71 - 80 of 134 results for: CLASSICS

The seminar considers Greek artifacts in the context of Greek life (including the life of the workshop), and the endless ways in which craftsmen served the needs of Greek society. Their foundries, factories and ceramic studios produced the material goods that defined Greek life: temples, statues and other offerings for the gods; arms and armor for warriors; sporting equipment and prizes for athletes; houses, clothing and crockery for the family; ships and sailcloth, wagons and ploughs, wine and oil-presses for a thriving domestic and overseas economy; gravestones and funeral vases for the dead. (Formerly CLASSART 109.) nMost of the antiquities exhibited in museums, or purchased by private collectors from galleries and auction houses, survive because they were buried with people who used and cherished them. The Greeks¿ belief that the artifacts they valued in life would serve them in the afterlife informs the second part of the seminar, which is devoted to the recent history of tomb looting and the illicit trafficking in antiquities.

(Formerly CLASSART 117.) Roman monuments and monumental space were designed to impress. This class explores the interrelated aesthetics and mechanics of construction that led to one of the most extensive building programs undertaken by a pre-modern state. Through case studies ranging from arches, columns and domes to road networks, machines and landscape modification, we investigate not only the materials, methods, and knowledge behind Roman architectural innovation, but the communication of imperial messages through designed space.

Life in the Roman Empire: this course is a broad introduction to the archaeology of one of the best known provinces of the empire.

(Formerly CLASSART 106/206.) This course and its study trip to the Getty (Los Angeles) to view the new Byzantine exhibition explores the art and architecture of the Eastern Mediterranean: Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Damascus, Thessaloniki, and Palermo, 4th-15th centuries. Applying an innovative approach, we will probe questions of phenomenology and aesthetics, focusing our discussion on the performance and appearance of spaces and objects in the changing diurnal light, in the glitter of mosaics and in the mirror reflection and translucency of marble.

By employing a methodology based in psychoacoustics, semiotics, and phenomenology, this course explores the relationship among sound, water, marble, meaning, and religious experience in the sixth-century church of HagianSophia built by emperor Justinian in Constantinople. We will read medieval sources describing the interior and ritual, make short movies exploring the shimmer of marble in buildings on campus, and study the acoustics of domed buildings through computer auralization done at Stanford's CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics)

Onassis Seminar "Icons of Sound: Architecture, Acoustics and Ritual in Byzantium". This year-long seminar explores the creation and operations of sacred space in Byzantium by focusing on the intersection of architecture, acoustics, music, and ritual. Through the support of the Onassis Foundation (USA), nine leading scholars in the field share their research and conduct the discussion of their pre-circulated papers. The goal is to develop a new interpretive framework for the study of religious experience and assemble the research tools needed for work in this interdisciplinary field.

(Formerly CLASSHIS 133/333.) Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and law, civic strife, and constitutional change.

(Formerly CLASSHIS 114.) Cultural and political background for Athens of the 5th and 4th century BC. Athenian economy of the 4th century BC. Economic ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon. Pros and Cons of utilitarianism in light of the ethical theories of Plato and Aristotle. Economy and economics of ancient Greece will be compared to the same of ancient China. There is an interesting parallel.

The ancient Greeks and Roman created the largest and most durable slave system in world history. It formed one of the foundations of classical civilization. While cruelty and exploitation were ever-present features, ancient slavery was not race-based and many slaves came to be freed and fully integrated into society. We will investigate this complex institution from a comparative perspective and in the context of the experience of modern colonial slavery.