All Courses in Archaeology and the Ancient World

The list below includes all courses ever taught in Archaeology and the Ancient World or in Old World Archaeology. For a listing of courses being offered in the current academic year, please visit "Current Courses". To browse websites for recent courses, including syllabi, please visit the JIAAW Classroom Wiki.

Primarily for Undergraduates

ARCH 0030 Art in Antiquity: An Introduction
Examines the art of Greece and Rome for its significance to the modern world and in the context of the diversity of the parent cultures. Includes monuments of antiquity from the pyramids of Egypt to the Athenian Parthenon, the Pantheon in Rome to the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Explores Pompeian frescoes and recent archaeological discoveries. A foundation for study of almost any branch of Western humanism.

ARCH 0033 Discovering the Past: Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory (ANTH 0500)
Interested students must register for ANTH 0500 S01.
This course is an introduction to the biological origins and cultural developments of mankind over the past 4 millions years. In particular we shall address the following: human evolution, the methods and aims of archaeological research, human dispersal throughout the world, first from Africa to Eurasia, and from there to North and South America, Australia and the Pacific. We will look into hunting and fishing and gathering lifeways. We will study the beginnings and results of settled life, agriculture, and animal domestication, the evolution of complex societies and rise (and fall) of Civilization.

ARCH 0050 Archaeological Fieldwork (Anthropology 52, Classics 5)
Focuses on the aims, scope, and tools of field archaeology, and the nature of archaeological evidence. Emphasizes interdisciplinary fieldwork techniques and the composition, function, and responsibilities of an excavation staff. Examines systematic versus ad hoc excavations and their respective problems of preservation. Students excavate model sites in a laboratory and present a team report upon completion. Enrollment limited. Written permission required.

ARCH 0100 Field Archaeology in the Ancient World
Always wanted to be Indiana Jones? This course, focusing on the Mediterranean world and its neighbors in antiquity, interprets field archaeology in its broadest sense. In addition to exploring “how to do” archaeology – the techniques of locating, retrieving and analyzing ancient remains – we will consider how the nature of these methodologies affects our understanding of the past.

ARCH 0150 Introduction to Egyptian Archaeology and Art
An introductory survey of the archaeology, art and architecture of ancient Egypt, ranging in time from the prehistoric cultures of the Nile Valley through the period of Roman control. While the course will examine famous features and characters of ancient Egypt (pyramids, mummies, King Tut!), it will also provide a wide-ranging review of the archaeology of this remarkable land.

ARCH 0160 Buried History, Hidden Wonders: Discovering East Asian Archaeology
What do Peking Man, human sacrifice, buried armies, lost cities, silk routes and treasure fleets have to do with one another? All are part of the rich and varied legacy of East Asian archaeology, which is today being re-written by spectacular new discoveries little known in the West. Beginning with Asia’s earliest hominid inhabitants, this course will explore the emergence of agriculture, early cities, empires, and world trade, in a colorful palimpsest of archaeological discovery.

ARCH 0162 Introduction to Chinese Art and Culture (HIAA 0040)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0040 S01.

ARCH 0163 Ancient China: Art and Archaeology (HIAA 0110)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0110 S01.
An introduction to Chinese art and culture, focusing on recently excavated evidence of material culture from the Stone Age through the Han Dynasty. Students will learn to use the materials and methods of archaeology, art history, and the history of technology, as well as readings in history, literature, and philosophy to interpret excavated materials. Weekly one-hour conference required.

ARCH 0200 Sport in the Ancient Greek World
Athletics and sports were as popular and significant in the ancient Greek world as they are today, and so offer an excellent introduction to its archaeology and history. This class will discuss the development of Greek athletics, the nature of individual events, the social implications of athletic professionalism, women and athletics, and the role of sport in Greek education.

ARCH 0201 Sport in the Ancient Greek World (CLAS 0210 O)
Interested students must register for CLAS 0210O S01.

ARCH 0201L Who Owns the Classical Past? (CLAS 0210 L)
Interested students must register for CLAS 0210 L.
This course offers a forum for informed discussion of a variety of difficult questions about access to the classical past, and its modern-day ownership and presentation, seen primarily from the perspective of material culture (archaeology, art, museum displays, etc.). Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. FYS.

ARCH 0250 Intimate Stories
Images tell stories that carry us to imaginary worlds other than our own. An arresting story in pictures engages us deeply, opening the doors of fantastic places and times. In antiquity many architectural monuments displayed pictorial narratives that animated public spaces and enthralled broad audiences. This course explores cultural aspects of visual narrative imagery from Western Asian and Mediterranean worlds.

ARCH 0260 Stealing History: Looting, Treasure Hunting and Other Bad Things
How do people get away with it? Who do we blame for it? How do we punish it? "It" is the archaeologists' worst nightmare: looting, treasure hunting, and the other bad things that can happen to the archaeological record - a finite and exhaustible resource. This seminar will consider how objects are looted, sold, and collected, and what mechanisms - legal, moral, military - can be used to prevent such destructive activities.

ARCH 0270 Troy Rocks! Archaeology of an Epic
What do Brad Pitt, Julius Caesar, Dante, Alexander the Great, and countless sports teams have in common? The Trojan War! This course will explore the Trojan War not only through the archaeology, art, and mythology of the Greeks and Romans but also through the popular imaginings of cultures ever since, to figure out what "really" happened when Helen ran off and Achilles got angry and the Greeks came bearing gifts.

ARCH 0300 13 Things
The course will explore a range of approaches -- material culture studies, science studies, design studies, consumption studies, the sociology of technology, archaeology, phenomenology -- in dealing with 13 things: the wheel, a Neolithic Megalith, an Ancient Greek perfume jar, the castle of Acrocorinth in Greece, a Moroccan watermill, a map, the pocket watch, barbed wire, the light bulb, a surgical blade, the portable radio, a Leica IIIc 35mm camera, and the personal computer. Returning to the etymology of a thing, the course argues that things are best conceived as gatherings of achievements that are neither wholly exclusive to any single era nor any immediate set of relations.

ARCH 0302 Object Histories: The Material Culture of Early America (HIST 0980D)
Interested students must register for HIST 0980D.
History is not just about people; it is also about things! Come explore the world of early America through the lens of objects--boats, dresses, plows, houses, wagons, watches, silver cups, wigs, blankets, land, gardens, hammers, desks--and the cultures that produced and consumed them. As a sophomore seminar (firsts years also welcome), this course is designed to engagingly introduce students to the basic concepts of historical study. Over the course of the semester we will explore local historical resources and take several field trips to historical sites, both on and off campus. Enrollment limited to 20 first and second year students.

ARCH 0305 Glass from the Past: Glimpses into the History, Technology, and Artistry of Molten Material Culture
Glass is unquestionably a fundamental part of modern life, but what is the story of glass and what makes it special? We will trace the 5000-year history of glass, from its discovery in the third millennium BC to its mass production in the 19th-20th centuries, exploring themes like technology, innovation, and craft. Archaeological and art historical evidence will be combined with anthropological and ethnographic approaches, including discussions with artisans, museum visits, observing glassblowers in action.

ARCH 0310 Death in the Ancient World
Eventually, face it, you are going to die. Yet the attitudes brought to dying and death, and the manner in which human mortal remains are treated, vary immensely through time and space. This class will begin by exploring the anthropology and archaeology of death and by analyzing burial rituals in contemporary society, before turning to the ‘death ways’ of the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds.

ARCH 0311 Death and the Afterlife in the Ancient World (RELS 0750)
Interested students must register for RELS 0750.
This course focuses on the evolution of beliefs and rituals related to death in and around the Roman Empire, including Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern cultures. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we combine methodologies from Anthropology, Classics, and Religious Studies. Topics include myths of the afterlife; books of the dead, magic, and death rituals; divinization, heaven, hell, and Last Judgment; and the impact of Christianization on Roman understandings of death.

ARCH 0315 Heritage In and Out of Context
We understand the past in part through a complex blend of artifacts, monuments, and landscapes. Yet each of these categories poses major issues regarding their preservation, conservation and curation, and how we use them to educate and to indoctrinate. This course will not preach any specific line, but encourage students to debate these highly complicated issues. Case studies will include the international diaspora of antiquities from the Enlightenment to the present, the impact of war and revolution, and numerous aspects of museum practice.

ARCH 0320 Media in Archaeology, or Archaeology in Media?
Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, the Discovery Channel: media has, to an unprecedented degree, shaped public perceptions of the discipline of archaeology, its practices and its values. This course will build critical awareness of how the media uses archaeology and how archaeologists use the media, for good and ill. Students will create digital narratives from their own research, and become competent ambassadors for presenting archaeological research and work in a scientific and engaging way.

ARCH 0325 "Dead White Guys": Greco-Roman Civilization and American Identity
Why does classical antiquity matter? How did a group defined as white and European come to represent America's ancestors? And by emphasizing this "heritage," who do we exclude? This course looks at film, popular non-fiction, education policy, public art, architecture, and archaeology, to understand how the myth of Greco-Roman origins was adopted by America's founders, and how this affects issues of race and belonging today.

ARCH 0330 Archaeology Under the Volcano
The volcano has come to represent a modern western conception of wild nature -- unpredictable and dangerous, ‘red in tooth and claw’ -- in authors from Byron to Freud, Derrida to Dickens. Archaeologists have brought similar attitudes to the study of volcanic eruptions such as Vesuvius and Thera in the Mediterranean world, and Xitle and Popocatepetal in Mexico. This course will begin with these literary and archaeological interpretations of volcanoes, then explore other non-western and indigenous perspectives. Our deeply embedded assumption of a sharp divide between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ will be explored and questioned.

ARCH 0332 Classic Mayan Civilization (ANTH 0520)
Interested students must register for ANTH 0520.

ARCH 0335 Archaeology of the Andes
This course provides a survey of the archaeology of the Andean region of South America (parts of modern-day Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina). From the arrival of the first Americans to the transformation of indigenous societies under Spanish rule, the course will introduce vital 'new World' civilizations such as the Moche and Inka. The course will also explore the politics and practice of archaeological research in the region today.

