81 - 90 of 184 results for: CLASSICS

Connections among science, technology, society and culture by examining the design of a prehistoric hand axe, Egyptian pyramid, ancient Greek perfume jar, medieval castle, Wedgewood teapot, Edison's electric light bulb, computer mouse, Sony Walkman, supersonic aircraft, and BMW Mini. Interdisciplinary perspectives include archaeology, cultural anthropology, science studies, history and sociology of technology, cognitive science, and evolutionary psychology.

Why do we care about shipwrecks? What can sunken sites and abandoned ports tell us about our past? Focusing primarily on the archaeological record of shipwrecks and harbors, along with literary evidence and contemporary theory, this course examines how and why ancient mariners ventured across the "wine-dark seas" of the Mediterranean for travel, warfare, pilgrimage, and especially commerce. We will explore interdisciplinary approaches to the development of maritime contacts and communication from the Bronze Age through the end of Roman era. At the same time, we will engage with practical techniques of maritime archaeology, which allows us to explore the material record first hand.

Long-term, comparative and archaeological view of urban planning and design. Cities are the fastest changing components of the human landscape and are challenging our relationships with nature. They are the historical loci of innovation and change, are cultural hotspots, and present a tremendous challenge through growth, industrial development, the consumption of goods and materials. We will unpack such topics by tracking the genealogy of qualities of life in the ancient Near Eastern city states and those of Graeco-Roman antiquity, with reference also to prehistoric built environments and cities in the Indus Valley and through the Americas. The class takes an explicitly human-centered view of urban design and one that emphasizes long term processes.

This seminar course introduces students to the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean and its archaeology, from the origins of human occupation to the end of antiquity. Readings and discussions of material culture and texts will explore the history and practice of Cypriot archaeology in relation to those of Greece and the Near East. Key themes will include: islands and insularity, continuity vs. change, sex and identity, the rise of the state, regionalism, and imperial conquest. Suitable for both graduate and undergraduate students.

By the seventh century three large political entities formed in the Mediterranean the Umayyads, the Carolingians, and the Byzantines each competed for legitimacy; all three emerged from the ashes of Late Antique culture, yet each tried to carve out an identity out of this common foundation. In this parting of the ways, the three empires took among others the issue of what constitutes an image and what role it plays in devotion. Eik'n, imago, ura became the basis on which to built differences and accuse the other political players of idolatry. This course explores medieval image theory, especially the phenomena of iconoclasm, iconophobia, and aniconism. The discussions focus on monuments in the Mediterranean as well as objects in the Cantor collection and facsimiles of manuscripts at the Bowes Art Library.

Upper division seminar. The history of the appropriation of Greek art by Rome, the Renaissance, Lord Elgin, and Manet. Enrollment limited to 6. Prerequisite: ARTHIST 102 or consent of instructor.

This class introduces Design Thinking to students in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Under a growth mindset of creative exploration and experiment, we will share a tool kit drawn from design thinking and the arts to develop our imaginative capacity to innovate. The standpoint is that creative imagination is not a property of the artistic or design genius but comprises skills and competencies that can be easily learned and adapted to all sorts of circumstances ¿ personal, organizational, business, community.

This lecture course explores Greek art and culture from 1000-480. In the beginning archaic art forms are more abstract than life-like, closer to Calder than Michelangelo. While Homer describes the rippling muscles (and egos) of his heroes, vase-painters and sculptors prefer abstraction. This changes in the 7th C. as a result of commerce with the Near East and Egypt. Imported Near Eastern bronzes and ivories awaken the Greeks to a wider range of subjects, techniques and ambitions. Later in the century, Greeks in Egypt learn to carve hard stone from Egyptian masters. Throughout the 6th C. Greek artists assimilate what they had borrowed, compete with one another, defy their teachers, test the tolerance of the gods and eventually produce works of art that speak with a Greek accent. When the Persians invade the Acropolis in 480, they find artifacts with little trace of alien influence or imprint - omens of the defiant Greek military that would prevail at Salamis and Plataea.

The class begins with the art, architecture and political ideals of Periclean Athens, from the emergence of the city as the political and cultural center of Greece in 450 to its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404. It then considers how Athens and the rest of Greece proceed in the fourth century to rebuild their lives and the monuments that define them. Earlier artistic traditions endure, with subtle changes, in the work of sculptors such as Kephisodotos. Less subtle are the outlook and output of his son Praxiteles. In collaboration with Phryne, his muse and mistress, Praxiteles challenged the canons and constraints of the past with the first female nude in the history of Greek sculpture. His gender-bending depictions of gods and men were equally audacious, their shiny surfaces reflecting Plato¿s discussion of Eros and androgyny. Scopas was also a man of his time but pursued different interests. Drawn to the inner lives of men and woman, his tormented Trojan War heroes and victims are still scarred by memories of the Peloponnesian War, and a world away from the serene faces of the Parthenon. His famous Maenad, a devotee of Dionysos who has left this world for another, belongs to the same years as Euripides' Bacchae and, at the same time, anticipates the torsion and turbulence of Bernini and the Italian Baroque. In the work of these and other fourth century personalities, the stage is set for Alexander the Great and his conquest of a kingdom extending from Greece to the Indus River. (Formerly CLASSART 102)