A private forum for students of this class has been established. To access course readings, visit http://proteus.brown.edu/urbanism2 , and log in with shared class password.
Week 1. September 6: Introduction.
Thursday ~ Approaching the city; ancient and modern.
Why do we get attached to cities? Ömür’s personal notes on living in Ankara.
Week 2. September 11-13: Cities: a world perspective.
Tuesday ~ What is a city?
Readings:
- Calvino, Italo; 1974. Invisible cities. Harcourt: New York. Excerpts.
- Assignment: Choose one of Calvino’s cities and post a paragraph and/or an image (photograph, drawing, etc) on the wiki to reflect upon your own imagination of that city. We will discuss your postings along with Calvino’s cities, thinking through what constitutes what we call a city. (Due: Tuesday September 11, 10:30 am.)
- Pile, Steve; 1999. “What is a city,” in City worlds. Doreen Massey; Steve Pile and John Allen. London and New York: Routledge: 3-19 and 42-52.
- Kostof, Spiro; 1991. “Introduction” in The city shaped: urban patterns and meanings through history. New York: Bulfinch Press, 9-41.
Thursday ~ Poetics of urban space, poetry of the city, imaginaton of the city-dweller.
Readings:
- Allen, John; 1999. “Worlds within cities” in City worlds. Doreen Massey; Steve Pile and John Allen. London and New York: Routledge: 54-96.
- Bridge, Gary and Sophie Watson; 2000. “file:1093753 City imaginaries,” in A companion to the city. Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson (eds.). Malden MA: Blackwell, 7-17.
Week 3. September 18-20. Ancient cities, modern cities: a troubled dialogue
Tuesday ~ Modernism, modernity and the city: world divided (The West and the Rest!).
Readings:
- Hosagrahar, Jyoti; 2005. “file:1952442 Introduction: becoming modern” in Indigeneous modernities: negotiating architecture and urbanism. Routledge: London and New York, 1-14.
- Robinson, Jennifer; 2006. “file:1953542 Dislocating modernity,” in Ordinary cities: between modernity and development. London and New York: Routledge, 13-40.
- Massey, Doreen; 1999. “Cities in the world,” in City worlds. Doreen Massey; Steve Pile and John Allen. London and New York: Routledge: 100-113 and 125-136.
Thursday ~ Modernist biases and imaginations on ancient urbanism
Readings:
- McIntosh; Roderick J.; 1999. “file:1962232 Western representations of urbanism and invisible African tows,” in Beyond chiefdoms : pathways to complexity in Africa. Susan Keech McIntosh (ed.). Cambridge University Press 56-65.
- Smith, Monica L.; 2003. “file:852640 Introduction: The Social Construction of Ancient Cities” in The social construction of ancient cities. M.L. Smith (ed.). Washington D.C. : Smithsonian, 1-36.
Suggested:
- Liverani, Mario; 1997. “file:1963516 Ancient Near Eastern cities and modern ideologies,” in Die orientalische Stadt: Kontinuität, Wandel, Bruch. G. Wilhelm (ed.), SDV Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag: Saarbrücken: 85-107.
Week 4. September 25-27. "The city does not tell its past": Mapping the material worlds of the city
Tuesday ~ Mapping the city: archaeological investigations of urban space. The case of Teotihuacán.
Readings:
- Webmoor, Timothy; 2005. “Mediational techniques and conceptual frameworks in archaeology. A model in ‘mapwork’ at Teotihuacán, Mexico,” Journal of Social Archaeology 5(1): 52-84.
- Millon, Rene (ed); 1973. The Teotihuacán Map. University of Texas: Austin. (I placed this publication in Joukowsky Institute library (3rd floor of 70 Waterman Street). When you enter the room, you will see a shelf of reserve readings for several classes. I created a shelf for ours as well. Two volumes of the Teotihuacán map are located there. The Institute is open on weekdays 9 am to 5 pm)
Thursday ~ Mapping the city II: case studies.