ARCH 0351 Introduction to the Ancient Near East
Interested students must register for AWAS 0800.
This course offers an introduction to the study of the political, social and cultural history of the ancient Near East, from prehistory to the end of the Iron age (ca. 330 BC). Both literary sources and archaeological evidence are examined as relevant. Near East is understood here in its widest geographic extent, including primarily the Mesopotamian lowlands, Iranian and Syro-Anatolian highlands, as well as the Levantine coast. The course not only offers a foundational survey of the historical developments in the region, but also addresses the broader methodological and historiographic problems involved in Near Eastern studies. State formation and the development of complex societies, cult practices and cuneiform literary traditions, art, architecture and material culture, issues of landscape and settlement systems, agricultural production, regional and interregional trade, and craft production will constitute the central issues in the course. WRIT

ARCH 0360 East Meets West: Archaeology of Anatolia
The crossroads between East and West in the ancient Mediterranean, Anatolia (modern Turkey) gave rise to the great Hittite Empire, the legendary kings Croesus and Midas, and was the scene of battles between Greeks, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, and Turks for world supremacy. In this course, we survey the archaeological history of human settlement in Anatolia from the Ice Age to the Middle Ages, tracing changes in art, economy, landscape, and religion.

ARCH 0370 Archaeology of Mesopotamia (Classics 1170)
A cultural and historical survey of Mesopotamia, tracing its origins and developments from prehistory to 6th-century Babylon. Both archaeological sites and literature are examined, as are works of art and sources for social and political history. Prerequisite: AE 3 or equivalent background in archaeology.

ARCH 0380 (Formerly AE38) Archaeology of Iran† (Anthropology 38)
An archaeological survey of the origins and development of the Iranian civilizations. Analysis of settlements, history, art, architecture, and characteristics of specific archaeological sites and their artifacts ranging from prehistoric to the Hellenistic period.

ARCH 0390 (Formerly AE39) Archaeology of Palestine (Anthropology 49)
Traces the prehistory of Palestine (modern Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan) from its beginnings in the Paleolithic to the end of the Byzantine period. Surveys history of archaeological research in this area, emphasizing significant excavations and their artifacts. Develops an understanding of the art, architecture, and modes of life of humankind from age to age, the changes introduced from one period to another, and causes and effects of those changes.

ARCH 0400 City and Sanctuary in the Ancient World
Examines the physical dimensions of the ancient city and the ancient sanctuary through archaeological evidence with special attention to aesthetic planning, urban planning and management, and the concept of public monumental art as developed in the ancient world.

ARCH 0403 Gothic Art and Architecture (HIAA 0440)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0440.
Examines Gothic art and architecture to explore its sources and "invention" in mid-12th-century France and to trace its varied manifestations in European art to the 16th century. Special attention is given to cathedral architecture and decoration. Weekly one-hour conference required.

ARCH 0410 (Formerly AE41) Mediterranean Bronze Age† (Classics 55)
Snake goddesses and bull leaping, labyrinths and gold masks, Linear B and Homeric heroes: these are only some of the most famous things about the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures of Bronze Age Crete and Greece. This class will also explore questions about the historicity of the Trojan War, trade and exchange; ritual landscapes; the origins of writing; death and burial; the eruption of the Theran volcano; and the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces.

ARCH 0420 Archaeologies of the Greek Past (Formerly AE42: Greek Art and Architecture)† (Classics 34, Classics 58, History of Art and Architecture 23)
From Bronze Age palaces to the Acropolis in Athens and on the trail of Alexander the Great, this course explores the ancient Greek world through archaeology—using art, architecture, and everyday objects to learn about ancient Greek society, from the mysterious to the mundane. It also considers how we experience ancient Greece today, including questions about archaeological practice, the antiquities trade, and cultural heritage.

ARCH 0421 Hellenistic Art (HIAA 0330)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0330.

ARCH 0423 Monuments and Monsters: Greek Literature and Archaeology (COLT 0811H)
Interested students must register for COLT 0811H.

ARCH 0440 Archaeologies of the Ancient "Middle East"
To understand the tensions of the modern Middle East, it is necessary to understand the region's past. This course will explore the archaeological history of Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, not least the political and religious agendas that scholars brought to the study of these lands. Prehistoric and early historic developments will be emphasized: the earliest human occupation, the “Neolithic Revolution”, and the rise of social inequality and political complexity.

ARCH 0445 Archaeology of the Bible
If all the places where text and material culture meet, the intersection of the Bible and the archaeology of the Holy Land is among the richest, and the most fraught. This class will explore the agreements, tensions and controversies between these two sources of evidence, from the early days of ‘biblical archaeology’ to the present.

ARCH 0450 (Formerly AE45) Archaeology of Jerusalem (Judaic Studies 45)
Examines the archaeology of the city of Jerusalem from David’s conquest in ca. 1000 B.C.E. through the Crusaders’ defeat in 1187 A.D. The contemporary literary sources, as well as the more recent scholarly debates and discoveries, help us understand the material remains of the relevant periods.

ARCH 0451 Jewish Art and Architecture from Antiquity to Modernity (JUDS 0080)
Interested students must register for JUDS 0080.

ARCH 0475 Petra: Ancient Wonder, Modern Challenge
The rose-red city of Petra in southern Jordan is a movie star (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). It is a tourist mega-hit (over half a million visitors annually). It was recently voted one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. This class will explore the history and archaeology of Petra and debate how best to present and preserve the site, as well as discussing (and planning!) Brown's ongoing fieldwork at this beautiful, but fragile, place.

ARCH 0520 Roman Archaeology and Art
Anyone who has ever watched “Gladiator”, “Spartacus”, “Life of Brian”, or “Bugs Bunny: Roman Legion Hare” has some image of Rome, the Romans and their empire. This course, while exploring and assessing these influential popular preconceptions, introduces a more balanced view of Roman archaeology and art, examining not only the “eternal city” of Rome, but its vast and diverse imperial domain.

ARCH 0521 Roman Art and Architecture: Hadrian to Late Antiquity (HIAA 0380)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0380.
This course examines the surviving environments and artifacts created to suit Roman tastes in the high and late empires. It also provides an introduction to the relationship between Roman art and the art of emerging Christianity. Beginning with a study of Roman art in the high empire, and ending with its demise of Rome as a capital in the fourth and fifth centuries C.E., the course focuses on an especially creative and complex period in Roman visual, cultural and religious history.

ARCH 0522 Roman Art and Architecture: Spectacles and Entertainment (HIAA 0320)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0320.
Spectacles offered the Romans innumerable opportunities for self-definition, on the individual level, the community level, and even the imperial level. Performance art cuts across traditional boundaries between media, and we will examine total ensembles as often as possible. Topics will include the amphitheater and the circus, representations of gladiators and charioteers, the architecture of propaganda and theater, and the triumph of victorious individuals as well as its opposite, the literal defacement of imperial portraits. Domestic spectacles will also be considered, including pleasure boats and vacation homes, dining rooms, gardens and sculpture collections.

ARCH 0523 Roman Art and Architecture: Julius Caeser to Hadrian (HIAA 0340)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0340.
An introduction to the major monuments in Roman art at the point when the Empire emerged up to the time of the creation of the Pantheon. No prior background required.

ARCH 0540 Art, Archaeology and Civic Life from the End of the Republic through the Early Empire, 40 BCE-140 CE
This survey course will familiarize students with the art, architecture and literature of Rome during the early Imperial era (ca. 40 BC - AD 140), through investigation of significant sites, monuments and museum collections in Rome and southern Italy.

ARCH 0542 The Visual Culture of Early Modern Rome (HIAA 0560)
Interested students must register for HIAA 0560.

ARCH 0550 Late Roman and Early Christian Art and Architecture
An introduction to the relationship between Roman art and the art of emerging Christianity. The course begins with the Pantheon and ends with the Hagia Sophia.

ARCH 0600 Introduction to Islamic Archaeology (Anthropology 550, History of Art and Architecture 480, Religious Studies 600)
Muslim societies are built upon a rich archaeological heritage of architecture, artifacts, and sites that stretches more than a millennium and spans a region from Spain to China. This course explores that heritage across time and space for what it can tell us about the various societies that make up the Muslim world of the past. Through examination of various sites as well as hands-on work with a collection of artifacts, this course examines the social worlds of this important religious and cultural tradition. I. Straughn

ARCH 0650 Islamic Civilizations
This introduction to ancient Islamic civilization will examine the interrelationship between the Islamic religion and development of Islamic culture. Students will use archaeology, political events, Islamic visual arts, and socioeconomic changes to explore the evolution and institutionalization of Islam, as well as looking at changing political and cultural attitudes and social structure. I. Straughn

ARCH 666 Cult Archaeology: Fantastic Frauds and Meaningful Myths of the Past
The pyramids and Stonehenge built by aliens? The power of the Mummy’s Curse? These myths couldn’t be true… or could they? Cult Archaeology examines popular and fantastic interpretations of archaeological remains presented in the press and popular media. This course finds the logical flaws in pseudoscientific explanations and the biases that underlie them. Discover the “truth” about archaeology!

ARCH 0678 Underwater in the Mediterranean: An Introduction to Maritime Archaeology
Shipwrecks, sunken cargoes, coastal ports: all contribute to our understanding of the maritime world of the past, not least that of the Mediterranean Sea. This course will explore the Mediterranean’s ancient seafaring heritage over time, in particular by studying ancient ships and harbors as remarkable examples of social and technological innovation and enterprise. The methodological challenges faced by archaeologists working on underwater and coastal ‘sites’ will also be examined.

ARCH 0680 Water, Culture, & Power
Water is the source of life. In the midst of global climate change, environmental crises over water resources, and increasingly ubiquitous political debates over water, we are beginning to recognize humans' complete dependence on water. This course investigates our long-term attachment and engagement with water using archaeology, environmental history, and visual, literary and historical sources. From sacred spaces around springs to ancient cities by the sea, we will explore the cultural and political aspects of water beginning with the Last Ice Age and ending with late antiquity.

ARCH 0770 Food and Drink in Classical Antiquity (Ancient Studies 1120, Classics 770)
Everybody eats - but patterns of eating (and drinking) vary dramatically from culture to culture. This course traces the mechanics of food production and consumption in the ancient Mediterranean world, considers how diet marked symbolic boundaries and gender differences, and in general explores the extent to which the ancient Greeks and Romans “were what they ate.”

ARCH 0800 Alexander the Great and the Alexander Tradition
This course focuses on a single historical figure, Alexander the Great, using him as a point of departure for exploring a wide range of problems and approaches that typify the field of Classical Studies. How knowledge of Alexander has been used and abused provides a fascinating case study in the formation and continuous reinterpretation of the western Classical tradition.

