Course Description:

Course Objectives:

• to instruct you in the archaeology, art, history, and literature of ancient Athens from the Dark Ages through the Roman period so that you will understand both the place of Athens in the wider ancient world and the processes of state formation
• to instruct you in the nature of archaeological evidence and how to use it
• to nstruct you on how to use a variety of primary (including archaeological) and secondary (including web resources) sources to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of ancient Athens
• to improve your critical thinking skills
• to improve your writing in classics

No background knowledge of archaeology is necessary, but familiarity with Greek history and culture (especially of the 7th - 4th centuries BCE) is required.

Required Texts:

• John Camp, The Athenian Agora (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992)
• Jeffrey Hurwit, The Akropolis in the Age of Perikles (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004)
• Mabel Lang, The Athenian Citizen: Athenian Democracy in the Agora (Athens: American School of Classical Studies, 2005)

Workshops:

Periodically, throughout the semester, I will prepare packets of primary evidence (e.g., literary sources, inscriptions, works of art, archaeological data etc.) for workshops. Everyone will examine the material and come to class on the assigned day prepared to discuss and analyze it, without doing any outside reading or research on the material. The idea is to approach the material with a fresh perspective, to think deeply and critically about it, and thereby to develop strategies for interpreting archaeological data. For example, first ask yourself what kinds of information you have been given and then determine what kinds of questions you can legitimately ask of this material, and only then try to interpret it. The idea is to show you how to analyze material and develop hypotheses about it, not to ask you to memorize established interpretations of that material.

Writing Intensive Program:

The spring 2007 section of this course is part of the Writing Intensive Program (WIP) which is designed to improve your writing and to help you master the special characteristics of writing within the discipline of Classics. Equally important is that fact that writing within a discipline helps you learn within that discipline. The writing assignments for this class are designed to help you master the content of the course, as well as the mechanics of good writing. Our WIP TA has been trained by the Writing Intensive Program to help you improve your writing in Classics.

Writing Assignments:

It is well known that writing within a discipline helps you learn within that discipline. I include a number of writing assignments in this course to help you master the content of the course, as well as the special characteristics of writing within the discipline of classics. Consult the Writing Assignments section of this website for more information.

The writing assignments for this course are

1. Preliminary Research Assignment: A short (e.g., 1000 words) description of a building, festival, or other major monument that will figure in your Athens walking tour (see below); this assignment is a formal research essay and therefore must include footnotes and a Works Cited page. Consult the syllabus for the due date. Email your final draft as a WordPerfect or Word attachment to your WIP TA who will be solely responsible for grading this writing assignment. You should work with the WIP TA on this project to improve the final version. The point of the assignment is to give you a head-start on the research paper. This assignment will be graded on a 0-100 point (A-F) scale.

2. Workshop Postmortems (PMs): very short (e.g., 400-500 words) discussions of workshops. Because I find that writing improves my thinking and my learning, I require that you write a postmortem of each workshop. Undergraduates must email their postmortems to the WIP TA as Word or WordPerfect attachments; graduate students must email their postmortems to me. Postmortems must be received before the next class meeting after each workshop. The WIP TA will meet with each undergraduate student soon after the first PM is submitted to discuss this assignment. The WIP TA will evaluate the PMs submitted by undergraduates and will select several PMs to post on the website after each workshop. I will evaluate the PMs submitted by graduate students. The point of these assignments is to help you capture information / ideas / perspectives discussed during our workshops and thus to capitalize on the progress made in these sessions, to collect your thoughts about the exercise, and to articulate what ideas you want to carry away from it. The PMs will be graded on a S-U scale.

3. Walking Tour: A 30-40 minute long PowerPoint presentation and written text to accompany the PowerPoint (my "rule of thumb" is 1 page of text takes 2 minutes to read aloud) of a walking tour of ancient Athens to be taken by a historical figure in a particular year. This is a collaborative project, and you will work in teams. Each team will create a single PowerPoint presentation and accompanying text (a model is posted on the website for you to consult). I will select the time periods for the walking tour; each team will draw a time period from a hat and then each team will select an appropriate historical figure who will lead us on the walking tour. Note that this is a research project and not an exercise in creative writing. Your description of the Athens of your walking tour and of your historical narrator must be historically and archaeologically accurate; your accompanying text will therefore need to include footnotes and a Works Cited page. On the day your PowerPoint presentation is to be given, one member of the team must bring me the Word or WordPerfect text and the PowerPoint presentation for the tour on a memory stick, CD etc. so that I can load it on the website. Additional information will be distributed later in the semester. This project will be graded on a 0-100 point (A-F) scale, and each member of the team will receive the same grade.

4. Research Paper: A research paper (e.g., 4000 words; 6000 words for Honors-option students or students enrolled at the 6000-level) that relates both to your walking tour and to the archaeology of Athens. You may write on a building, a festival, or some other monument or topic that figures in your walking tour; indeed, you may want to write on the same topic you selected for writing assignment #1. You must, however, clear your topic with me. Although the walking tour is a collaborative project, the research paper is an independent project and must reflect your work alone. Submit a hard copy of the paper to me (email submissions will not be accepted) on the day the paper is due (consult the syllabus for the exact date). Additional information will be distributed later in the semester. Consult the syllabus for all deadlines for e-submission of your bibliography and rough draft to the WIP TA; failure to submit a bibliography or rough draft on time will negatively impact your grade. I encourage you to work with the WIP TA on drafts of your paper; writing is a process and going over drafts of your paper with the WIP TA will significantly improve your final product. This assignment will be graded on a 0-100 point (A-F) scale.

See the Writing Assignments section of the website for important information about formatting these assignments and for other guidelines for all writing assignments. Failure to follow the guidelines and instructions given in class and posted on the website will have a negative impact on your grade.

Testing:

There will be a midterm and a final exam; consult the syllabus for the specific days. Each test will consist of slide identification and short answer; the final will also include a comprehensive essay question. Make-up tests will be given only in the event of an approved absence from class and require an excuse signed by a doctor, etc. or university official.

Grading:

Your final grade for this course will be based on your performance on the writing assignments, the PowerPt presentation, the midterm, and the final exam and will be weighted as follows:

* poor performance on the prospectus, bibliography, and rough draft of the research paper or failure to turn in these assignments on the assigned due dates will have a negative impact on this grade

Excessive absences will effect your final grade

I grade on a 100 point scale, as follows:

Attendance Policy:

Excessive absences (more than two un-excused absences) may result in your being dropped from the course. Please note that if you decide to withdraw from the course and are, at the time you withdraw, failing the course, I reserve the right to assign a grade of WF even if you withdraw before the official UGA withdrawal deadline. If you enroll in this class, you have made a commitment to attend and to do the work. If you are not prepared to do that, drop the course now.

Important Additional Information for this Course:

The requirements for this course are really quite simple: Preparation and Participation! (Do not confuse attendance with participation.) It is imperative that you do the reading when it is assigned and that you come to class prepared to discuss what you have read.

Additional comments: do not be late for class and do not leave early; come to class prepared; do all of the assigned homework on time; turn off your cell phone when you enter the classroom and keep it off.

University Honor Code and Academic Honesty Policy:

All academic work must meet the standards contained in “A Culture of Honesty.” Students are responsible for informing themselves about those standards before performing any academic work. The link to more detailed information about academic honesty can be found at: http://www.uga.edu/ovpi/honesty/acadhon.htm.