Readings:
- Alcock Susan; 1991. ‘Urban survey and the polis of Phlius.’ Hesperia 60: 421-63.
- Keay, S; J. Creighto and D. Jordan; 1991. “file:1981667 Sampling ancient towns,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 10 (3): 371-383.
Presentation:
- Summers, G. and Summers, F.;2006. “file:1982533 Aspects of Urban Design at the Iron Age city on the Kerkenes Dag as revealed by geophysical survey”, Anatolia Antiqua 14: 71-88. (Annie)
Week 5. October 2-4. City as a ceremonial center: first cities of the ancient world (the formation of the public realm)
Tuesday ~ City as a ceremonial center: The question of the first cities.
Readings:
- Wheatley, Paul; 1971. “file:2094248 The nature of the ceremonial center” in The pivot of the four quarters. University Press Edinburgh, pages 225-243.
- Mumford, Lewis; 1961. "file:2095469 The nature of the ancient city" in The city in history: its origins, its transformations, and its prospects. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 94-118.
Thursday ~ Urbanization in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt: Evolutionary models of social complexity: Egypt and Mesopotamia
Readings:
- Bard, Kathryn A.; 1997. “file:2096199 Urbanism and the rise of complex society and the early state in Egypt,” in Emergence and change in early urban societies. L. Manzilla (ed.). New York and London: Plenum Press.
- Van de Mieroop, M.; 1997. “The origins and the character of the Mesopotamian city,” The ancient Mesopotamian city. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 23-41. (In the Bookstore also)
Week 6. October 9-11. City and its territory: hinterlands and landscapes
Tuesday ~ Mesopotamian cities and their hinterland
Readings:
- Stone, Elizabeth C.; 2005. “Mesopotamian cities and countryside,” in A companion to the Ancient Near East. Daniel C. Snell (ed.). Malden MA: Blackwell, 141-154.
- Van de Mieroop, M.; 1997. “City and countryside: the Mesopotamian view,” The ancient Mesopotamian city. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 42-62.
Thursday ~ The Polis and the chora: ritual landscapes.
Readings:
- De Polignac, François; 1995. file:2169477 "Introduction" and "Cults, offerings, sanctuaries" in Cults, territory and the origins of the Greek city-state. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1-31.
- Antonaccio, Carla M.; 1994. “file:2170052 Placing the past: the Bronze age in the cultic topography of early Greece,” in Placing the gods: sanctuaries and sacred space in ancient Greece. Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne (eds.). Clarendon Press: Oxford, 79-104.
Presentation:
- Morgan, Catherine; 1994. “The evolution of a sacral landscape: Isthmia, Perachora, and the Early Corinthean state,” in Placing the gods: sanctuaries and sacred space in ancient Greece. Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne (eds.). Clarendon Press: Oxford, 105-142. (Danyelle)
Week 7. October 16-18. Anthropology of urban form: meaning and urban space.
Tuesday ~ The meaning of urban form and landscape among the Maya
Readings:
- Ashmore, Wendy; 2005. "file:2253508 The idea of a Mayan town." In Structure and meaning in human settlements. T. Atkin and J. Rykwert (eds.) Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
- James E. Brady and Wendy Ashmore; 1999. "file:2241258 Mountains, caves, water: ideational landscapes of the Ancient Maya" in Archaeologies of landscape: contemporary perspectives. Wendy Ashmore and A. Bernard Knapp (eds.). Malden MA: Blackwell, 124-145.
If you would need a geographical and historical background to Maya, you can take a look at this:
- Demarest, Arthur; 2004. "file:2242018 Background: geography, chronology and theoretical perspective," in Ancient Maya: the rise and fall of a rainforest civilization. Cambridge University Press, 8-30.
Optional:
- Heyden, Doris; 2000. “file:2243893 From Teotihuacan to Tenochtitlan: City Planning, Caves, and Streams of Red and Blue Waters” in Mesoamerica’s classic heritage: from Teotihuacan to the Aztecs. David Carrasco et al eds. The University Press of Colorado, 165-184.
Thursday ~ Foundation of the city: myth and ritual
Readings:
- Rykwert, Joseph; 1976. file:2252742 "Town and rite: Rome and Romulus" and "City and Site" in The idea of a town: the anthropology of urban form in Rome, Italy and the ancient world. MIT Press: Cambridge MA, 27-71.
- Ancient Texts on the foundation of Alexandria. Read Pausanias, Alexander 26.1-2 and Arrian, Anabasis Book 3a. Also if you are curious, explore the current archaeological work on ancient Alexandria.
Presentation:
- Dougherty, Carol; 1993. “file:2244499 It’s murder to found a colony,” in Cultural poetics in archaic Greece: cult, performance, politics. C. Dougherty and L. Kurke (eds.). Cambridge University Press, 178-200. (James)
Week 8. October 23-25. Urban fabric
Tuesday ~ Discussion on heterotopias of urban space
Readings:
- Foucault, Michel; 1967. "Of other spaces, heterotopias".
- Kezer, Zeynep; 2004. "file:2181120 If walls could talk: exploring the dimensions of heterotopia at the Four Seasons Istanbul Hotel," in Architecture as experience: radical change in spatial practice. Dana Arnold and Andrew Ballantyne (eds.). Routledge: 210-232.
Thursday ~ Urban fabric: archaeology of the household, spaces of the body. Old Babylonian Mesopotamia: private realms in the public world. City and the household in the Mediterranean
Readings:
- Bailey, Douglass; 1990. "file:2349386 Living house: signifying continuity" in The social archaeology of houses. Ross Samson (ed). Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 19-48.
- Keith, Kathryn; 2003. “file:2348432 The spatial patterns of everyday life in Old Babylonian neighborhoods” in The social construction of ancient cities. M.L. Smith (ed.). Washington D.C. :Smithsonian, 56-80.
Presentation:
- Cahill, Nicholas; 2002. Household and city organization at Olynthus. New Haven: Yale University Press. Library copy (Axel)
Further bibliography
- Madanipour, Ali; 2003. Public and private spaces of the city. London and New York: Routledge.
- Stone, Elizabeth C.; 1997. "Houses, Households and Neighborhoods in the Old Babylonian Period: The Role of Extended Families," in Houses and Households in Ancient Mesopotamia. K.R. Veenhof (ed). Istanbul: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 229-235.
- Allison, Penelope Mary; 2004. Pompeian households : an analysis of the material culture. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California.
- Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew; 1994. Houses and society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
Week 9. October 30-November 1. Streets, public rituals and social space: performance and bodily participation in the city.
Please go to the Passworded Page for downloading the articles.
Tuesday ~ Urban drama and body-politics I: streets and public life
Readings:
- Favro, Diane; 1994. "The street triumphant: the urban impact of Roman triumphal parades" in Streets: critical perspectives on public space. Zeynep Celik et al. (eds). University of California Press: Berkeley: 151-164.
- Yegul, Fikret; 1994. in "The street experience of ancient Ephesus," in Streets: critical perspectives on public space. Zeynep Celik et al. (eds). University of California Press: Berkeley: 151-164.
Thursday ~ Urban drama and body-politics II: Akitu festival at Babylon and Panathaneia/Dionysia at Athens.
Readings:
- Van de Mieroop, Marc; 2003. "Reading Babylon". American Journal of Archaeology 107.2: 257-275.
- Black, Jeremy A.; 1981. The new year ceremonies in ancient Babylon: ‘taking Bel by the hand’ and a cultic picnic,” Religion 11: 39-59.
Presentation:
- Sommer, Benjamin D.; 2000. “The Babylonian akitu festival: Rectifying the king or renewing the cosmos?” The Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 27: 81-95. (Carissa)
Further bibliography
- Sennett, Richard; 1994. Flesh and stone : the body and the city in Western civilization. New York : W.W. Norton. Excerpts.