ARCH 0801 Alexander the Great and the Alexander Tradition (CLAS 0810A)
Interested students must register for CLAS 0810A.

For Undergraduates and Graduates

ARCH 1050 Old World and New World Perspectives in Archaeology
This course examines how archaeologists working on different sides of the world study the past. Archaeology in the Old World and New World has developed on parallel, but separate trajectories. While these approaches share methods and theories, they often interpret archaeological data in contradictory or alienating ways. In this course we will view archaeological topics from both perspectives, using examples from the Mediterranean and Mesoamerica, to try to better understand, and perhaps bridge the gap between some of our differences. Prerequisite: An introductory course in archaeology, either through the Joukowsky Institute or the Anthropology Department.

ARCH 1053 Global Origins of Plant and Animal Domestication (ANTH 1670)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1670.
A seminar providing the basic information on the prehistory of the Circum Artic of Northern Fenno Scandinavia, Russia, and North America. Not open to first year students.

ARCH 1054 Indians, Colonists, and Africans in New England (ANTH 1624)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1624.
The course explores the colonial and capitalist transformation of New England's social and cultural landscapes following European contact. Using archaeology as critical evidence, we will examine claims about conquest, Indian Extinction, and class, gender and race relations by studying the daily lives and interactions of the area's diverse Native American, African American, and European peoples.

ARCH 1100 Archaeology in the Age of Augustus
Rome's first Emperor, Gaius Octavian Augustus, ruled an empire stretching from Spain to Syria, from Britain to Egypt. Students will explore the social, artistic, and political successes and failures of this "golden age" of Rome's past. The course will assess a broad range of topics -- such as the creation of empire, art as propaganda, or the role of women -- within the context of Augustan ideology and history.

ARCH 1101 Age of Augustus: Topography, Architecture, and Politics (CLAS 1120T)
Interested students must register for CLAS1120T-S01.
Augustus Caesar boasted that he had found Rome a city in brick, but left it in marble. This course explores the transformation of Rome from an unadorned village to the capital of an empire. Was Rome's first emperor trying to fashion himself a Hellenistic monarch on the model of Alexander and his successors? Was he simply operating within republican traditions, which had been established through centuries of aristocratic competition at Rome? Our source materials will include ancient works of art and architecture, literary accounts, maps, and critical urban theory.

ARCH 1120 Pompeii
Pompeii is a dead city. Or is it? This course will explore what we can learn from Pompeii, and the neighboring communities also destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. We will look at art, architecture (public and domestic), and all the many remains of ‘daily life’ so uniquely preserved in these buried, but not forgotten, places.

ARCH 1120L Archaeology of Feasting (CLAS 1120L)
Interested students must register for CLAS 1120L.

ARCH 1150 Urbanism in the Archaeological Record† (Anthropology 1520, Urban Studies 1105)
This course investigates ancient cities in the comparative context of several archaeological regions. Considering contemporary approaches to urban space, we will explore urbanism in the ancient Near East, Egypt, and Aegean with comparative examples from pre-hispanic Mexico and China. We will explore the spatial and socio-economic structuring of cities in relation to festivals, state spectacles, monumental building projects, and other commemorative practices, investigating layered urban topographies saturated with collective pasts.

ARCH 1160 The World of Museums: Logistics, Laws, and Loans (Anthropology 1620)
This course will examine critically the collection of ancient objects. Through functional, historical, material and aesthetic lenses an analysis of the relationships between the cultural contexts of objects will be examined. Case studies, guest lectures and site visits (virtual and real) will be used to demonstrate evolving theory, practice, law and ethical implications of collecting archaeological objects.

ARCH 1162 Anthropology in/of the Museum (ANTH 1901)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1901.
This course will provide an introduction to the history, purposes, transformations, and internal workings of museums from an anthropological perspective. Students will learn about museums that focus on natural and cultural history related to anthropological studies of archaeology, human evolution, and world ethnography. It will cover the relevance of anthropological training to careers in the museum field, as well as the importance of conducting anthropological investigations in the museum environment. Enrollment limited to 20.

ARCH 1163 The Art of Curating (MCM 1700R)
Interested students must register for MCM 1700R.
It is sometimes said in contemporary art circles that curators are the new artists. Curating involves a wide range of activities, including research, selection, commissioning, collaboration with artists, presentation, interpretation, and critical writing. This production seminar considers curatorial practice as a form of cultural production, paying particular attention to questions of audience, ethical responsibility, and institutional context. Students give presentations, develop exhibition proposals, and curate exhibitions. Visiting curators present case-studies on recent projects. Readings include Douglas Crimp, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, and Nicholas Bourriaud. Enrollment limited to 40.

ARCH 1164 Methods in Public Humanities (AMCV 1550)
Interested students must register for AMCV 1550-S01 .
A survey of the skills required for public humanities work. Presentations from local and national practitioners in a diverse range of public humanities topics: historic preservation, oral history, exhibition development, archival and curatorial skills, radio and television documentaries, public art, local history, and and more. Enrollment limited to 50.

ARCH 1200 Topics in Old World Archaeology and Art

ARCH 1200A Early Italy
Focuses on the Bronze Age background to the emergence of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Italy in the Iron Age. Emphasizes the results of recent excavations, the problems of contact between the Aegean and Tyrrhenian areas in the Bronze Age, Greek colonization, and the urban development of the Etruscan/Latian region.

ARCH 1200B Pompeii (History of Art and Architecture 1200D, Urban Studies 1210)
Pompeii and its neighboring towns are the best examples for studying the life, art, and architecture of a Roman town. This seminar covers the works of art and the life in the town as reflected in the monuments excavated over the past 250 years.

ARCH 1200C Roman Iberia (Classics 1930, History of Art and Architecture 1200)
The archeology, art, and architecture of Iberia during the Roman presence from the Punic Wars to the beginning of the Arab conquest. The artifacts and monuments discussed will not only represent artistic production from Roman administrative expressions, but also a mixture of styles between indigenous art (such as Celtic) or expressions of syncretism or other cultural symbioses. Enrollment limited. Written permission required.

ARCH 1200D The Portrait (History of Art and Architecture 1200, Classics 1930)
Roman Crafts: The Study of Jewelry, Gems, Coins, Glass, and Silverplate

ARCH 1200E Topography and Monuments of Rome
Rome has been the scene of notable recent discoveries. This course will concentrate on the evidence for the so-called "regal period" but other topics, among them commemorative arches, the topography of the Campus Martius, and Christian basillicas, will also be taken up. A reading knowledge of Italian is highly recommended.

ARCH 1200F City and the Festival: Cult Practices and Architectural Production in the Ancient Near East (History of Art and Architecture 1200)
This course will explore urbanization, formation of urban space, and architectural projects in relation to cult practices and commemorative ceremonies in the Ancient Near East. Investigating case studies from early cities of fourth millenium BC Mesopotamia to Iron Age Syria and Anatolia, we will study processes of the making of urban and extra-urban landscapes in the socio-religious context of festivals. Enrollment limited. Written permission required.

ARCH 1200G Arabia and the Arabs: The Making of an Ethnos (Anthropology 1650)
This course will survey the archaeology and history of the Arabs and Arabia from before their emergence in the historical record to the modern period. Our particular focus concerns their relationship with the rise of Islam as well as the imperial politics of the pre-Islamic Near East. A major issue that frames these inquires is the concept of ethnicity and its projection into the past. Enrollment limited. Written permission required.

ARCH 1200H Islamic Landscapes: Cities, Frontiers, and Monuments (Anthropology 1660, History of Art and Architecture 1200, Religious Studies 1880)
This course will examine the built environments of the Islamic Period Middle East through the growing archaeological and historical record of its cities, frontiers, and monuments. How has the landscape of this region become transformed under by its relationship with a dynamic Islamic tradition? Key issues examined are the notion of the “Islamic city”, sacred space, and the spatiality of Muslim/non-Muslim relations. Enrollment limited. Written permission required.

ARCH 1200I Material Worlds: Art and Agency in the Near East and Africa (Anthropology 167, History of Art and Architecture 120)
This course investigates technological processes of artifact production in the material culture of ancient and contemporary Near East and Africa. Archaeological and ethnographic case studies will be explored to understand the social relations behind skilled craftsmanship in architecture and “art”. Circulation of craft knowledge, cultural biography of artifacts, constitution of cultural identities and memory through material processes will be central topics. Enrollment limited. Written permission required.

ARCH 1201 Roman Art/Arch Mosaics (HIAA 1200C)
Interested students must register for HIAA 1200C.
Mosaics survive in huge quantities from nearly every corner of the Roman Empire. Despite their prevalence and their often excellent state of preservation, however, mosaics are only beginning to attract the volume of scholarly attention lavished on other media, such as sculpture, architecture and paintings. We will study floor mosaics, wall mosaics and ensembles of opus sectile from across the Mediterranean, considering questions of narrative and contextual display as well as abstraction and medium specificity. Discussions of Medieval, Renaissance and contemporary mosaic art are also welcome.

ARCH 1202 Hellenistic Art: From Alexander to Cleopatra (HIAA 1200)
Interested students must register for HIAA 1200I.

ARCH 1211 Monsters (HIAA 1210)
Interested students must register for HIAA 1210.

ARCH 1213 The Medieval Monastery (HIAA 1440B)
Interested students must register for HIAA 1440B.
The seminar examines the medieval and early modern monastery as a research problem. The course examines the development of the monastery, and investigates the religious and functional aspects of monastic architecture. We will explore historical, art historical and archaeological approaches to monasticism. Instructor permission required. Enrollment limited to 20.

ARCH 1214 The Viking Age (HIST 1031)
Interested students must register for HIST 1031.
For two centuries, Viking marauders struck terror into the hearts of European Christians. Feared as raiders, Norsemen were also traders and explorers who maintained a network of connections that stretched from North America to Baghdad and who developed a complex civilization that was deeply concerned with power and its abuses, the role of law in society, and the corrosive power of violence. This class examines the tensions and transformations within Norse society between AD 750 and 1100 and how people living in the Viking world sought to devise solutions to the challenges that confronted them as their world expanded and changed.

ARCH 1231 Kings, Courts and Aristocracy (ANTH 1231)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1231.

ARCH 1232 The City, the Maroon and the Mass Grave (ANTH 1630)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1630.
How has archaeology contributed to our understanding of the past in the former Spanish colonies? How has this knowledge been presented and made socially relevant in present-day Latin America? This course proposes a critical insight into the achievements and future challenges of historical archaeology in Spanish speaking America, exploring the diverging trajectories that the discipline has had in different countries of the region, and the way in which archaeological knowledge about the colonial, republican, and contemporary periods has been either ignored or assimilated into the development of specific politics of cultural heritage at the local level. LILE

ARCH 1233 Ancient Maya Writing (ANTH 1650)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1650.

ARCH 1236 Maize Gods and Feathered Serpents: Mexico and Central America in Antiquity (ANTH 1640)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1640.
Mexico and Central America are the cradles of one of the world's most enduring cultural traditions. The modern identity of the region was forged in these ancient traditions and their influence is apparent the world over, particularly in the area of agricultural domesticates (corn, chocolate, and chilies). Their cities (Teotihuacan, Monte Alban, Chichen Itza, etc.) rank among the greatest of the ancient world. This course offers a survey of Pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America, from the early monumental centers of the Olmec to the great Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, and explores how anthropologists and archaeologists investigate Middle America's indigenous past.

ARCH 1250 Minoans and Myceneans: Greece in the Bronze Age
This class offers an introduction to the archaeology and art of mainland Greece, Crete, and the Aegean in the third and (especially) the second millennium B.C. The principal emphasis is on when, how, and why the Minoan and Mycenaean palace-based states first arose in this area, with consideration also of their sociopolitical and economic organization, and their interactions with neighboring cultures.

ARCH 1300 Greek Architecture
This course will trace the history of Greek Architecture from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Period. Emphasis is placed on the Archaic and Classical Periods and on the formation and implementation of the three major Greek orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian). Importance is placed on understanding construction techniques and the intricate relationship between form and function of the Greek orders.

ARCH 1310 Ancient Painting†
Examines selected topics in ancient painting with emphasis on the remains of ancient fresco decoration. Topics are Palaeolithic Painting, Aegean Bronze Painting, Etruscan Painting, Greek Painting of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries (text evidence), Roman Painting, Roman Painting as reflected in Mosaic.

ARCH 1430 The Philistines
The Philistines were long considered to be trouble-makers and uncultured; however, recently their true character has been revealed. The origin, culture, social organization, political affiliations, religion, artwork, and technology of the Philistines, who inhabited Palestine during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-734 B.C.E.), will be elucidated through the examination of archaeological data and some textual evidence and pictorial representations.

ARCH 1436 The Archaeology of Jerusalem (JUDS 1390)
Interested students must register for JUDS 1390.
Jerusalem constitutes one of the most important archaeological sites connected to the origins of Judaism, Christianity and Early Islam. In this class we will explore the material remains of the city beginning with David's conquest in ca. 1000 BC through the end of the Ottoman Period in 1917. The contemporary literary sources as well as the more recent scholarly debates and discoveries help us understand the material remains of the relevant periods.

ARCH 1437 The Archaeology of Palestine (JUDS 1400)
Interested students must register for JUDS 1400.
Traces the prehistory of Palestine (modern Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan) from its beginnings in the Paleolithic to the end of the Byzantine period. Surveys history of archaeological research in this area, emphasizing significant excavations and their artifacts. Develops an understanding of the art, architecture, and modes of life of humankind from age to age, the changes introduced from one period to another, and causes and effects of those changes.

ARCH 1440 Synagogues, Churches, and Mosques
Reviews the discoveries and related scholarship of ancient synagogues, churches, and mosques in ancient Palestine. Focuses on their architectural and decorational as well as their spiritual and religious characteristics, and examines how those institutions influenced each other throughout their history of development.

ARCH 1441 Ancient Synagogues, Churches, and Mosques in Palestine (JUDS 1440)
Interested students must register for JUDS 1440.
Reviews the discoveries and related scholarship of ancient synagogues, churches, and mosques in ancient Palestine. Focuses on their architectural and decorational as well as their spiritual and religious characteristics, and examines how those institutions influenced each other throughout their history of development.

ARCH 1443 Pilgrimage and Sacred Travel in the Lands of Islam (RELS 1520 )
Interested students must register for RELS 1520 .

ARCH 1450 Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Examines the scholarly interpretations of the site and the scrolls. Attempts to determine the relationship between the archaeological and textual evidence.

ARCH 1475 Petra: Ancient Wonder, Modern Challenge
The rose-red city of Petra in southern Jordan is a movie star (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). It is a tourist mega-hit (over half a million visitors annually). It was recently voted one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. This class will explore the history and archaeology of Petra and debate how best to present and preserve the site, as well as discussing (and planning!) Brown's ongoing fieldwork at this beautiful, but fragile, place.

ARCH 1482 Power, Profit, and Pillage: The Rise and Fall of Trading Kingdoms in Asia (ANTH 1540)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1540.
A course survey of the pre- and protohistoric archaeology of the eastern half of Asia. Topics include the origins and evolution of agricultural societies, the emergence of village and urban life, and the rise of states and kingdoms. The early states were often characterized and even reinforced by elaborate symbolic and religious systems expressed through ritual, art, and architecture-topics also covered by the course.

ARCH 1483 Arts of Imperial Song (HIAA 1040A)
Interested students must register for HIAA 1040A.
Art and power share a long reciprocal relationship in imperial China. In this history, Song (960-1279) emperors stand out because of their massive collections and their personal practice of calligraphy and painting, as well as their great patronage of contemporary art and material culture. The Song emperors literally created the Chinese national heritage by amassing and, if necessary, manufacturing the great works of the past. As Imperial artists and calligraphers, sometimes working with surrogates and collaborators the emperors and their empresses produced art in unprecedented quantities. We explore these achievements and the processes that produced them in this course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission required.

ARCH 1484 Attachment to Objects in Chinese Literature (EAST 1950P)
Interested students must register for EAST 1950P.
A seminar investigating interactions between objects and literary composition in China of the 12th to 16th century, exploring 3 core issues: 1st, what do writers about objects reveal about notions of literary art and artifice? 2nd, in what ways are material artifacts endowed with aesthetic and personal meaning? 3rd, what literary and extra-literary factors shaped exchanges of poetry and gift-giving as linked forms of social intercourse? Readings in English translation. Instructor permission required.

ARCH 1490 The Archaeology of Central Asia: Alexander in Afghanistan, and Buddhas in Bactria
Central Asia has been treated as the ultimate frontier zone -- on the fringes of the Mediterranean, the Near East, and India. Scholarly perspectives today are radically changing, with Central Asia emerging as a cultural and political entity in its own right. This course will explore the archaeology, art and history of what is today modern Afghanistan and the formerly Soviet Central Asian Republics, considering the region's development under the Persian empire, the rule of Alexander the Great, and finally of his Greek-named successor kings.

ARCH 1500 Classical Art in the RISD Museum
The RISD Museum’s collection of Greek, Etruscan and Roman art will be studied firsthand and in light of recent scholarship in art history, archaeology and museum studies. The course will explore original contexts for museum objects; issues of cultural property and museum ethics; conservation and restoration; design and education components of exhibitions; and notions of historical interpretation in museum display. Gina Borromeo

ARCH 1540 Cultural Heritage: The Players and Politics of Protecting the Past
From Antarctica to Zimbabwe, cultural heritage encompasses the very old and the still in use, the man-made and the natural, the permanent and the ephemeral -- even the invisible and the edible. This course will explore issues of modern threats to cultural heritage such as tourism and development, questions of authenticity and identity, and archaeology's intersection with law, ethics, public policy, and economics.

ARCH 1542 Cultural Heritage, Curation and Creativity (AMCV 1904L)
Interested students must register for AMCV 1904L S01.
The course examines current theories and practices in cultural heritage work from various international perspectives and places them in dialogue with practices, theories and critical perspectives from the contemporary arts. It offers students the opportunity to participate in a practical and creative cultural heritage project, realizing a curated experience/event/experience within the urban environment of Providence. Questions of material and form; the relationship between language and vision; the role of description in interpretation; and what constitutes learning through visual experience will be considered. Following readings in cultural heritage theory, curatorial studies and critical theory, the course will engage students both intellectually and practically through individual & group curatorial projects.

ARCH 1545 Trafficking in Antiquities: The Law of the Land
The black-market trade in antiquities is the third largest illicit business in the world, ranking below only drugs and organized crime. Participants include local bands of looters, larger networks (often simultaneously involved in other illegal activities, such as drug trafficking) and dealers all over the globe. This class will trace the patterns of this trade, and the ongoing attempts of the law, at all levels, to prosecute and contain it.

ARCH 1550 Who Owns the Classical Past? (Ancient Studies 1120, Classics 1550)
The purpose of this course is to offer a forum for informed discussion of a variety of difficult questions about access to the classical past, and its modern-day ownership and presentation, seen primarily from the perspective of material culture (archaeology, art, museum displays, etc).

ARCH 1551 Who Owns the Classical Past? (Classics 1550)
The purpose of this course is to offer a forum for informed discussion of a variety of difficult questions about access to the classical past, and its modern-day ownership and presentation, seen primarily from the perspective of material culture (archaeology, art, museum displays, etc).

ARCH 1570 Cold Hard Cash: The Materiality of Money in Ancient and Modern Finance
Now more than ever we are in need of new perspectives on the value and meaning of money. This course examines the origins of a metal-based financial system in ancient Mesopotamia and the development of finance over time -- including not only the valuation of metal but also of gifts and other commodities. We will prioritize archaeological and anthropological approaches as a way to offer both time depth and insight into today's troubled financial climate.

ARCH 1572 The Economy of the Ancient Greek World: New Approaches (CLAS 1930E)
Interested students must register for CLAS 1930E S01.
What was the material basis of Greek society? How did trade and commerce link individuals and states and bring Greeks into contact with foreign populations? What was the role of state power in directing exchange and commerce? Was ancient economic activity similar to our idea of "economics" or was it fundamentally different? What ideologies and mentalities governed economic behavior in the ancient world? The goal of this course is to introduce students to the sources and approaches to the study of the economic history of ancient Greece.

ARCH 1600 Archaeologies of the Near East
Writing, urbanism, agriculture, imperialism: the ancient Near East is known as the place where earliest agriculture flourished, cities were developed and writing was invented. This course offers a detailed examination of the region’s archaeological history and current archaeological practice, in connection with its political engagements including Western colonialism and the formation of nation states. The social and cultural history of the Near East from prehistory to the end of Iron age (300 BC) will also be discussed.

ARCH 1606 Imagining the Gods: Myths and Myth-making in Ancient Mesopotamia (AWAS 1100)
Interested students must register for AWAS 1100 S01.
Creation, the Flood, the Tower of Babel--well-known myths such as these have their origins in ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Using both ancient texts in translatioin and archaeology, this course will explore categories of Mesopotamian culture labeled "myth" and "religion" (roughly 3300-300 BCE), critically examining the ancient evidence as well as various modern interpretations. Topics will include myths of creation and the flood, prophecy and divination, death and the afterlife, ritual, kingship, combat myths and apocalypses, the nature and expression of ancient religious experience, and representations of the divine.

ARCH 1607 Divination in Ancient Mesopotamia (AWAS 1750 )
Interested students must register for AWAS 1750 S01.
The interpretation of natural events as portents of good or bad outcomes played an important role in religious, political, scholarly and everyday life in ancient Mesopotamia. In this course we will study Mesopotamian omen literature from textual, scientific, philosophical and cultural viewpoints in order to understand how divination operated and what it was used for.

ARCH 1618 Barbarians, Byzantines, and Berbers: Early Medieval North Africa, AD 300-1050 (HIST 1977F)
Interested students must register for HIST 1977F S01.
This class explores the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages through the lens of western North Africa. Divided internally by theological disputes and inter-communal violence, and subjected to repeated conquests and reconquests from the outside, in this period North Africa witnessed the triumph of Islam over Christianity; the rise and fall of ephemeral kingdoms, empires, and caliphates; the gradual desertion of once-prosperous cities and rural settlements; the rising strength of Berber confederations; and the continuing ability of trade to transcend political boundaries and to link the southern Mediterranean littoral to the outside world. Enrollment limited to 20. Not open to first year students.

ARCH 1621 History of Egypt I (EGYT 1430)
Interested students must register for EGYT 1430.

ARCH 1623 Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture (EGYT 1500)
Interested students must register for EGYT 1500.
Ancient Egyptian art and architecture had a remarkably long history, and much that was produced is amazingly well preserved. Almost anything Egyptian is immediately recognizable today, but developments in most areas were steady and pronounced. To do justice to this subject, a number of experts will cooperate in presenting various topics including monumental buildings and lavishly decorated tombs, as well as the sculpture, painting, and minor arts of all periods from Predynastic to Nubian. The ancient artisans, their materials, and their techniques will be discussed; modern efforts undertaken to conserve and document their work will also be described. Prerequisite: previous course work in Egyptology (e.g. EGYT 1430 or 1440) or written permission of the instructor.

ARCH 1625 Temples and Tombs: Egyptian Religion and Culture
Religion was central to life in ancient Egypt, and this course will examine Egyptian religion through its material culture. Students will explore temples and tombs as the physical settings for priestly ritual and private devotion, including feeding and clothing the gods and communication with the dead. The course will also address evidence for private domestic cult and the overlap between religious and magical practice.

ARCH 1630 Fighting Pharaohs: Ancient Egyptian Warfare
When and why did the ancient Egyptians engage in war? Who was fighting? What were their weapons like and what were their military strategies? What were the political situations that caused them to go to war? How did warfare impact Egyptian society? In studying Egyptian history and society through the pervasive motif of war, we will gain an understanding of the forces that shaped Egyptian culture.

ARCH 1635 The Great Heresy: Egypt in the Amarna Age
At the height of Egypt’s power in the New Kingdom, King Amenhotep IV initiated a religious revolution that affected all aspects of Egyptian high culture. Declaring the sun-disc, Aten, to be the sole god, this king changed his name to Akhenaten and moved the capital city to a new site at Amarna. Along with this move came massive shifts in everything from temple worship to art, international relations to funerary religion. This course will set the Amarna period in its context, examining remains from the reign before Akhenaten to the restoration of traditional Egyptian religion under his immediate successors, including King Tutankhamun.

ARCH 1637 Egypt After the Pharaohs: Archaeology and Society in the Coptic and Early Islamic Periods (EGYT1470)
Interested students must register for EGYT1470.

ARCH 1638 Ethnic Identity in Graeco-Roman Egypt (EGYT 1550)
Interested students must register for EGYT 1550.
Egypt under Greek and Roman rule was the original 'multicultural society', with communities of Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Romans, Nubians, Arabs and even Indians. This course will explore the sometimes controversial subject of ethnic identity in Egypt 'after the Pharaohs', through a focus on the everyday lives of individual people and communities. Topics will include multilingualism; ethnic conflict and discrimination; and gender and intermarriage. Evidence will be drawn from ancient texts on papyrus as well as recent archaeological excavations.

ARCH 1650 The Etruscans: Italy Before the Rise of the Romans
The Etruscan people dominated the Italian peninsula for centuries before the Romans became a Mediterranean power, but left behind little textual evidence of their culture. Focusing on architecture, artistic production, and funerary practice, we will study the “enigmatic” Etruscans and their contacts with the Greeks and early Romans, and consider their impact on Rome and on modern Italian archaeological scholarship.

ARCH 1700 Architectural Sculpture of Ancient Greece and Rome
What would Times Square or Rockefeller Center have looked like in antiquity? What would have been advertised, and by whom? This course examines the themes, style, and contexts of the sculptural programs that decorated public buildings from the Greco-Roman world, their connections to other visual media and to the landscape, and their reflections of different cultural, civic, and elite identities.

ARCH 1707 The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (CLAS 1120Q)
Interested students must register for CLAS 1120Q.
"Everyone has heard of the Seven Wonders of the World," wrote Philo of Byzantium two millennia ago, and it's still true today. But what is a "Wonder"? And why seven of them? Why make such a list anyway, then or now? This class will use ancient texts, explorers' accounts, and archaeological investigations to travel through several thousand years of history in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world. We will consider how the Seven Wonders captured past imaginations; the aura of technological achievements; the intersections of history, memory, invention, and myth; and how members of one culture view another culture's monuments.

ARCH 1710 Architecture and Memory
Buildings and monuments have been mediators of the past with their powerful presence, either through their turbulent histories, various stories that cling to their stones or the residues of human life that shape them. Memories, imaginations and experiences, collectively shared or individual, give meaning to architectural spaces. This course explores the intersections of memory and architecture through various archaeological case studies from the ancient world.

ARCH 1715 Building Big! Supersized Architectural and Engineering Structures From Antiquity
Sometimes size does matter. The need and desire to "build big", to create colossal architectural or sculptural things, was a constant feature of antiquity, from temples to portraits, from tunnels to fortifications. Who and what lay behind this apparent architectural megalomania? What practical challenges to construction had to be overcome? And how have such monuments affected our understanding, both of the ancient world and of modern means of self-representation?

ARCH 1720 How Houses Build People
Archaeologists usually worry about how people in the past built houses. This course will flip the question on its head and ask: how do houses build people? Just what is a 'house'? What is a 'home'? Making use of an array of regional case studies, from different time periods, we will question how cultural values and norms can be extracted from, and explore the idea of the domestication of humans through architecture.

ARCH 1770 Grave Matters: The Archaeology of Death, Decay, and Discovery
How do archaeologists study coffins, tombs, and human remains to learn about ancient societies? This course will explore the theory and practice of the archaeology of death. Topics will include the inference of social organization from mortuary remains, the experience of death and dying, social memory, identity, and others. Students will learn approaches to mortuary excavation and consider the politics and ethics of conducting burial archaeology globally.

ARCH 1771 Archaeology of Death (ANTH 1623)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1623-S01.
Examines death, burial, and memorials using comparative archaeological evidence from prehistory and historical periods. The course asks: What insight does burial give us about the human condition? How do human remains illuminate the lives of people in the past? What can mortuary artifacts tell us about personal identities and social relations? What do gravestones and monuments reveal about beliefs and emotions? Current cultural and legal challenges to the excavation and study of the dead are also considered.

ARCH 1772 The Human Skeleton (ANTH 1720)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1720-S01.
More than simply a tissue within our bodies, the human skeleton is gateway into narratives of the past--from the evolution of our species to the biography of individual past lives. Through lecture and hands-on laboratory, students will learn the complete anatomy of the human skeleton, with an emphasis on the human skeleton in functional and evolutionary perspective. We will also explore forensic and bioarchaeological approaches to the skeleton. By the course conclusion, students will be able to conduct basic skeletal analysis and will be prepared for more advanced studies of the skeleton from medical, forensic, archaeological, and evolutionary perspectives. Enrollment limited to 20. Not open to first year students. Instructor permission required.

ARCH 1780 Violence and Civilization: A Deep History of Social Violence
Why do we do violence to one another? This course will foster a sustained and critical reflection on social violence, history and humanity. We will explore social orders through time, together with their practices and moral economies of permissible and impermissible violence. Different conceptions of violence (‘symbolic’, ‘structural’, and ‘routine’) will be considered, in conjunction with their intersections with the many, ambivalent meanings of ‘civilization’. No prerequisites required.

ARCH 1790 The Nature and Culture of Disaster
Our view of nature forms the basis of environmental studies, ecotourism, heritage management, and contemporary debates over global warming that impact both public policy and the very way we lead our lives. This course draws from theorists (such as Douglas, Latour, Strathern and Spivak), as well as recent anthropological test cases from Amazonia, Papua New Guinea, and South Africa to look at how humans in the 21st century view nature in terms of stability, instability and disaster. How should we assess the ‘risk culture’ in which we currently live?

ARCH 1793 Slavery in the Ancient World (CLAS 1120E)
Interested students must register for CLAS 1120E.
Examines the institution of slavery in the ancient world, from Mesopotamia and the Near East to the great slave societies of classical Greece and (especially) imperial Rome; comparison of ancient and modern slave systems; modern views of ancient slavery from Adam Smith to Hume to Marx to M.I. Finley. Readings in English.

ARCH 1794 Questions of Remembrance: Archaeological Perspectives on Slavery in the New World (ANTH 1625)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1625.
Archaeology of slavery, and particularly that of enslaved African-American communities in what came to be the United States, has been one of the fastest growing areas of archaeological research in the last few decades. This course will look into both classic and current literature on the archaeology of Atlantic slavery in order to understand the development of this archaeological subfield, from an initial focus on the living conditions of slaves on plantation sites to later interests in the processes of consolidation of African-American ethnicities. What are current challenges faced by those investigating the material constitution of African Diaspora through time? DVPS LILE

ARCH 1800 Contemporary Issues in Archaeological Theory
This course will explore how archaeologists have placed material remains in the context of human practices, cultural processes and long-term history. Following a brief review of the history of the discipline as a social science, contemporary issues such as social complexity, technology and agency, ideology and narrative, gender and sexuality, production of space and construction of landscapes will be discussed. Case studies of archaeological materials will be drawn mostly from the ancient Western Asian and Mediterranean worlds.

