ARCH 1835 Inventing the Past: Amulets, Heirlooms, Monuments, Landscapes
Instructor: Felipe Rojas
TTh 10:30-11:50
INVENTING THE PAST: AMULETS, HEIRLOOMS, MONUMENTS, LANDSCAPES-
ANTIQUARIAN AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL ENDEAVORS FROM PRE-HISTORY TO THE RENAISSANCE
Fall Semester 2012
Professor Felipe Rojas
Tuesday and Thursday 10:30-11.50 am
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Long before archaeology was an established academic discipline, individuals and communities used landscapes, monuments, and objects to conceptualize and articulate their past. In fact, long before the invention of museums and of writing, perhaps even before the transition from hunting-and-gathering to sedentarism, human beings were deliberately manipulating the physical traces of the past in order to imagine and explain their own antiquity. This course delves into the remote origins of antiquarianism and archaeology by examining ancient examples of recovery, interpretation, collection, display, and destruction of material culture, and contrasting early antiquarian and archaeological endeavors to modern attempts to make sense of the past. The course ranges broadly from 10,000 years before the present to the Renaissance; while examples are generally drawn from the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, we will also have the opportunity to engage with comparative evidence from other cultures including early Northern Europe, Mesoamerica and China.
By the end of the term, students will have become familiar with a wide range of ancient cases of manipulation of antiquities, as well as with contemporary theoretical approaches to the archaeological study of memory. This course is aimed at students interested in the early history of archaeology and antiquarianism, as well as those wanting to study how the people of one culture interacted with the physical traces of another.
(While the course is open to everyone, the readings for this syllabus were chosen with upper-level undergraduate students or a combination of upper-level under-graduate and graduate students in mind.)
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
-Everyone is required to attend regularly, read all weekly assignments, and participate in class discussion. -In addition to a midterm exam, a final exam, and two quizzes, students are required to write two short term papers (8-10 pages each) on a topic relating to one of the cases of manipulation discussed in class. (Specific topics are to be discussed individually with the instructor.)
STUDENT WITH DISABILITIES
"Brown University is committed to full inclusion of all students. Students who, by nature of a documented disability, require academic accommodations should contact the professor during office hours. Students may also speak with Student and Employee Accessibility Services at 401-863-9588 to discuss the process for requesting accommodations.”
BROWN CODE OF HONOR
HTTP://WWW.BROWN.EDU/ADMINISTRATION/DEAN_OF_THE_COLLEGE/CURRICULUM/DOCUMENTS/ACADEMIC-CODE.PDF
GRADING
- Final Exam (25%) - Midterm exam (15%) - Two in-class presentations (10% each) - Two short papers (15% each) - Attendance and active participation (10%)
TEXTS
There is no textbook for this class; all readings will be available through the class wiki, either in .pdf form or via links to digitized texts.
