites, with appropriate time given over to the management of the assignment.
The sites
Stonehenge | Gavrinis | El Amarna | Knossos |
Housesteads | [Namforsen] | Dunstanburgh | Olympia
Week 1 and 2 January 11, 16, 18
Introduction 1 – Archaeology in Europe - a short history
Introduction 2 - A short archaeology of Europe To set the scene with a basic framework of dates, periods, ideas etc.
>> [Archaeology - two timelines]
Week 3 January 23, 25
Stones in a prehistoric landscape. Mystery, mysticism and an archaeological answer to the meaning of Stonehenge. Mother goddesses and druids. Romantic landscapes and a sense of the English countryside. An anthropological perspective on prehistoric architecture.
Chippindale, C. 1994. Stonehenge Complete, Second edition. London: Thames and Hudson.
Chippindale, C., P. Devereux, P. Fowler, R. Jones, and T. Sebastian. 1990. Who Own's Stonehenge? London: Batsford.
Bender, B. 1998. Stonehenge: Making Space. Oxford: Berg.
This week the wiki will be introduced. (Stage 3 of the syllabus - Eight great sites - outline)
Week 4 January 30, February 1
Megalith in prehistoric Brittany. The megalithic phenomenon in northern and Atlantic Europe. Landscape sculpture among the first farmers of western Europe – sites of feasting and dark dealings with the bones of the dead.
Generally on megaliths:
Bradley, R. 1998. The Significance of Monuments: On the Shaping of Human Experience in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe. London: Routledge.
This week we will also brainstorm notions of site and place. (Stage 4 of the syllabus - Eight great sites - outline)
Week 5 February 6, 8
City of heretical Pharaoh Akhnaten. OK so this is on the Nile in Egypt. But I couldn't resist bringing it into the course - I did some work on it last summer and the place just blew my mind!
Kemp, B. 1989. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a civilization. New York: Routledge. Barry Kemp is the latest to excavate the site.
Egypt in Microcosm.pdfTwo teams will decide upon their focus for the site report and begin planning - Stage 5 of the syllabus - Eight great sites - outline.
Week 6 February 13, 15
Labyrinthine ‘palace’ of the Aegean bronze age. Sir Arthur Evans and his art deco vision of a lost civilization. The workings of his golden culture. A tour round the ‘palace’. New light on the enigmas of the Aegean bronze age.
MacGillivray, J. A. 2000. Minotaur: Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth. New York: Hill and Wang. A new biography.
Farnoux, A. 1996. Knossos. New York: Harry Abrams. A beautifully illustrated and short read.
Draft plans will be presented on the wiki this week - Stage 6 of the syllabus - Eight great sites - outline.
Week 7 February 20, 22
Project planning and team discussions. Some notes on landscape syntheses, February 22.
Rehearsal of oral presentations.
Week 8 February 27, March 1
Bleak outpost on Hadrian’s Wall, at the northern margins of empire. Spectacular traces of a monumental undertaking at the height of Roman power combined with archaeological insight into daily life in Roman Britain.
Oral presentations of project plans - Tuesday 28 Feb at 6pm Building 500 Archaeology Center
Bronze age rock carvings in the north of Sweden - a glimpse of shamen in prehistoric everyday life.
Week 9 March 6, 8
Feudal lords and the archaeology of medieval England. Ruins in a picturesque landscape and the medieval castle in northern England revealed through modern excavation. The feudal lord and the life of the hunt.
Week 9 March 13, 15
Sanctuary of Zeus and wonder of the ancient world. The remains of a monumental temple in an Arcadia dreamed by academics in a new German republic at the end of the nineteenth century.
Weeks 10 and 11
Stages 10 and 11 of the syllabus - Eight great sites - outline
Final oral presentations of projects - Monday 20 March and Wednesday 22 March
Delivery of site report - Friday 24 March