ARCH 1810 Under the Tower of Babel: Archaeology, Politics, and Identity in the Modern Middle East
Present-day political ideologies profoundly impact our understanding of the past. Here we will explore the use and abuse of archaeological pasts in the modern nation states of the Middle East. What do pharaohs mean to modern Egyptians? Why did Saddam Hussein consider himself the last Babylonian king? This course will explore the role of imagined ancient pasts and cultural heritage in the making of collective identities and state ideologies.

ARCH 1816 Ancient Body (ANTH 1660)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1660.

ARCH 1817 Ancient Christianity and the Sensing Body (RELS 1300)
Interested students must register for RELS 1300.

ARCH 1820 The Location of Theory
Building and unbuilding. Who produces theory? The category of human. Archaeological ethnographies – or ethnographic archaeologies. Can heritage be tangible? Does theory have a topography? These are among the central theoretical questions facing archaeology today. Students will read some of the most influential and innovative works in recent archaeological theory, and question the underlying assumptions and tropes that inform these theories. The course will culminate in the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference, being hosted at Brown in the spring of 2010.

ARCH 1822 Anthropology of Place (ANTH 1910B)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1910B.

ARCH 1823 From Worlds in Miniature to Miniature Worlds: Theming and Virtuality (HIAA 1890F)
Interested students must register for HIAA 1890F.
This seminar surveys spaces of consumption that are organized around themes such as theme parks. Miniaturization, in particular, is a prevalent spatial strategy used in themed environments that range in form from historical quarters of cities that are reconfigured as miniature museum-cities to the culturally-themed hyperreal representations that emerge in multi-user virtual environments such as Second Life. What are the different kinds of experience these spaces offer to visitors immersed in their exhibitions? What are the appeals of themed environments and virtual reality technologies they employ? Posing such questions, this seminar explores theming and virtuality both historically and globally. Enrollment limited to 20.

ARCH 1850 Comparative Empires and Material Culture
The political, military, and cultural unit of “empire” has, by now, been the subject of numerous and varied studies. This seminar will explore the tangible effects of empires, that is, the art and architecture created when societies are engaged in what can be viewed as asymmetrical power relationships. In order to understand how conditions specific to empire influence the creation, dissemination, and reception of material culture, this course will examine the artifacts of four different empires—the Roman, the Chinese, the British, and the American—and their unique political, social, and cultural contexts.

ARCH 1855 Archaeology and Craft: Experimental Archaeology and the Materials Science of Ancient Technologies
How did people in the past make the things that archaeologists find today? How can archaeologists learn about processes of design, engineering, and technological change from ancient objects? Students will approach production questions cross-culturally through firsthand involvement with craft processes and materials analysis - from raw materials to finished objects. Practicums will range from participation in blacksmithing and kiln design to learning about pyrotechnology, mechanical properties, and archaeometric techniques. The final class project will be an exhibit affiliated with the Haffenreffer Museum. Enrollment is limited to 15.

ARCH 1860 Engineering Material Culture: An Introduction to Archaeological Science
Unlikely bedfellows? No way! This course demonstrates how well archaeology (the humanities) and engineering (the hard sciences) can do business together. An introduction to the world of archaeological science, presented from the dual perspectives of material culture studies and materials science. Students will be introduced to a range of methodologies, instrumentation, and interpretive approaches through a combination of hands-on laboratory work, guest lectures, and interdisciplinary group research. Students must have already completed at least two university courses in archaeology, engineering, or any related discipline. Enrollment is limited to 20. Priority will be given to admitting a proportional number of students from archaeology, engineering and related fields.

ARCH 1870 Environmental Archaeology
How has climate change affected the development of human society? How have people changed or destroyed their environments in the past? What does "sustainability" mean over the long term? Environmental archaeology is the study of these questions and more through the use of scientific techniques to analyze soils, plants, and animal remains from ancient archaeological contexts. A combination of class and hands-on teaching will introduce these methods and how they allow us to interpret human-environmental interactions in the past.

ARCH 1872 Environmental Anthropology (ANTH 1555)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1555 (CRN: 27371).
Environmental anthropology is the study of how people interact with environments, past and present. This course explores how humans have affected their environments over time and how environment shapes human culture, employing an interdisciplinary anthropological perspective to illuminate these reciprocal interactions. This course uses a variety of approaches to understand how people interact with environments, employing cultural, biological, linguistic, and archaeological methods. This course covers human adaptation to environmental change from earliest prehistory up to the present day and students will have the opportunity to explore the practical and interpretive dilemmas of environmental challenges of the 21st century and beyond. Enrollment limited to 20 sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

ARCH 1873 Patterns: In Nature, In Society (GEOL 1960F)
Interested students must register for GEOL 1960F.
The shapes of plants and animals, of mountains and shorelines arise because nature dissipates energy as rapidly as possible. These morphological patterns allow description of the energy "landscape" that produced them. Societies and economies show temporal and spatial patterns as well: does the "flow rate" of ideas and of money cause these patterns? We will explore just how "entropy rules."

ARCH 1880 Geofizz!: Archaeo-Geophysical Data Visualization
Geophysical survey data act as primary information for locating archaeological sites, and contribute new perspectives when investigating existing sites. This course will develop students’ understanding of basic geophysical processes, through hands-on field-based data acquisition with ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, and resistance survey techniques. We will also experiment with approaches to data management and visualization. The course will conclude with students conducting a comprehensive multi-technique field survey of an archaeological site.

ARCH 1883 Global Environmental Remote Sensing (GEOL 1330)
Interested students must register for GEOL 1330.
Introduction to physical principles of remote sensing across electromagnetic spectrum and application to the study of Earth's systems (oceans, atmosphere, and land). Topics: interaction of light with materials, imaging principles and interpretation, methods of data analysis. Laboratory work in digital image analysis, classification, and multi-temporal studies. One field trip to Block Island. Recommended preparation courses: MATH 0090, 0100; PHYS 0060; and background courses in natural sciences.

ARCH 1900 The Archaeology of College Hill
A training class in field and laboratory techniques. Topics include the nature of field archaeology, excavation and survey methodologies, archaeological ethics, computer technologies (such as GIS), and site and artifact analysis and conservation. Students will act as practicing archaeologists through the investigation of local historical and archaeological sites in the College Hill area (e.g. the First Baptist Church of America and the John Brown House).

ARCH 1902 Material Culture (ANTH 1621)
Interested students must register for ANTH 1621.

ARCH 1904A Memories, Memorials, Collections and Commemorations (AMCV 1904A)
Interested students must register for AMCV 1904A.

ARCH 1970 (Formerly AE191) Individual Study Project in Old World Archaeology and Art
Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

ARCH 1990 Senior Honors Thesis in Archaeology and the Ancient World
Honors students in Archaeology and the Ancient World who are completing their theses should enroll in this course in their final semester. The subject of the thesis and program of study will be determined by the needs of the individual student. Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

Primarily for Graduates

ARCH 2000 Research Methods in Archaeology
Familiarizes beginning old world archaeology and art graduate students and graduate students from neighboring disciplines, as well as advanced undergraduate students, with the methods, history, and bibliography of the field.

ARCH 2006 Principles of Archaeology (ANTH 2501)
Interested students must register for ANTH 2501.
Examines theoretical and methodological issues in anthropological archaeology. Attention is given to past concerns, current debates, and future directions of archaeology in the social sciences.

ARCH 2010 Problems in Old World Archaeology

ARCH 2010A Ancient Numismatics
Deals with problems in ancient numismatics from these topics: introduction of coinage, major coinages of archaic Greece, coinage of 4th C.B.C. in the Greek west and Roman coinage of 3rd C.B.C.

ARCH 2010B Approaches to Archaeological Survey in the Old World (Anthropology 263)
Recent decades have witnessed a marked development of interest in regional approaches to the ancient world and its landscapes. This seminar will explore the history of this development, as well as survey’s impact on the work of both ancient historians and archaeologists. Topics to be covered include survey design and methodology, and the wider implications and lessons of regional analysis.

ARCH 2010C Architecture, Body, and Performance in the Ancient Near Eastern World
This seminar investigates the relationship between bodily practices, social performances, and production of space, using case studies drawn from ancient Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Syria. Employing contemporary critical theories on the body, materiality, and social practices, new theories of the making of architectural spaces and landscapes will be explored with respect to multiple geographical, historical contexts in the Ancient Near East.

ARCH 2010D Archaeology and Religion: Excavating the Sacred from Prehistory to Islam (Religious Studies 2030)
This course explores methodological approaches and theoretical underpinnings of scholarly (and sometimes unpopular) interpretations of the archaeological record as evidence for the religious life of past societies, considering how archaeologists have treated the analytical categories of ritual, religion, ideology, and the sacred. These discussions will be examined through Mediterranean case studies as a key region in the archaeology of religion.

ARCH 2010E Archaeology in the Information Age
Archaeology must circulate the material past in two dimensions. The right combination of image (maps, plans, photographs) and text has long defined professional archaeology. However, the current explosion of digital media has spurred profound shifts in all domains of archaeological practice and documentation. This course encourages reevaluation of archaeological media, which pertains to information technology across the humanities and sciences.

ARCH2010F GIS and Remote Sensing: Advanced Applications in Archaeology
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and various forms of remote sensing are increasingly essential components of good archaeological practice. This advanced course is intended primarily for students with some background in GIS software, and who have evolved a relevant research project to develop over the course of the term. Less advanced graduate students may enroll with permission of the instructor and will be provided with additional tutorial instruction.

ARCH 2010G Ethical Issues in Archaeology
Graduate students will certainly confront ethical, legal, and professional issues in the course of their own doctoral research and subsequent careers. This seminar offers a forum for open, but well-informed, discussion of a variety of significant ethical problems and dilemmas currently facing the discipline of archaeology worldwide. We will give attention to practical matters arising from archaeological field research, as well as a wide range of difficult questions concerning ownership and presentation of the past.

ARCH 2010Z The Archaeology of Empires (Anthropology 2500, Classics 2070)
Empires have been among the most influential political and social formations in global history. This seminar will explore general literature on imperial genesis, consolidation and decline, as well as considering the specific and unique contributions archaeology and art history can offer to the understanding of empire. A variety of case studies will be explored, with selections depending on student interest.