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READINGS
Week 1 September 6 Introduction: Key Topics and Questions Guest Lecturer: Professor Susan Alcock
Week 2 September 11 In the beginning was the thing… Schnapp, A. (1997) The Discovery of the Past, Introduction and Ch. 1 (“Archaeology and the Presence of the Past” and “Antique and Medieval Sources”) Trigger, B. (2006) A History of Archaeological Thought (2nd ed.), Ch. 2 sec. 1 (“Classical and Other Text-based Archaeologies: Interest in the Past”)
September 13 “History-Making” Before History Bradley, R. (2002) The Past in Prehistoric Societies, Ch. 2 (“Acknowledging Antiquity: Towards an archaeology of distant origins”) Gosden, C. and G. Lock (1998) “Prehistoric Histories” World Archaeology, 30.1 (The Past in the Past: The Reuse of Ancient Monuments.), pp. 2-12. Herzfeld, M. (2004) "Whatever happened to ‘influence’? The anxieties of memory" in Archaeological Dialogues, 10, pp. 191-203 Trigger, B. (2006) A History of Archaeological Thought (2nd ed.), Ch. 4 (“The Beginnings of Prehistoric Archaeology”)
Week 3 September 18 “History-Making” at Göbekli Tepe and Çatal Höyuk Hodder, I. (2006) The Leopard’s Tale, Ch. 6 (“The Invention of History”) Batuman, E. (2011) “The Sanctuary: The World’s Oldest Temple and the Dawn of Civilization” in The New Yorker Dec. 19 & 26, pp. 72-83 Schmidt, K. (2010), “Göbekli Tepe – the Stone Age Sanctuaries. New results of ongoing excavations with a special focus on sculptures and high reliefs” in Documenta Praehistorica XXXVII, pp. 239-256
September 20 Neo-Babylonian “Archaeologists” Jonkers, G. (1995) The Topography of Remembrance: The Dead, Tradition, and Collective Memory in Mesopotamia, Ch. 6 "Continuity and change in Ebabbar of Sippar: The Construction of the Past in the First Millennium", pp. 133-152 Beaulieu, P.-A. (1994) “Antiquarianism and the concern for the past in the Neo-Babylonian period,” Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Society 28, pp. 37-42' Winter, I. (2000) “Babylonian Archaeologists of the(ir) Mesopotamian Past” in Proceedings of the First International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, P. Matthaie et al., eds., Rome, pp. 1785–1798 Trigger, B. (2006) A History of Archaeological Thought (2nd ed.), Ch. 2 sec. 3 (“Classical and Other Text-based Archaeologies: Interest in the Past”)
Week 4 September 25 Egypt Remembers Its Own Past Baines, J. (1989) “Ancient Egyptian concepts and uses of the past: 3rd to 2nd millennium BC evidence” in R. Layton (ed.), Who needs the past? Indigenous values and archaeology, pp. 131–49. Loprieno, A. (2003) “Views of the Past in Egypt During the First Millennium BC” in Never had the Like Occurred: Egypt’s view of its Past, J. Tait (ed.), pp. 139-155 Tait, J. (2003) "...since the Time of the Gods" in Never had the Like Occurred: Egypt’s view of its Past, J. Tait (ed.), pp. 1-14
September 27 Europe Invents Egypt Curran, B. (2007) The Egyptian Renaissance: The Afterlife of Ancient Egypt in Early Modern Italy. (Ch. 2 Egyptian Monuments from Antiquity to the Middle Ages) Curran, B. et al. (2009) Obelisk (Ch. 1 The Scared Obelisks of Egypt and Ch. 2 The Obelisks of Rome) Parker, G. (2003) “Narrating Monumentality: The Piazza Navona Obelisk” in Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 16.2, pp. 193-215
Week 5 October 2 Archaeologies of Memory in Greece Alcock, S. E. (2002) Archaeologies of the Greek Past: Landscape, Monuments, and Memories, Ch. 1 (“Archaeologies of Memory”) Price, S. (2011), "Memory and Ancient Greece" in B. Dignas and R. R. R. Smith Historical and Religious Memory in the Ancient World, pp. 36-57 Shanks, M. (1996) Classical Archaeology of Greece: Experiences of the Discipline, Ch. 6 (“Myths and Metanarratives: From Winckelmann to Bernal”)