Week 10 November 6-8. Evergetism vs. imperial projects: the social construction of ancient cities
Tuesday ~ Urban building as public spirit: Greco-Roman Euergetism/ Ottoman waqf
Readings:
- Isin, Engin F and Alexandre Lefebvre; 2005. “The gift of law: Greek euergetism and Ottoman waqf” European Journal of Social Theory 8(1): 5-23.
- Lomas, Kathyrn and Tim Cornell; 2003. Bread and circuses : euergetism and municipal patronage in Roman Italy. Kathryn Lomas and Tim Cornell (eds.). London and New York: Routledge.
- Rogers, Guy M.; 1993. "file:1961709 The gift and society in Roman Asia: orthodoxies and heresies" Scripta Classica Israelica 12: 188-199.
Thursday ~ Building the city: Euergetism in classical Oenoanda/Palmyra and 18th c. Aleppo
Readings:
- Rogers, Guy M.; 1991. "Demosthenes of Oenoanda and models of euergetism". Journal of Roman Studies 81: 91-100.
- Yon, J. B.; 2001. "Evergetism and urbanism in Palmyra" in Recent Research in Late-antique urbanism. Luke Lavan (ed.). Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement 42. Portsmouth RI: 173-181.
Presentation:
- Marcus, Abraham; 1989. The Middle East on the eve of modernity: Aleppo in the Eighteenth century. New York: Columbia University Press.
Further bibliography
- Kalinowski, Angela; 2002. "The Vedii Antonini: Aspects of Patronage and Benefaction in Second-Century Ephesos". Phoenix 56 (1/2): 109-149.
Week 11. November 13-15. Teotihuacan and questions of cultural heritage in the urban context: Timothy Webmoor (Stanford University) visiting...
Monday ~ Talk by Tim Webmoor.
"...And Heritage for All! But What Is 'Heritage'? - at a World Heritage Site for Example"
5:30 pm, Nightingale-Brown House, 357 Benefit Street
I hope that everyone will be attending this lecture.
Tuesday ~ Discussion with Tim Webmoor.
- Please explore Tim Webmoor's dissertation work Reconfiguring the Archaeological Sensibility: Mediation at Teotihuacan, Mexico, and prepare questions to discuss with him.
Thursday ~ No class. (Omur is away for ASOR Meetings in San Diego)
November 21-25 Thanksgiving Recess
Week 12. November 27-29 At the edge of the city: Heterotopias and other marginal spaces in the ancient city
Tuesday ~ Marginality and politics of space in the city: the case of Providence Seakonk river front.
Assignment 4. Crook Point essays due.
Readings:
- Edensor, Tim; 2005. Industrial Ruins: space, aesthetics and materiality. Berg Publishers: Oxford and New York. Excerpts (Download).
- See also the images at Tim Edensor's British Industrial Ruins.
Thursday ~ The corrupting city: disease, pollution, and sex in the ancient urban landscapes
Readings:
- Hope, Valerie M. and Eirann Marshall (eds.); 2000. Death and disease in the ancient city. London and New York: Routledge. Please read the introduction chapter and chapter 2-Death and disease in Cyrene: a case study (pages 1-23).
Presentation (Witt):
- McGinn, Thomas A.; 2002. “Pompeian brothels and social history” in Pompeian brothels, Pompeii's ancient history, mirrors and mysteries, art and nature at Oplontis, & the Herculaneum "Basilica". T. McGinn et. al. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement 47. Portsmouth RI, 7-46.
Pompeian Brothels and Social History.ppt
Week 13. December 4-6. Presentations and wrap up.
Tuesday ~ Student presentations of individual projects (Final Paper Drafts due)
Thursday ~ Wrap up and final discussion.
Final Papers Due: December 20, 5 pm.