ARCH 2020 Research Seminar in Greek Art and Architecture
May be repeated for credit.

ARCH 2020A Greek Vase Painting

ARCH 2020B Topography of the City of Athens

ARCH 2020C Pausanias's Guidebook to Greece

ARCH 2020D Greek Painting
Major developments in the history of Greek painting with special emphasis on archaic and classical Greek culture as reflected in vase painting. There will be field trips to area museums which may take longer than class time.

ARCH 2020E Economy and Trade in the Later Bronze Age Aegean and East Mediterranean
Beginning with an examination of the workings of the Mycenaean palace economy, including the evidence of Linear B documents, this seminar will then turn to a more inclusive consideration of trade and exchange involving Aegean states and their counterparts further east, and of the nature and extent of cultural interaction between them during the later Bronze Age (ca. 1600-1100 BC).

ARCH 2030 Research Seminar in Roman Art and Architecture
May be repeated for credit.

ARCH 2030A Late Roman and Early Christian Mosaics
Study of Christian, Jewish, and secular mosaics of the Late Roman period.

ARCH 2030B Problems in Roman Portraiture

ARCH 2030C Roman Copies of Greek Sculpture
Copies of masterpieces of classical sculpture. Since the Renaissance, certain masterpieces of Greek sculpture have become famous through Roman copies. The relationship between copy and original will be investigated along with its relevance to Roman taste.

ARCH 2030D Roman Historical Relief
The scope of this seminar will not be limited to traditional examples of 'Roman historical relief' — that is, architectural reliefs charged with historical and political significance — but will also embrace media such as cameos and silver plate that similarly carry such messages. We will be examining monuments dating from the Roman Republic through Late Antiquity.

ARCH 2030E Roman Sculpture in East Coast Museums

ARCH 2030F The Archaeology of Constantinian Rome
Selected topics related to the monuments of Constantinian Rome, both secular and ecclesiastical.

ARCH 2030G Wall Paintings from Pompeii
Interpretations of Campanian frescoes.

ARCH 2040 Research Seminar in Old World Archaeology
May be repeated for credit.

ARCH 2040A The Cities of the Decapolis
Examines the archeological evidence of the Decapolis, an administrative district or region of Greek cities located in northern Transjordan, southern Syria, and northern Palestine. The sites of most Decapolis cities have been surveyed and several have been extensively excavated. Excavation reports and their scholarly evaluations will form the basis for this course.

ARCH 2040B The Parthenon

ARCH 2040C Value and Exchange

ARCH 2040D Genealogies of Complexity in East Asia (3000-221 BCE)
Despite East Asia's rich archaeological and historical record, its early political (pre)histories have been more sites for theoretical projection than theoretical innovation. Focusing on mainland East Asia, we will engage political theory and its applications in case studies from the Neolithic to the first Empires. Topics will range from mortuary rituals to practices of social violence and sources include both material culture and text.

ARCH 2040E International Cultural Heritage: Creating a Future for the Past
From the Parthenon to Puccini to pizza, cultural heritage can be defined as places, objects, and ideas from the past that have survived to the present. This course will examine the theories, methods, and questions that shape the effort to protect and interpret cultural heritage today as well as responses to them. We will explore issues such as current threats to cultural heritage, the role of tourism and impacts of development, questions of authenticity and identity, international law, ethics, and emerging and non-traditional areas of the field.

ARCH 2040F Public Culture and Heritage in Postapartheid South Africa
This course examines the complex processes whereby issues of culture, race, identity/ subjectivity, globalization, memory and heritage are being reframed and rethought in post-apartheid South Africa. We will be guided by three broad themes: public histories; archives and knowledges; and questions of performance. Of all possible settings, post-apartheid South Africa may present one of the most challenging – at times troubling – contexts through which to consider such public negotiations and meanings.

ARCH 2040G Designing Heritages: From Archaeological Sensibilites to Relational Heritages (AMCV 2654)
Interested students must register for AMCV 2654.
Do you believe in the past? This course takes as its starting assumption that pasts are not temporally distant from today. They are contemporary experiences whose structure and mediation impact how we live in our shared world. This course will explore the intellectual history of archaeological thought and the development of heritage theory. While simultaneously exploring practical design skills, it will provide context to contemporary synergies between art, archaeology and heritage studies through interdisciplinary studies of architecture, art history, cultural criticism, heritage studies and archaeological theory.

ARCH 2040H Imperial Cities
What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Tenochtitlan with London? Beijing with Rome? Cuzco with Persepolis? All are capital cities of imperial systems, each shaping and reflecting the nature of the empire, its ruling ideology, and its social and economic infrastructure. The category of "imperial cities", however, must extend beyond these primate centers, to consider the urban networks in play across each empire's territorial reach, and beyond.

ARCH 2041 Mesoamerican Archaeology and Ethnohistory (ANTH 2520)
Interested students must register for ANTH 2520.
Seminar focusing on current issues in the archaeology and history of Mesoamerica, including Mexico and Northern Central America. Draws on rich resources at Brown, including the John Carter Brown Library.

ARCH 2050 Glimpses of Mesopotamian History & Archaeology
A course dealing with the country's ancient history through the ages, giving an account of the most prominent discoveries made and reviewing the leading problems of Mesopotamian archaeology.

ARCH 2090 The Nabataeans† (Anthropology 2010, Sociology 2280)
Interested students must register for Anthropology 2010.

ARCH 2100 Things! The Material Worlds of Humanity
This course explores the relationships between people and things. From archaeology to material culture studies, from philosophy to science studies, we will examine a wide variety of approaches to the world of objects, artifacts, and material goods. Perspectives will include materialist approaches, consumption studies (including notions of fetish), phenomenology, social constructivism, cognitive approaches, actor-network-theory, and more.

ARCH 2105 Ceramic Analysis for Archaeology
The analysis and the interpretation of ceramic remains allow archaeologists to accomplish varied ends: establish a time scale, document interconnections between different areas, and suggest what activities were carried out at particular sites. The techniques and theories used to bridge the gap between the recovery of ceramics and their interpretation within anthropological contexts are the focus of this seminar.

ARCH 2110F Greek Palaeography and Premodern Book Cultures (GREK 2110F)
Interested students must register for GREK 2110F.
Introduction to pre-modern Greek book culture and the study of Greek literary scripts from classical antiquity to the Renaissance. Students become acquainted with the history of books, the context and agents of their production, and the transmission of Greek (classical as well as postclassical) literature. Training is provided in reading and dating different scripts and in editing ancient texts.

ARCH 2112 Roman Epigraphy (LATN 2120A)
Interested students must register for LATN 2120A.
A practical introduction to the study of Latin inscriptions, with emphasis on the reading, editing, and interpretation of texts on stone. Class time will be divided between discussion of various categories of texts in the light of the 'epigraphic habit', literacy, and the sociology of reading in antiquity and hands-on experience with editing inscriptions on stone.

ARCH 2113 Research Seminar in Medieval Art: Representing the Past: Archaeology through Image and Text (History of Art and Architecture 2140)
Interested students must register for the appropriate section of History of Art and Architecture 2140.

ARCH 2114 Archaeologies of Texts (AWAS2800)
Interested students must register for AWAS 2800.
An interdisciplinary seminar that examines the interplay between ancient texts and archaeology in the study of the ancient world. The emphasis will be on articulating the research methods and assumptions distilled from case studies set in the ancient Near East, Mediterranean, East Asia, and the Americas. Topics will include: canons of literature as/versus ancient inscriptions; materiality of text; texts on display, in deposits, in archives, in libraries, as refuse; literacy and education; practices of documentation and analysis; writing, language, and 'ethnicity'; historical geography; fakes and forgeries; ancient texts and archaeological ethics. No prerequisites. Intended primarily for graduate students

ARCH 2140 The Marriage of Archaeological Science and Social Theory
What do ceramics, lithics, building materials and metals tell us about the people who used them? Do high-tech analytical methods contribute to a deeper understanding of the past or simply muddy the waters? Theoretically, we will challenge the objectivity of ‘science’ and the value of archaeological taxonomies, as they relate to the construction of archaeological narratives. The ultimate objective in this course is to access the symmetrical social relationships between people and things, through the medium of the archaeological materials, as understood through the application of scientific techniques.

ARCH 2142 Facture: East and West (HIAA 2870F)
Interested students must register for HIAA 2870F.
Objects are the tangible outcomes of available means of making. One can't understand the maker's choices unless one understands the maker's practical options. This seminar focuses on the materiality of objects by grounding them in the fundamentals of making material culture in Asia and the West – that is, facture. We explore ceramic technologies; lapidary crafts, and mosaics; metallurgy; painting mediums and surfaces; mass-production, and modules; realized outcomes of computer-assisted design. Instruction includes lecture-demonstrations by guest practitioners and site-visits to foundries, studios, conservation laboratories. Readings span history of technology, science and aesthetics, contemporary writings on the "thingness" of art history. Enrollment limited to 15 graduate students in History of Art and Architecture. Instructor permission required.

ARCH 2145 Technology and Production in Archaeology: Anthropological Foundations and Contemporary Theory
An intensive focus on theoretical approaches to technology and production that have shaped archaeological thinking over the past century and have formed the basis of many of the contemporary issues in the field. Students will read and critically assess key works about concepts of production and technology in various cross-cultural archaeological contexts. Seminar themes include political economy, specialization, technology transfer, cross-craft production, power dynamics, ritual, and tool use.

ARCH 2150 Theoretical Issues in Archaeology
The goal of this seminar is to examine the state of archaeological theory, with special emphasis on archaeological practice and interpretation in the Mediterranean, Egypt and ancient western Asia. While providing some measure of historical overview, the class chiefly offers an opportunity for students to read and critique recent writings that exemplify the variety of contemporary approaches to this subject.

ARCH 2160 The Archaeology of Democracy: Social Transformations in Ancient Greece
Between 900 and 600 BCE, profound social transformations took place in Greece, setting the stage for a revolution in political form: by 500, Athens was collectively governed by its citizen body. This course engages with the everyday materialities underlying Greek democracy of this era. Focusing on relationships among people and things, students will reassess of the composition of the demos from the ground up.

ARCH 2165 The “Second Sophistic”: Archaeological and Literary Approaches
The cultural phenomenon of the “Second Sophistic” affected both the material fabric and the intellectual life of the eastern Roman empire of the second/third centuries CE. This course will examine how awareness of "Greek" learning (paideia) and the "Greek" past informed people's literary and artistic tastes, as well as their responses to changing political and religious pressures, affecting everything from civic coinage to elite dining habits and even bodily comportment.

ARCH 2170 Archaeology of Greek and Punic Colonization
This course investigates cultural interaction at local and regional scales between 'colonists' and locals, introducing students to a range of case study material across the Mediterranean. This will focus on material from the eighth to sixth centuries BC from Iberia, France, Italy, North Africa, and the Black Sea. Examples of Etruscan colonization will also be explored. The concept of 'colonization' will be critically examined, along with how it has been treated by archaeologists and ancient historians over the past century.

ARCH 2175 Archaeology and Modernity
Past societies, it is commonly supposed, differ fundamentally from our own. From antiquarians and artists to topographers and landscape archaeologists; from travelogues, maps and landscape painting to regional syntheses and survey reports, this course explores the history of archaeology and its relationship to modernity. It engages issues relating to the rise of the nation state, imperialism, and colonialism and the uses of the material past in these processes. It will explore issues related to the antiquity of humankind, the Heritage industry, museums, collecting culture and tourism.

ARCH 2200 Evolution of Old World States and Civilizations in Comparative Perspective
The origins, evolution, and nature of ancient states have always constituted central problems of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists, but in recent years they have undergone radical critique. This seminar will consider modern studies on state formation, social structure and change in early states, with a primary emphasis on so-called ‘Old World’ cases, for example on ancient Mesopotamia and Greece.

ARCH 2250 Island Archaeology in the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean is a world of islands, par excellence, and the island cultures that have developed there over the millennia have great archaeological distinctiveness. This seminar will consider the concept of insularity itself, in cross-cultural archeological, anthropological, and historical perspective. We will then turn to the rich, specifically Mediterranean literature on island archaeology (exploring issues of colonization, settlement, interaction).

ARCH 2255 Coastal Values: Archaeology and Paleoecology of Coastal and Island Environments
People like to live by the water. What characteristics (social, economic, environmental) make coastal environments so attractive? What are the effects of human settlement on these environments? How do societies adapt (or not) to changing coastal environments? This seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach to these questions, applying the lessons of the past to the challenges of the present through an explicitly diachronic, cross-cultural, and data-driven approach to examining human-environmental interaction in coastal settings.

ARCH 2300 The Rise (and Demise) of the State in the Near East
Discourses on state formation dominate archaeological explorations of Mesopotamia in association with social complexity, urbanization, long-distance trade, and development of writing. Archaeological evidence from the 4th-3rd millennia BC was incorporated into narratives of state from chiefdoms to empires, and linked to its ideologies and political economies. We will unpack this preoccupation with states in academic practice, while exploring case studies from Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Levant from 9000 to 2000 BC.

ARCH 2313 Art & Visual Culture in the Ancient Near East (AWAS 2750)
Interested students should register for AWAS 2750.

ARCH 2330 Roman Asia Minor: The Empire Goes East
If one is curious about the dynamics of life within the Roman empire, the province of Asia makes an excellent case study. Its numerous urban centers and rural landscapes were socially and economically differentiated and frequently monumentally elaborated, as an increasing amount of varied archaeological data reveal. Asia offers a rich laboratory for exploring issues of provincial development, and ultimately decline, over the course of the empire.

ARCH 2340 The Archaeology of the Assyrian Empire: Cities, Landscapes and Material Culture
Ritual, war and conquest! The Assyrian Empire was a powerhouse in the ancient Near East with fearsome military expeditions, sumptuous cult festivals, grand cities, and complex governing systems. This course investigates the archaeology of Assyria from the trading center of Ashur in the second millennium BCE to the collapse of the empire in the 7th c. BCE. Using published excavations, surveys, and texts, we will explore Assyria’s material culture, landscape, cult practices and state ideology.

ARCH 2350 Archaeology of the Caucasus
The goal of this seminar is to provide students with an overview of the long-term archaeological record from the Caucasus and its near neighbors, as well as an understanding of the history of research in this area during Imperial Russian, Soviet, and contemporary times. Readings will cover a range of periods, prehistoric and historic, following the interests of the class.

ARCH 2400 Sacred Space: Archaeological and Religious Studies Perspectives
Innumerable cultures, past and present, have singled out specific locales and even whole landscapes as powerful vectors for communicating with the divine. This course will analyze such spaces for their ability to transform body, escape the material plane, and reconstitute social relations and bodily practice. Case studies will largely be drawn from the Mediterranean world and will employ an archaeological attention to the materiality of these sacred spaces. Key concepts will include: ritual practice, landscape production, memory and agency.

ARCH 2404 Archaeology of Ritual (ANTH 2570)
Interested students must register for ANTH 2570.
Many essential theoretical perspectives in anthropology have been built from the study of ritual. For archaeologists, evidence for ancient ritual is abundant, yet the reconstruction of ritual practice and meaning is both challenging and is often neglected in practice. We will take a comparative look at the archaeology of ritual in a global perspective. We will explore a variety of relevant anthropological and archaeological topics including, ritual practice, performance, the sacred (objects, sites, architecture, and landscape), ritual and power, domestic ritual, rites of the dead, sacrifice, and war. And of course, we will probe the question of what exactly constitutes "ritual."

ARCH 2410 Archaeologies of Place
The concept of place, as a site of human practice in and with the material world, has become foregrounded in humanities and social sciences. This course explores how archaeological and ethnographic research addresses material complexities and cultural meanings of places in the broader context of landscapes. We will investigate critical theories of place and landscape, while working with fieldwork data from the ancient Near East.

ARCH 2500 Art and Archaeology of Civic Identity
Every urban community in the Greco-Roman world presented itself in a specific way to other communities and to foreign entities. Looking at coins, public monuments, programmatic sculpture, and epigraphic and textual evidence, we will address different concerns related to the formation and propagation of civic identities. Comparative material from other historical periods and theoretical and anthropological literature on group identity, social cohesion, and empire will contextualize the visual and archaeological evidence.

ARCH 2501A Problems in Archaeology: Culture, Contact and Colonialism (ANTH 2500A)
Interested students must register for ANTH 2500A.

ARCH 2501C GIS and Remote Sensing in Archaeology (ANTH 2500C)
Interested students must register for ANTH 2500C.

ARCH 2502 Historical Archaeology: From Colony to City (ANTH 2540)
Interested students must register for ANTH 2540.
Examines historical archaeology as a complex field of inquiry that engages multiple sources of evidence and incorporates a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches. The seminar will consider the range of evidence available to historical archaeologists, and draw on examples from colonies and cities around the world to explore how the richness and diversity of the evidence is used.

ARCH 2511 Circumpolar Archaeology with D. Anderson (ANTH 2510)
Interested students must register for ANTH 2510.

ARCH 2540 Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic Jerusalem
Jerusalem constitutes one of the most important archaeological sites connected to the origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Early Islam. Early and recent studies and discoveries, as well as old and new theories, will be examined in the seminar with special emphasis on the Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic periods. Prerequisite: knowledge in archaeological methodology.

ARCH 2550 Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
This course is structured as a seminar on the archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The site will be examined in its larger geographical, historical, and archaeological context. The goal is to become familiar with the different scholarly interpretations of the site. Prerequisites: solid background in at least one of three fields: archaeology, Judaism, and Early Christianity.

ARCH 2551 Archaeological Research Methods, Theory and Practicum (ANTH 2550)
Interested students must register for ANTH 2550.

ARCH 2552 Museums in Their Communities (AMCV 2220D)
Interested students must register for AMCV 2220D-S01.
This seminar examines in detail the internal workings of museums (of anthropology, art, history, science, etc.) and their place in their communities. Accessions, collections management, conservations, education, exhibition, marketing, research, and museum management are among the topics discussed. Open to graduate students only.

ARCH 2600 Gender and Sexuality in Roman Art
The study of the body and embodiment in Roman art encourages us to make use of multiple theoretical models for interrogating both the art and the bodies involved. Gender and sexuality provide the lenses through which this course will explore a variety of topics (for example, the homoerotic gaze, sexualized spectacles of pain, gendered architectural typologies, and the body in rabbinic imagery) in Roman imperial art.

ARCH 2620 All Italia: City and Country in Ancient Italy
This seminar approaches the urban and rural landscapes of peninsular Italy from the Early Iron Age until the Gothic Wars, with the goal being to examine key points of intersection (and departure) between the urban and rural spheres. Overall the seminar aims to contextualize Italian landscapes across both time and space and to that end we will consider issues pertaining to urbanism, economy, production, infrastructure, administration, architecture, and iconography.

ARCH 2710 The Archaeology of Nubia and Egypt
Egypt and Nubia share the distinction of ancient civilizations along the Nile river, but Nubia remains much more poorly known than Egypt. This seminar will examine the archaeology of Nubia, including its relationship to Egypt, from the introduction of ceramics and agriculture to the medieval period. This long-term perspective will allow comparative study of issues such as state formation, imperialism and religious change.

ARCH 2820 Special Topics in Old World Art and Archaeology

ARCH 2851 Skills Training in Material Culture Studies I
When dealing with material culture, one must possess a solid foundation in a range of skills. How does one document and analyze artifacts, architecture and landscapes, what techniques are appropriate in what cases? How should all this information be securely stored and promulgated? This "hands on" class, intended for students in multiple disciplines, will consider the study of particular types of material or bodies of evidence (e.g., pottery, lithics, epigraphy, numismatics).

ARCH 2852 Skills Training in Material Culture Studies II
When dealing with material culture, one must possess a solid foundation in a range of skills. How does one document and analyze artifacts, architecture and landscapes, what are the appropriate techniques? How should all this information be securely stored and promulgated? This "hands on" class, intended for students in multiple disciplines, will revolve around techniques of documentation and analysis (e.g. architectural drawing, GIS [Geographic Information Systems], data bases and digital media).

ARCH 2900 Individual Reading

ARCH 2950 Thesis Research
Individual reading for the Master’s degree.

ARCH 2960 Individual Reading for Dissertation
Reading leading to selection of the dissertation subject. Single credit.

ARCH 2970 Dissertation Research

ARCH 2980 Preliminary Examination Preparation
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.

ARCH 2990 Thesis Preparation
For graduate students who are preparing a thesis and who have met the tuition requirement and are paying a registration fee to continue active enrollment. No course credit.