October 4 The Greek Historians on Ancient Landscapes, Monuments and Objects Cook, R. M. (1955) “Thucydides as Archaeologist” in The Annual of the British School at Athens, 50, pp. 266-270 Dewald, C. (1993) “Reading the World: the Interpretation of Objects in Herodotus’ Histories”, in R. M. Rosen and J. Farrell (eds.), Nomodeiktes: Greek Studies in Honor of Martin Ostwald, pp. 55-70. Lloyd, A. B. (1995) “Herodotus on Egyptian Buildings” in A. Powell (ed.) The Greek World, pp. 273-300. Selections from Thucydides and Herodotus
Week 6 October 9 The Parthenon? What Parthenon? Beard, M. (2002) The Parthenon, Ch. 2 (“The Temple they Call the Parthenon”) Kaldellis. A. (2009) The Christian Parthenon, Ch. 1 (“Conversions of the Parthenon”), pp. 11-59 Kousser, R. (2009) “Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis” in The Art Bulletin XCI.3, pp. 263-282
October 11 Welcome to the Memory (and forgetting) Industry Halbwachs, M. (1980, orig. Fr. ed. 1952) "Collective Memory and Individual Memory" originally part of La mémoire collective, Assmann, J. (1995) "Collective Memory and Cultural Identity" in New German Critique, No. 65, pp. 125-133. Connerton, P. (2008) "Seven Types of Forgetting" in Memory Studies 1, pp. 60-72 Nora. P. (1996) "From Lieux de mémoire to Realms of Memory (Preface to the English Language Edition of Les Lieux de mémoire" pp. xv-xxiv
Week 7 October 16 Roman Collecting and Display Bartman, E. (1991) "Sculptural collecting and display in the private realm", in E.K. Gazda ed. Roman Art in the Private Sphere, pp 71-88. Carey, S. (2000) "The problem of totality: Collecting Greek art, wonders and luxury in Pliny the Elder's Natural History" in Journal of The History of Collections, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1-13 Strong, D. (1994) "Roman Museums" in Roman Museums: Selected Papers on Roman Art and Architecture
October 18 Roman Looting and Display Myles McDonnell, “Roman Aesthetics and the Spoils of Syracuse,” in Dillon and Welch (eds.) Representations of War in Ancient Rome, pp. 68‐90 Miles, M. (2008) Art as plunder: The Ancient Origins of Debate about Cultural Property. (Ch. 1 “Art as Roman Plunder”) Welch, K. E. “Domi Militiaeque: Roman Domestic Aesthetics and War Booty in the Republic,” in Dillon and Welch (eds.) Representations of War in Ancient Rome, pp. 91-‐161
Week 8 October 23 Troy and Ilion Rose, C. B. (2002) “Ilion in the Early Empire,” Patris und Imperium. Kulturelle und politische Identität in den Städten der römischen Provinzen Kleinasiens in der frühen Kaiserzeit. Proceedings of a conference held in November 1998 at the University of Cologne, November,1998, pp. 33-47. Rose, C. B. (1998) “Troy and the Historical Imagination,” The Classical World 91, pp. 405-413. C. C. Vermeule (1995), “Neon Ilion and Ilium Novum: Kings, Soldiers, Citizens, and Tourists at Classical Troy,” in J. B. Carter and S. P. Morris (eds.), The Ages of Homer: A Tribute to Emily Townsend Vermeule, pp. 467–482 M. Sage (2000), “Roman Visitors to Ilium in the Roman Imperial and Late Antique Period: The SymbolicFunctions of a Landscape,” Studia Troica 10, pp. 211–231.
OCTOBER 25 ***MIDTERM DUE***
Week 9 October 30 Pagan Antiquities and the Making of a Christian Capital Bassett, S. (2007) The Urban Image of Late Antique Constantinople, Ch. 2 and Ch. 3 (“Creating the Collection” and “The Constantinian Collection”) Coates-Stephens, R. (2007) “The Reuse of Ancient Statuary in Late Antique Rome and the End of the Statue Habit” in F. A. Bauer and C. Witschel (eds.), Statuen in der Spätantike, pp. 171-188. Elsner, J. (2000) “From the Culture of Spolia to the Cult of Relics: the Arch of Constantine and the Genesis of Late Antique Forms,” Papers of the British School at Rome 68, pp. 149-184. Saradi, H. (1997) “The Use of Ancient Spolia in Byzantine Monuments: The Archaeological and Literary Evidence,” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 3, no. 4, pp. 395-423.
November 1 Erudition and Exclusion: Connoisseurship in Constantinople Anderson, B. (2011) “Classified knowledge: the epistemology of statuary in the Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai” in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 35.1 pp. 1–19 Ševčenko, I. (1992) “The Search for the Past in Byzantium around the Year 800 ” Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 46, Homo Byzantinus: Papers in Honor of Alexander Kazhdan, pp. 279-293
Week 10 November 6 Islam and the Classical Past Bowersock, G. (1996) “Hellenism and Islam” in Hellenism in Late Antiquity, pp. 71-82. Fowden, G. (2004) “Late antique art in Syria and its Umayyad evolutions”, JRA 17, pp. 282-304. Flood, F. B. (2006) “Image against Nature: Spolia as Apotropaia in Byzantium and the Dar al-Islam”, Medieval History Journal 9.1, pp. 143-166
November 8 Muhammad the archaeologist? Muslims on the Pre-Islamic Past Cook, M. (1983), “Pharaonic History in Medieval Egypt” in Studia Islamica, 57, pp. 67-103 Kennedy, P. (1998), “The Discovery at Mada’in Salih: Myth or Artifact” in Journal of the American Oriental Society, 118.3, pp. 381- 386 Selections from early Muslim historians
Week 11 November 13 In the Realm of Relics Greenhalgh, M. (1989), The Survival of Roman Antiquities in the Middle Ages, Ch. 8 and Ch. 9 “The re-use of monuments” and “The discovery and re-use of relics and sarcophagi” Geary, P. (1978), Furta Sacra, Ch. 2 (“The Cult of Relics in Carolingian Europe”)
November 15 "More Relics" Selections from Bagnoli, M. et al. (2010) Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe
Week 12 November 20 Another Written Past: (Pseudo-)Inscriptions and History-Making in the Early Renaissance Ettinghausen, R. (1976), “Kufesque in Byzantine Greece, the Latin West and the Muslim World,” in A Colloquium in Memory of George Carpenter Miles (1905–1975), pp. 28–47 Nagel, A. (2011), “Twenty-five notes on pseudoscript in Italian art” in RES 59/60, pp. 228-248
November 22 T H A N K S G I V I N G
Week 13 December 4 Comparative Perspectives: China Hung, W. (2003) “On Rubbings - Their Materiality and Historicity” in J. Zeitlin and L. Liu (eds.), Writing and Materiality in China, pp. 29-72. Hung, W. (2012) A Story of Ruins, Ch. 1 "Internalizing Ruins: Pre-Modern Sensibilities of Time Passed" Trigger, B. (2006) A History of Archaeological Thought (2nd ed.), Ch. 2 sec. 6 and 7 (“Other First Archaeologies” and “Conclusions”)
December 6 Comparative Perspectives: Mexico Hamann, B. (2002) “The Social Life of Pre-Sunrise Things: Indigenous Mesoamerican Archaeology,” Current Anthropology 43, no. 3, pp. 351-82. Hill Boone, E. “The Aztec Understanding of Teotihuacan” in Mesoamerica’s Classical Heritage: From Teootihuacan to the Aztecs, pp. 371-395. Umberger, E. (1987) “Antiques, Revivals, and References to the Past in Aztec Art”, RES 13, pp. 63-106
Week 14 November 27 From Antiquary to Archaeologist Schnapp, A. (1997) The Discovery of the Past, Introduction and Ch. 3 and Ch. 5 (“The Europe of the Antiquaries” and “From Antiquary to Archaeologist”) Momigliano, A. (1990) The Rise of Antiquarian Research, in The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography. Berkeley, University of California Trigger, B. (2006) A History of Archaeological Thought (2nd ed.), Ch. 2 sec. 3 (“Renaissance Antiquarianism”) November 29 Roma Redux Barkan, L. (1999) Unearthing the Past: archaeology and Aesthetics in the Making of Renaissance Culture, Ch. 1 (“Discoveries”) Grafton, A. (2001) Bring Out Your Dead: The Past as Revelation, Ch. 2 “The Ancient City Restored: Archaeology, Ecclesiastical History, and Egyptology”
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION
