Rabun M Taylor

The towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried in an eruption of 79 AD, offer modern visitors a panoramic surface view of Roman life. This course will delve deeper by examining the ancient remains in context. The forum, temples, baths, houses, shops, theaters, and streets weave a tattered tapestry still saturated with meaning today. Our task it to recover some of that meaning through the refractory lens of our modern minds. Using ancient literary texts and various analytical approaches, we will sample the rich visual and material legacy of these towns, seeking through artifacts--some magnificent and others merely interesting--to recollect a way of life. Students will be evaluated according to performance in class, on a midterm and final exam, on several writing assignments, and on other tasks assigned by the instructor.

This course will encompass Roman architecture in its many dimensions:  as a process, and a product; as an expression of cultural continuity and a medium of innovation; as a product of high artifice, and an organic component of urban and rural landscape; as the product of complex systems of planning, administration, and organization; and as a vehicle of signification through time.  Special attention will be given, on the one hand, to Vitruvius and the fraught relationship of his architectural treatise to the emergence of a distinctly Roman classicism, and to monumental architecture of the Roman Imperial period from Nero to Maxentius.

This course is an introduction to the art, architecture, and archaeology of the ancient Romans from the beginnings of the city of Rome in the early Iron Age to late antiquity.  It focuses on major developments in Roman material culture, particularly artworks, buildings, and cities.  Material will be presented chronologically and students will see and evaluate artifacts in light of their cultural precedents.  After completing this course, students will be able to understand major Roman sites, monuments, and artworks in their cultural and chronological context and to offer an analysis based on art-historical and archaeological principles.

Three quizzes: 5 percent each (15 total) Midterm: 30 percent Special Assignments: 20 percent Final exam: 35 percent.

 The textbook is Fred Kleiner, A History of Roman Art (2007).  It’s at the Co-op.

Other readings are listed in the week-by-week entries of the course calendar below.  Apart from Kleiner, all readings will be available electronically—either on e-reserves, or as an e-book.  You can access both resources through UT Libraries.  In general, you should try to have the weekly readings done by the Thursday class session.

E-reserves page:  http://reserves.lib.utexas.edu/eres/default.aspx

E-reserves password for this course:  servius

The archaeology of the Classical world is an enormously wide-ranging field, encompassing archaeological fieldwork of all kinds over thousands of miles.  This course will be your introduction to this diverse and fascinating discipline, both in terms of its scope and its methods.  Not only will we study the “core” of the Classical world in Greece and Italy through an examination of major sites and artifacts, we will also focus on the methods that have stimulated important new discoveries and ideas in recent decades.  We will consider how Classical archaeology has developed since its origins in the 18th and 19th centuries and focus on key debates and innovations in the field.  In addition, we will discuss important methodological principles such as numismatics, field survey, excavation techniques, and artifact analysis.  Several units of the course will be anchored in particular archaeological sites that exemplify the topics under discussion. 

This course fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement; it may also be counted as an elective.  As a prerequisite, students must have taken one of the following:  AHC 319 (Topic 1:  The Ancient Mediterranean World); ANT 304; ARH 302; ARY 301; C C 301, 302, 307C, 307D, 319D; HIS 319D.  

Decades on from the large-scale Italian excavations of the ancient Roman port city of Ostia and Russell Meiggs’ epochal synthesis published in 1973, a new wave of archaeological discoveries and historical interpretations has shed much light on the city and its companion community of Portus—not just in their physical and local aspects, but also in the ways that they interacted with Rome and the Mediterranean at large.  Focusing on recent work in archaeology, history, and religious studies, this seminar takes a multidisciplinary approach to Ostia, scrutinizing its complex and often unique physical and social structures, its many religious and commercial institutions, its art and architecture, and its broader significance in Roman life and culture.

Texts

Please note these are provisional:Aurea Roma:  dalla città pagana alla città cristiana.  2000.Bakker, J.T.  1994.  Living and Working with the Gods:  Studies of Evidence for Private Religion and Its Material Environment in the City of Ostia (100-500 AD).Boin, D.  2010.  “Temples and Traditions in Late Antique Ostia, 250-600 C.E.”  Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas – Austin.Bruun, C. and A.G. Zevi, eds.  2002.  Ostia e Portus nelle loro relazioni con Roma.Descoeudres, J.-P., ed.  2001.  Ostie – port et porte de la Rome antique.Egelhaaf-Gaiser U.  2002.  “Religionsästhetik und Raumordnung am Beispiel der Vereinsgebäude von Ostia.”  In Religiöse Vereine in der Römischen Antike. Untersuchungen zu Organisation, Ritual und Raumordnung,123-72.Falzone, S.  2007.  Ornata aedificia.  Pitture parietali delle case ostiensi.Gering A. 2004.  “Plätze und Strassensperren an Promenaden. Zum Funktionswandel Ostias in der Spätantike.” RM 111, 299-382.Hainzelmann, M.  2000.  Die Nekropolen von Ostia.Hermansen, G.  1981.  Ostia:  Aspects of Roman City Life.Keay, S. et al., eds.  2005.  Portus:  An Archaeological Survey of the Port of Imperial Rome.Martin A. et al. 2002.  “The Urbanistic Project on the Previously Unexcavated Areas of Ostia (DAI-AAR 1996-2001).” MAAR 47, 259-304.Meiggs, R.G.  1973.  Roman Ostia.Muntasser, N.  2003.  “The Late Antique Domus in Ostia.”  Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas – Austin.Olsson, B. et al., eds.  2001.  The Synagogue of Ostia and the Jews of Rome:  Interdisciplinary Studies.Pavolini C. 2002.  “La trasformazione del ruolo di Ostia nel III sec. d.C.”  MEFRA 114, 325-352.Pavolini, C.  2006.  Ostia.  Guida archeologica Laterza.  2nd ed.Priester S. 2002.  Ad summas tegulas. Untersuchungen zu vielgeschossigen Gebäudeblöcken mit Wohneinheiten und Insulae im kaiserzeitlichen Rom.Rickman, G.  1982.  The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome.Rieger, A.-K.  2004.  Heiligtümer in Ostia.Steuernagel, D.  2004.  Kult und Alltag in römischen Hafenstädten. White, L.M.  1997.  "Synagogue and Society in Imperial Ostia: Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence," Harvard Theological Review 90:1, 23-58.White, L.M.  1999.  “Reading the Ostia Synagogue: A Reply to A. Runesson,” Harvard Theological Review 92:4, 435-464.Zevi, A.G. and A. Claridge, eds.  1996.  “Roman Ostia” Revisited:  Archaeological and Historical Papers in Memory of Russell G. Meiggs.Zevi, A.G. and J. Humphrey, eds.  2004.  Ostia, Cicero, Gamala, Feasts and the Economy.Zevi, A.G. and R. Turchetti, eds.  2004.  Le strutture dei porti e degli approdi antichi.

Grading

Grades will be assigned according to individual performance in class discussions, presentations, and a research paper.

Course Description: This course is an introduction to the art, architecture, and archaeology of the ancient Romans from the beginnings of the city of Rome in the early Iron Age to late antiquity. It focuses on major developments in Roman material culture, particularly artworks, buildings, and cities. Material will be presented chronologically and students will see and evaluate artifacts in light of their cultural precedents. After completing this course, students will be able to understand major Roman sites, monuments, and artworks in their cultural and chronological context and to offer an analysis based on art-historical and archaeological principles.

Three quizzes (Tuesdays, in class): Midterm (Tuesday, Oct. 5, in class): Two critical essays on outside lectures: Final exam (Monday, Dec. 13, 2-5 p.m.):5 percent each (15 total) 30 percent 20 percent 35 percent.

The archaeology of the Classical world is an enormously wide-ranging field, encompassing archaeological fieldwork of all kinds over thousands of miles.  This course will be your introduction to this diverse and fascinating discipline, both in terms of its scope and its methods.  Not only will we study the “core” of the Classical world in Greece and Italy through an examination of major sites and artifacts, we will also focus on the methods that have stimulated important new discoveries and ideas in recent decades.  We will consider how Classical archaeology has developed since its origins in the 18th and 19th centuries and focus on key debates and innovations in the field.  In addition, we will discuss important methodological principles such as numismatics, field survey, excavation techniques, and artifact analysis.  Several units of the course will be anchored in particular archaeological sites that exemplify the topics under discussion. 

This course fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement; it may also be counted as an elective.  As a prerequisite, students must have taken one of the following:  AHC 319 (Topic 1:  The Ancient Mediterranean World); ANT 304; ARH 302; ARY 301; C C 301, 302, 307C, 307D, 319D; HIS 319D. 

Mythic haunt of the great heroes Odysseus, Aeneas and Hercules; historic birthplace of Greek colonization; haven of Hellenism in the west; playground and pleasance of the Roman aristocracy; cultural and commercial powerhouse:  the Bay of Naples played a role second only to Rome in the cultural geography of ancient Italy.  Emphasizing the population centers of the western Bay—particularly Neapolis, Puteoli, Baiae, Misenum, and Cumae, and their Phlegraean coast and hinterland—this seminar seeks to redress a colossal imbalance in Anglo-American scholarship on the region, which has focused almost exclusively on Pompeii, Herculaneum, and a handful of Vesuvian villas.  We will investigate this region across several disciplines, including archaeology, social and political history, architectural history, geology, numismatics, epigraphy, and religious studies.  Reading knowledge of Italian is highly desirable but not required.

Course Description: This course is an introduction to the art, architecture, and archaeology of the ancient Romans from the beginnings of the city of Rome in the early Iron Age to late antiquity. It focuses on major developments in Roman material culture, particularly artworks, buildings, and cities. Material will be presented chronologically and students will see and evaluate artifacts in light of their cultural precedents. After completing this course, students will be able to understand major Roman sites, monuments, and artworks in their cultural and chronological context and to offer an analysis based on art-historical and archaeological principles.

Three quizzes (Tuesdays, in class): Midterm (Tuesday, Oct. 5, in class): Two critical essays on outside lectures: Final exam (Monday, Dec. 13, 2-5 p.m.):5 percent each (15 total) 30 percent 20 percent 35 percent.

Buried in an eruption in 79 AD and rediscovered only in the mid-eighteenth century, the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum offer modern visitors a panoramic view of Roman life.  The forum, temples, baths, houses, shops, theaters, and streets weave a tattered tapestry still saturated with meaning today.  Our task is to recover some of that meaning through the refractory lens of our modern minds.  Using ancient literary texts and various analytical approaches, we will sample the rich visual and material legacy of Mt. Vesuvius, seeking through artefacts — some magnificent, all interesting — to recollect a way of life. 

Professor Rabun Taylor, rmtaylor@mail.utexas.edu
Office hours:  Waggener 14b, T 2-4, Th 2-3, or by appointment
E-reserves password:  palatine


COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is a general survey of the architecture and urban development of Rome from its beginnings until late antiquity.  By studying the city’s monumental center, students will gain an understanding of Rome’s immense cultural legacy in general, and in specific a familiarity with the spatial and topographical vocabulary inherited by the modern urban West.  Additionally, by examining the remains of ancient Rome’s infrastructure, they will confront the city as an organic and historical entity.

YOUR COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1)    To achieve a basic grasp of the chronology and history of the physical city of Rome in antiquity.
2)    To develop the means to analyze topographical problems critically, using an array of resources such as archaeological evidence, pictorial evidence, ancient literary sources, coin iconography, early modern testimony, and maps.
3)    To gain close familiarity with, and conduct research on, a specific problem in the topography, monuments, or architecture of the ancient city of Rome.

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS:
Some religious holidays may conflict with class sessions.  If you expect to miss class because of a religious holiday, you will be allowed to make up any assessed work you missed on that day.  But you must notify me at least 14 days in advance.  For religious holidays that fall within the first two weeks of the semester, the notice should be given on the first day of the semester.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:
The University of Texas at Austin provides, upon request, appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 or 471-4641, or go to http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/ssd.  Keep in mind that this course is heavily oriented toward visual information.

SCHOLASTIC DISHONESTY:
Scholastic dishonesty will not be tolerated.  It includes any kind of cheating; for more information, contact Student Judicial Services at 471-2841, or go to http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/scholdis.php.

