Designed to prepare graduates in any aspect of study in the ancient world to prepare for the dissertation prospectus. Course will be centered around individual presentations and group critique of prospectus' in process, as well the fundamentals of large-project research design and presentation.

This seminar series explores many media and kinds of Roman private and public things, images and monuments (and, sometimes, ancient texts about them) in a range of physical and cultural settings, through an interdisciplinary lens. Special topics range between ca. 400 BCE and 800 CE, from the Hellenistic/ Republican age into the Empire and Late Antiquity, using multiple methodological and theoretical approaches to explore the global Mediterranean world, and its interaction with its neighbors in space and time. Modern archaeologies and the museum institution receive critique. The query "what is Roman about Roman art" continually recurs.

Introduction to thin-section petrography of stone and ceramic archaeological materials. Using polarized light microscopy, the first half of this course will cover the basics of mineralogy and the petrography of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. The second half will focus on the petrographic description of ceramic materials, mainly pottery, with emphasis on the interpretation of provenance and technology. As part of this course, students will characterize and analyze archaeological samples from various collections. Prior knowledge of geology is not required.

Biographical approaches, long used and despised as a genre that reduces history to the actions of a few protagonists, have been fruitfully repurposed in recent scholarship. Rather than focusing the historical analysis on the usual suspects (from emperors to canonical authors), recent applications of biographical approaches have deliberately decentered the narrative, employed the perspective of those whose position has been marginalized, and revealed influences and patterns that otherwise would remain unnoticed. This course will explore the potential, variations, and pitfalls of approaches that focus on individuals, from biographies that follow a traditional format yet have shaped the field of ancient studies to approaches such as microhistory, group and collective biographies, prosopographical studies, and social network analysis. Using examples from the Hellenistic period to the High Empire, we will discuss methods for reconstructing an individual life despite the general scarcity of sources, how such an approach can transform our understanding of the respective cultural, political, and social circumstances, and what insights into the broader historical processes and dynamics such a focus offers or obscures.

Intensive Latin reading course for students in the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies. Readings are chosen to expose students to a variety of prose and poetry texts during their program experience. The Fall course includes some grammar review and analysis as well as translation. Permission of instructor required for non-Post-Baccalaureate students.

Intensive Latin reading course for students in the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies. Readings are chosen to expose students to a variety of prose and poetry texts during their program experience. The Fall course includes some grammar review and analysis as well as translation. Permission of instructor required for non-Post-Baccalaureate students.

Intensive Greek reading course for students in the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies. Readings are chosen to expose students to a variety of prose and poetry texts during their program experience. The Fall course includes some grammar review and analysis as well as translation. Permission of instructor required for non-Post-Baccalaureate students.

Intensive Greek reading course for students in the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies. Readings are chosen to expose students to a variety of prose and poetry texts during their program experience. The Fall course includes some grammar review and analysis as well as translation. Permission of instructor required for non-Post-Baccalaureate students.

This lecture course surveys the political, religious and domestic arts, patronage and display in Rome's Mediterranean, from the 2nd c. BCE to Constantine's 4th-c. Christianized empire. Our subjects are images and decorated objects in their cultural, political and socio-economic contexts (painting, mosaic, sculpture, luxury and mass-produced arts in many media). We start with the Hellenistic cosmopolitan culture of the Greek kingdoms and their neighbors, and late Etruscan and Republican Italy; next we map Imperial Roman art as developed around the capital city Rome, as well as in the provinces of the vast empire.

In ancient times, materials such as stone and metals were used to produce artifacts including pigments, jewelry, tools, and weapons. This course is designed to introduce students to research on the early exploitation of mineral resources. Which techniques were used to access and process raw materials in antiquity? Which archaeological methods can be used to investigate these features and artifacts? The course will provide worldwide examples through time, ranging from Stone Age flint mining, Iron Age rock salt mining to Medieval silver mining. Ethnographic studies and hands-on activities will contribute to our understanding of mining in archaeology, and artifacts from the Museum's collections will undergo scientific analysis in the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials.