1

CLASSICS 51(A) Art & Archaeology of Ancient Greece

John Papadopoulos (jkp@humnet.ucla.edu) TR 9:30am-10:45pm: Dodd 147
Fowler A422 (206-4997) Sections:
1A: W 8:00-9:15am, Dodd 162; IB: W
9:30-10:45am, Kaufman 153; 1C: W
11am-12:15pm, Bunche 3150; 1D: W
12:30-1:45pm, Haines A44; 1E: W 2-
3:15pm, Dodd 162; 1F: W 3:30--
4:45pm, Dodd 162
TAs: Gazmend Elezi, Ashleigh Fata &
Anthony Vivian
Office hours (for Prof. Papadopoulos:
Thursdays 3-5:00pm
& by appointment

https://ccle.ucla.edu/course/view/17W-CLASSIC51A-1

This course is designed as an introduction to the archaeology of the Greek world in the
Mediterranean, including the history of excavation, development of scientific techniques, and
the changing nature of the discipline. We will focus on different phases of discovery and their
contribution to our understanding of antiquity, and on the role of modern agendas in
exploring and appropriating the past. An introduction to classics and archaeology, also for
those interested in art history and anthropology.

Lectures will be illustrated with PowerPoint presentations, also available in illustrated

textbooks; online readings will make supplementary materials available. All PowerPoint
presentations will be posted on the course website.

Textbooks (ASUCLA):
W. Biers, The Archaeology of Greece (2nd edition), 1996

Course Readings (except for the textbook): available online at the course website

Requirements: Two short writing assignments, five pages maximum: 25 % each

Midterm: Slide identification exam (February 7): 15 %
Final examination (slides, short answers, essay on
pre-assigned topic) (March 23): 25 %
Section (preparation, participation): 10 %
 2

SYLLABUS:
January 10: Introduction
Renfrew and Bahn, Archaeology, Introduction (online readings); Biers,
Archaeology of Greece, chapter 1; Etienne, The Search for Ancient Greece,
pp. 164-167

January 12: The Discovery of ancient lands: Ruins and romanticism

Etienne, Search for Ancient Greece, chapters II-IV (40 small pages)
Questions Why do we study the classical past and its prehistory?
What kind of expectations did Europeans bring to classical lands?
What do you/we expect from studying archaeology and uncovering the past?

January 17: The Trojan War: Texts, archaeology and Heinrich Schliemann
Etienne, The Search for Ancient Greece, pp. 110-112, 144-147; Wood, In
Search of the Trojan War (online readings) The End of the Bronze Age and
The Trojan War found again

January 19: Arthur Evans and Crete: Myth and archaeology (I)
Biers, Archaeology of Greece, chapter 2; Etienne, Search for Ancient Greece,
113-114
Questions What kind of backgrounds brought Evans and Schliemann to antiquity?
What were the goals of their investigation?
How did ancient legends inspire and mislead early archaeologists?
How do we understand prehistoric cultures without written texts?
What did they contribute to modern archaeology? What damage was done?

January 24: Thera and Atlantis: Myth and archaeology (II)

Online readings: The Myth of Atlantis (Plato, Timaeus 21e-d; Critias 108e-
121c); Etienne, Search for Ancient Greece, 130-31; Biers, Archaeology of
Greece, 28, 51-54, plates 1-2; for additional information, Doumas, Thera (on
reserve)

January 26: Vases and volcanoes: Relative and absolute chronology

Kuniholm (online readings); Renfrew and Bahn, Archaeology (online
readings), pp. 137-144, 160-162
Questions What scientific methods have developed for measuring the passage of time?
How do such methods converge or conflict with those of other disciplines?

January 31: The face of Agamemnon: Mycenae and the Mycenaean world
Biers, Archaeology of Greece, chapter 3; Pausanias description of Mycenae
(online readings); Etienne, The Search for Ancient Greece, pp. 110-112

February 2: Making faces: Physical anthropology and Shaft Graves of Mycenae

Prag and Neave, Making Faces, chapter 6 (online readings)
Questions What do the physical remains of ancient populations reveal?
How do we use the results to interpret history?
What special effects and problems are found in excavating ancient burials?

*First assignment due in class (lecture) Thursday January 31*

 3

February 7: MIDTERM: SLIDES and names, terms (review list and readings)

February 9: Underwater archaeology: The Ulu Burun (Ka) shipwreck (I)

Bass, Ulu Burun Shipwreck (online readings); Renfrew and Bahn,
Archaeology, pp. 95, 374-375 (online readings)
Questions What sorts of equipment and methods are used in underwater archaeology?
How does underwater archaeology differ from excavation on land sites?
What does the Ulu Burun or Ka shipwreck tell us about trade and the
distribution of commodities in the Late Bronze Age?

February 14: The Ulu Burun (Ka) shipwreck (II): The distribution of commodities in
the Late Bronze Age

February 16: Tablets and Texts: Language and decipherment

Chadwick, Linear B, chapters 1-2 (online readings); Biers, Archaeology, pp.
28, 63-64; also Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B (on reserve)
Questions What role does ancient language play in reconstructing ancient history?
How do we analyze and understand unknown scripts and lost languages?

February 21: The origins of Greece: Ethnicity and archaeology in the Dark Age and
Geometric periods
Hall, Ethnic Identity, pp. 1-16, 111-142; Thucydides I.2-22 (both in the online
readings); Biers, Archaeology of Greece, chapters 4-5

February 23: Archaic Greece: Art and style

Biers, Archaeology of Greece, chapters 6-7
Questions Can we determine ancient ethnic groups in archaeology?
How do we explore and understand the historical collapse of cultures?
How do we use style and science to assess ancient art?
What is the relationship between public monuments and politics?
What does survey archaeology (regional analysis) offer that excavation does
not?

February 28: Athens and Sparta: The archaeology of the city

Biers, Archaeology of Greece, chapter 8; Plutarch, Pericles pp. 11-31 (online
readings); Snodgrass, Survey archaeology & the rural landscape of the Greek
city (online readings)

March 2: City, state and empire: From Athens to Macedon

Biers, Archaeology of Greece, chapter 9
Questions What is history, and how do we uncover it in archaeology?
How do we balance textual sources with archaeology?
What is the value of monuments for ancient and modern audiences?

March 7: Macedon & Greece: The archaeology of monarchy in the Hellenistic Age
Biers, Archaeology of Greece, chapter 10; Borza, Royal Macedonian tombs
(online readings); Prag & Neave, chap 4 (online readings); Etienne, Search,
pp. 148-149

*Second writing assignment due in class Tuesday, March 5*

 4

March 9: Who owns the past? Nationalism, archaeology & the Parthenon marbles
Etienne, Search, pp. 136-143; Renfrew and Bahn, pp. 533-539 (online
readings); Meyer, Who owns the spoils of war? (online readings); Greenfield,
The Elgin Marbles Debate (online readings)
Questions What kind of modern concerns influence the course of research?
What is the value of spectacular discoveries; how do we interpret them?
Who owns the past?
What are the values of archaeological discoveries?
How are they interpreted by different groups?
What is the destination of discoveries? Who should be the ultimate owner?

March 14: After Archaeology and the Future of the past: saving the site
(conservation and restoration) and should we dig? Museums, collectors,
legislation, archaeological ethics and professional responsibilities
Review for Final Exam
Etienne, Search for Ancient Greece, 154-163; N. Stanley-Price, Site
preservation & conservation in the Mediterranean region (online readings); J.
Papadopoulos, Knossos (online readings); readings on conservation (online
readings); Vitelli, Archaeological Ethics: Introduction (online readings);
selections from Archaeological Ethics (online readings)
Questions What happens to monuments after discovery? What should happen?
What responsibilities do discoveries entail? How do we meet them?
How do present priorities compete with the past?
What is the relationship between museums and monuments?
What are the professional responsibilities of the archaeologist?
How can generations of the future preserve and protect the past?

March 16: Wrap-up & review for final exam

FINAL EXAM (Thursday, March 23, 3:00-6:00pm)

http://ccle.ucla.edu/course/view/17W-Classic51A-1

Please note: Cheating, including plagiarism, are serious offenses with serious consequences,
and all suspected cases of cheating and plagiarism will be promptly reported to the Dean of
Students.
 5

CLASSICS 51A: ONLINE READINGS

(Contents: online)

SYLLABUS

I. Ancient Sources

Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War I. 2-22 6 pages

Plato, Timaeus; Critias (myth of Atlantis ) 11 pages
Pausanias, Guide to Greece, 2.15.4-2.16.5 (description of Mycenae) 2 pages
Plutarch, Life of Perikles 11-31 12 pages

II. Modern Scholarship

C. Renfrew and P. Bahn, Archaeology pp. 11-15 (Introduction); pp. 137-144
(radio-carbon dating); 160-162 (dating the Thera eruption); pp. 95, 374-375
(the Ulu Burun or Ka shipwreck); pp. 533-539; (whose past?) 24 pages

M. Wood, In Search of the Trojan War

Chapter 2: Heinrich Schliemann 23 pages
Chapter 8: The End of the Bronze Age 14 pages
Postscript: Has the Trojan War been found again? 8 pages

J.K. Papadopoulos, Knossos, in The Conservation of Archaeological Sites

In the Mediterranean Region, 1997 33 pages

P.I. Kuniholm, Overview and assessment of the evidence for the date of
of the eruption of Thera, in Thera and the Aegean World III, 1990, 13-18. 6 pages

J. Prag and R. Naeve,

Have I gazed upon the face of Agamemnon? Grave Circle B at Mycenae, 41 pages
from Making Faces: Using Forensic and Archaeological Evidence, 1997,
chapter 6

G.F. Bass, Oldest shipwreck reveals the splendors of the Bronze Age,
National Geographic 172, no. 6, 1987 20 pages

J. Chadwick, Linear B and Related Scripts, 1987 chapters 1 & 2 16 pages

(Discovery and Decipherment)
- Linear B Syllabograms (J. Hooker, Linear B: An Intro, 1980, p. 38) 1 page
- Origin of the Alphabet (I. Gelb, A Study of Writing, 1963) 1 page
- Early Greek Alphabets (R. Osborne, Greece in the Making, 1997, pp. 110-111) 1 page

Jonathan Hall, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity, 1997,

Chapter 1, Phrasing the Problem (the Dorians) 9 pages
Chapter 5, Ethnicity and Archaeology, 17 pages

Anthony Snodgrass, Survey archaeology and the rural landscape of the

 6

Greek City, in O. Murray & S. Price, eds., The Greek City from Homer
To Alexander (1991) 13 pages

J. Prag and R. Naeve,

And a certain man drew a bow at a venture: King Philip II at Macedon, 32 pages Making
Faces: Using Forensic and Archaeological Evidence, 1997, chapter 4

E. Borza, The Royal Macedonian Tombs and the Paraphernalia of

Alexander the Great. from Makedonika (reprinted from Phoenix 1987) 12 pages

III. Conservation and Professional Responsibilities

M. de la Torre & M. McLean, The Archaeological Heritage in the
Mediterranean Region and M. Demas, Summary of Charters dealing
with the Archaeological Heritage; Conclusions of the Conference
Participants from The Conservation of Archaeological Sites in the
Mediterranean Region, 1997 15 pages

N. Stanley-Price, Site preservation & archaeology in the Mediterranean

Region, in J.K. Papadopoulos & R. Leventhal, eds., Theory and Practice
In Mediterranean Archaeology: Old World & New World Perspectives
(2003), Chapter 18 16 pages

IV. Museums, Acquisitions and Archaeological Ethics

K.D. Vitelli, Introduction 4 pages
Karl Meyer, Who Owns the Spoils of the War? 8 pages
Both from K.D. Vitelli, ed., Archaeological Ethics, 1996

J. Greenfield, The Elgin Marbles debate, in The Return of Cultural

Treasures, 2nd ed., 1995, Chapter 2 45 pages

Archaeological Institute of America 5 pages

Code of Ethics
Code of Professional Standards:
Society of American Archaeology
Principles of Archaeological Ethics

https://ccle.ucla.edu/course/view/17W-CLASSIC51A-1
 7

Classics 51(A): Review Sheet (Terms)

Weeks One & Two Pausanias George Gordon (Lord Byron)

Cyriacus of Ancona Lord Thomas Elgin
Constantinople Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Ottoman (Turkey) Morea (Peloponnese)
philology stratigraphy
Society of Dilettanti
Heinrich Schliemann Hissarlik (Troy, Ilion)
Sir Arthur Evans Knossos

Week Three Atlantis thalassocracy

radiocarbon tephra
dendrochronology Marine Style
Floral Style faience
rhyton magazines

Week Four megaron Linear B

Cyclopean megalithic
Pylos Vapheio
Agamemnon stirrup jar
tholos Tiryns
niello stele

Week Five Ulu Burun (Ka) shipwreck seals (cylinder, stamp)

underwater or marine archaeology ivory
ingots hippopotamus & boars tusks
oxhide diptych
copper pithos
bronze (Bronze Age) ostrich eggshells
tin ballast, dunnage

Week Six Dorians handmade burnished ware

Pictorial Style (Warrior krater) Protogeometric, Geometric
basileus (basileis) cremation, inhumation
Iron; Iron Age Lefkandi (centaur statuette)
meander tripod (cauldron)

Week Seven kouros, kore (korai) hecatompedon (100-foot)

red-figure, black-figure (bilingual) amphora, krater, kylix
lekythos peplos; chiton
votive (offering) apsidal
Corinth Samos
Ionic, Doric order tyrant
naos, peristyle Phrasikleia; Peplos kore
Franois Vase pediment
Amasis Painter Paestum, Italy (Tomb of the Diver)
volute krater (Vix krater)
 8

Weeks Eight & Nine Pericles Ph(e)idias

Olympia, Temple of Zeus Erechtheion (Athena Polias)
Athena Nike Parthenon
Delos (Delian League) chryselephantine
Propylaea Lacedaimon (Sparta); Lakonia
metope pediment
frieze Panathenaia
karyatid Artemisium (statue of god)
Ionia Marathon (battle)
Panhellenic sanctuaries (Delphi, Olympia)
Kritios kouros
Agora salt-cellar
stoa Olynthos
Epidauros orchestra
Pella Priene
Hippodamos Attalos
Philip II Pergamon
Vergina (Aigai) Alexander III (the Great)
Issus (battle, mosaic) larnax

Week Ten context restoration; reconstruction

conservation salvage archaeology
Venice Charter Burra Charter
cultural heritage site management
Stoa of Attalos Didyma (temple: drawings)
geomorphology remote sensing
regional analysis surface survey
landscape archaeology ethnoarchaeology
UNESCO Convention Parthenon (Elgin) marbles
Archaeological Institute of America
Society for American Archaeology

Format of final exam:

Slides (20 slides, two minutes each) 80 %

Map question (based on map in Course Readings: online) 20 %

FINAL EXAM: Thursday, MARCH 23, 3-6:00pm: Bring Blue Books!

 9

Classics 51A Reserve Reading List

(On reserve in Powell Library)

Biers, W.R., The Archaeology of Greece (2nd edition), 1996

Biers, W.R., Art, Artefacts and Chronology in Classical Archaeology, 1992

Chadwick, J., Linear B and Related Scripts, 1987

Chadwick, J., The Decipherment of Linear B, 1992

De la Torre, M. (ed.), The Conservation of Archaeological Sites in the Mediterranean

Region, 1997

Doumas, C., Thera, Pompei of the ancient Aegean: excavations at Akrotiri, 1967-1979,
1983

Etienne, R. and F., The Search for Ancient Greece, 1992

Garland, R., The Greek Way of Death, 2001

Hall, J., Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity, 1997

Kurtz, D.C., and J. Boardman, Greek Burial Customs (1971)

Langdon, S., Art and Identity in Dark Age Greece, 1100-700 BCE (2008),

Papadopoulos, J.K. and R.M. Leventhal, Theory and Practice in Mediterranean

Archaeology: Old World and New World Perspectives, 2003

Prag, J. and R. Naeve, Making Faces: Using Forensic and Archaeological Evidence,
1997

Preziosi, D. and L. Hitchcock, Aegean art and architecture, 1999

Renfrew, C. and P. Bahn, Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice (2nd ed.) 1996

Robertson, M., A History of Greek Art, 1975

Vitelli, K.D. (ed.), Archaeological Ethics, 1996

Whitley, J., The Archaeology of Greece, 2001

Wood, M. In Search of the Trojan War, 1998 ed. (originally published 1985)

Also: National Geographic Vol. 172, no. 6, December 1987 (article by George Bass on
the Ulu Burun [Ka] shipwreck in color).
 10

HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY

PAPER GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS

Select a paper topic from the list distributed in class or posted on the website. Think
about the topic and narrow it down to an aspect or aspects you can discuss in the
prescribed word limit. Do not simply copy down or blindly accept or blindly reject what
an author (any author) is saying in a book or article or website. Also, do not simply write
a summary of your topic. Construct a thesis: what is it that YOU are arguing? Discuss the
evidence and what are the assumptions being made. Prepare an outline and follow it.
Papers with section headings are usually the best structured.

Be critical in a thoughtful way: construct a logical argument, evaluation, and/or

interpretation of your topic and back it up with evidence in which the interpretive
method(s) or models used are systematic and explicit.

When you quote an author, be sure to place what s/he is saying in quotation marks and
cite him or her appropriately.

You are encouraged to illustrate your paper with images either photocopied from books
or else downloaded from the web. When using illustrations make sure to cite your sources
(i.e. where you got the image from and what the image is showing).

FOOTNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Students are free to use either footnotes or citations in brackets (Harvard system).
Footnotes have four main uses:
1. To acknowledge the source of statements in your text: either facts, opinions, or
direct quotes
2. To make cross-references to other sources dealing with the same subject
3. To make incidental comments on what youre discussing
4. To make acknowledgments (this is usually done in the first note).

Direct quotes should be set in quotation marks and noted, while a summary of what the
source said should simply be noted. To copy what is in a book, article, internet site, or
email posting without acknowledging the source is plagiarism: a type of intellectual theft
and a clear form of cheating.

All cases of plagiarism will be immediately reported to the Dean of Students (and the
consequences are severe).

For uses 1 and 2, you may make parenthetical references including page numbers either
within the main body of your text (Harvard system) or within your footnote and list the
full reference in your bibliography. If you choose to make parenthetical references,
remain consistent throughout your paper. Parenthetical references must always include
the name of the author (unless you use his or her name in the sentence), the date of the
work, and the page number or numbers of the information cited or summarized. Page
numbers may only be omitted when you are discussing ideas found throughout the
authors work.

For example:
 11

Preziosi and Hitchcock (1999:155) believe that the Palace of Nestor at Pylos is among
the most carefully documented of all Mycenaean sites.
It has recently been put forth that the unidentified floating objects on Minoan seals are
in fact representations of constellations (Kyriakides 2005: 137-154).
For a direct quote: As Reynold Higgins (1997:29) states: .perhaps the most vulgar
object of Minoan workmanship so far known.

You are required to consult the reserve and other bibliography in the library.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR PAPER

1. Be sure you understand the assignment. If you have ANY questions, do not
hesitate to ASK the instructor or TA.

2. Be sure you understand the definition of PLAGIARISM:

To PLAGIARIZE is to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as ones own
without crediting the source; present as new and original an idea or product derived from
an existing source, (Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield: Merriam-
Webster, Inc., 1989, 898.).
Many assignments will require you to incorporate other writers words and ideas. If given
permission by the instructor or TA to consult those writers, go ahead, but be sure to cite
them. If you are not sure how to use the material you have, ASK or CHECK A WRITING
GUIDE (i.e. MLA, APA, Chicago, you might try the Style Sheet from the Department of
English, available in the ASUCLA Book Store) before submitting the work for credit.

3. Be sure you understand the CONSEQUENCES of plagiarism:

a) When you plagiarize, you hand in work that is not your own. When you plagiarize, you
sabotage the quality of your education and the learning experience.
b) When you plagiarize, you steal, just as if you took something from a store. Plagiarism
is different in effect, however, because the University assumes that each grade represents
that students own work. When you plagiarize, you undermine the value of a degree from
UCLA.
c) When you plagiarize, chances are good that you will be caught. If you are caught,
chances are very good that you will be suspended from the University. Consider the
impact on your financial aid? Your time to a degree? Your plans to attend graduate
school? Your career plans? Your housing? Your family and friends?

4. If you are stuck and unable to work through the assignment, there are
alternatives to plagiarizing:
a) Visit the College Tutorials, 228 Covel Commons (206-1491). There, you can get one-
on-one help with writing skills, grammar, topic development anything involved in
writing a paper.
b) Visit your instructor or teaching assistant make an appointment or visit them during
office hours. There are no dumb questions when it comes to assuring that your work is
honest.

5. If you know of someone who is plagiarizing an assignment, confront the person

and/or tell the instructor. Papers that are plagiarized will impact the grading curve.
It is in your best interest if everyone does his or her own work.
 12

Be advised that instructors are required by the Academic Senate to refer cases of
suspected plagiarism to the Office of the Dean of Students. Penalties for plagiarism can
include Suspension or Dismissal from the University.

For further information on papers, exams, cheating and plagiarism, please visit:
http://www.deanofstudents.ucla.edu/integrity.html