GRADING:
Class participation and attendance:  10 percent
Map quizzes:  10 percent
2 Midterms:  30 percent
Presentation:  20 percent
5- to 8-page research paper (for grad students, 15-20 pages):  30 percent

Exam.  The midterms will cover all the material we have covered to that point; but the second midterm will focus on material covered since the first exam.  There is no final exam.  In the latter weeks of the semester, you must continue to do all the readings diligently, and participate in discussion; but you will also be occupied with your presentation and paper.
Class participation is assessed according to your attendance and level of participation in discussions.  In addition, you may be asked periodically to submit brief response papers or questions about the readings to stimulate discussion.  If class enrollment size permits, you may also be asked to give brief reports on individualized readings or topics.
Your presentation will be scheduled well ahead of time, and should cover the topic on which you will write your paper, or a related topic.
Your paper must be carefully and thoroughly researched; and it must be well written.  Final papers will be due on the last day of class (May 6).  Depending on the size of the class, I may give students the option of submitting an earlier draft for comment.

TEXTBOOKS:
Claridge, A.  Rome:  An Oxford Archaeological Guide.  Oxford.
Favro, D.  The Urban Image of Augustan Rome.  Cambridge.  (Currently on order at Coop, due in mid-September)
Packer, J.  The Forum of Trajan in Rome:  A Study of the Monuments in Brief.  Berkeley.
Stambaugh, J.  The Ancient Roman City.  Baltimore and London.
Course packet.

Optional purchase:
Holloway, R.  The Archaeology of Early Rome and Latium.

COURSE PROCEDURES AND EXPECTATIONS:
This class will have a fairly informal structure.  I will lecture extensively, particularly on Mondays and Wednesdays, but there is opportunity for discussion at any time.  Please complete the readings for each week before the Friday session.  Fridays will be less lecture-intensive and more open to other learning formats.

1)    Have fun.  It’s your privilege to be studying one of the most fascinating cities in the history of the world.  Be curious, be engaged.
2)    Take the class sessions seriously.  Show up!  If you miss a class session, you will have to get notes from another student.  There is a large visual component to this course.  Many students have difficulty initially processing projected images and spoken words simultaneously, but they soon get the hang of it.  If you feel you need help learning how to take notes efficiently, visit the UT Learning Center in Jester A332A / D7300.
3)    Take the readings seriously.  In general, you are required to have completed the readings for a given week by the Friday session of class.  Sometimes I will ask you to complete a reading at a particular time, so that we can go over its important points in class.  Inevitably, some readings will be harder than others, and I don’t expect you to master every detail.  What I am looking for is a grasp of the principal points of each reading.  Reading assignments below may be approximate.  I reserve the right to make changes from week to week.
4)    Take the quizzes and exams seriously.  I will give plenty of advance warning and information about these.  I may give you a key to a quiz in advance for study purposes.
5)    Keep up with the Blackboard course site.  I will post useful information, including this syllabus, there.  I will also post my PowerPoint slides for each class session, so you’ll have access to all the text and images I show in class.
6)    Organize and review your information.  Take time periodically to review your notes and readings.  Don’t wait till exam time!  Find a study partner or form a study group.

 
CALENDAR:

Week 1 (Jan. 19-21):  Introduction.
For this week, read:  Claridge 3-58; Stambaugh 1-15.
Week 2 (Jan. 26-28):  Early Rome.
For this week, read:  Holloway 1-11, 20-36, 51-88 (course packet or e-reserves); Slayman 23-27 (e-reserves).
Week 3 (Feb. 2-4):  Rome under the Republic.
Tuesday, Feb. 2:  MAP QUIZ at beginning of session.
For this week, read:  Stambaugh 16-47; Kleiner 49-51 (e-reserves); Wiseman 3-26 (e-reserves).
Week 4 (Feb. 9-11):  From Republic to Empire.
For this week, read:  Stambaugh 48-66; Favro 24-78.
Week 5 (Feb. 16-18):  Augustan Rome I.
Tuesday, Feb. 16:  MAP QUIZ at beginning of session.
For this week, read: Favro 79-103; Zanker 65-89, 139-156 (e-reserves).
Week 6 (Feb. 23-25):  Augustan Rome II.
For this week, read:  Favro 103-92.
Week 7 (March 2-4):  Augustan Rome III.
Tuesday, March 2:  MIDTERM I.
For this week, read:  Favro 192-236, 242-80.
Week 8 (March 9-11):  Tiberius through Nero; the Flavians.
For this week, read:  Stambaugh 67-85; Kleiner 141-145 (e-reserves); MacDonald 20-46 (e-reserves; plates and text separate); Darwall-Smith  35-55, 68-75, 90-99 (course packet; text and plates separate); Anderson 101-18 (e-reserves; text and plates separate).

SPRING BREAK

Week 9 (March 23-25):  The Flavians.
For this week, read: Darwall-Smith, 101-115, 139-156, 166-179, 215-234, 253-262 (course packet; text and plates separate); Welch, “The Colosseum,” 128-62 (e-reserves); Anderson 119-39 (e-reserves); Sear 148-53 (e-reserves).
Week 10 (March 30-Apr. 1):  Trajan.
For this week, read: Darwall-Smith 241-249 (course packet); Yegül 142-146 (e-reserves); Sear 160-64 (e-reserves); Packer 4-5, 54-85, 146-163, 174-191.
Week 11 (Apr. 6-8):  Trajan to Hadrian.
For this week, read:  Wilson Jones 161-213 (course packet); Boatwright 33-73 (course packet).
Week 12 (Apr. 13-15):  Hadrian.
For this week, read: Boatwright 119-133, 161-181, 218-235 (course packet).
Week 13 (Apr. 20-22):  The Antonines and Severans.
Tuesday, Apr. 20:  MIDTERM II.
For this week, read: Kleiner 283-301, 329-337, 408-417 (e-reserves); Yegül 130-162, 172-180 (e-reserves); S. Lusnia, “Urban Planning and Sculptural Display in Rome:  Reconstructing the Septizodium.”  American Journal of Archaeology 108 (2004), 517-544 (available through JSTOR).
Week 14 (Apr. 27-29):  The Third Century; Diocletian to Maxentius.
For this week, read:  Ward Perkins 415-439 (e-reserves); Yegül 162-72 (e-reserves); Coates-Stephens 217-235 (e-reserves).
Week 15 (May 4-6):  Constantine and beyond.
For this week, read: Kleiner 444-455 (e-reserves); Krautheimer 3-58 (e-reserves).

This course is an introduction to the art, architecture, and archaeology of the ancient Romans from the beginnings of the city of Rome in the early Iron Age to late antiquity.  It focuses on major developments in Roman material culture, particularly artworks, buildings, and cities.  Material will be presented chronologically and students will see and evaluate artifacts in light of their cultural precedents.  After completing this course, students will be able to understand major Roman sites, monuments, and artworks in their cultural and chronological context and to offer an analysis based on art-historical and archaeological principles.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag.

Classical archaeology, the first branch of archaeology to emerge as a coherent discipline, is both burdened and enriched by its heritage. Long pressed into the service of historical research or confined to a fairly narrow compass of art historical inquiry, it has broadened its scope dramatically over the last half century to include almost every possible aspect of the material remains of past human activity. This thematically-organized seminar provides a forum for the exploration and discussion of the intellectual principles and debates that inform modern archaeologies of the Bronze Age Aegean and the Classical Greek and Roman worlds. Students will be expected to evaluate a wide variety of arguments, principles, and methods introduced through readings, presentations by guest speakers and the students themselves, electronic media, and visits to various campus or regional resources (the GIS center, SAMA, etc.). Subject matter may include, on the one hand, such theoretical topics as historiography, landscape, gender, colonial and post-colonial studies, ritual and religion, agency and habitus, processualism and post-processualism, cognitive archaeology, ethnicity and identity, the ancient economy, social structure, and mortuary analysis; and, on the other hand, such applied topics as the study of ceramics, principles of field survey, remote sensing and geophysical prospection, excavation methodologies, GIS and computer applications, chemical analyses, and various other archaeometric technologies and approaches.