A survey of the development of archaeology. The methods and techniques of archaeology are presented through an analysis of excavations and prehistoric remains. Materials studied range from the Bronze Age and classical civilizations of the Old World and the Aztec and Inca empires of the New World to the historical archaeology of New England. Students are introduced to techniques for reconstructing the past from material remains. The course includes a field trip to a neighboring archaeological site.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 30
Crosslisted Courses: CLCV 10 3
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Minor
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.
Achilles' heel, the Trojan Horse, Pandora's Box, an Oedipal complex, a Herculean task-themes and figures from classical mythology continue to play an important role in our everyday life. We will read the original tales of classical heroes and heroines as depicted by Homer, the Greek tragedians, Vergil, Ovid, and others. Why do these stories continue to engage, entertain, and even shock us? What is the nature and power of myth? Readings from ancient sources in English translation.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 30
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Burns
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy; LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Summer; Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Daily life in ancient Greece and Rome, from the ordinary activities of everyday life (family life; work and leisure; shopping, cooking and eating; games and entertainment; going to see a gladiatorial show or an athletic contest or a play; parties) to the turning points of an individual's life (birth, initiation into adulthood, marriage, childbirth, old age, death). The rhythm of a year as expressed in festivals and holidays. The practices, customs, and shared beliefs that gave meaning and structure to the lives of both individuals and cultures. A mix of lecture, discussion, and case studies based on the lives of real people. Assignments drawn from a wide variety of ancient sources in translation, from cookbooks to personal letters to tombstone inscriptions to some of the greatest literature in the Western tradition.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Starr
Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This first-year seminar examines the past through direct engagement with objects from ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Working with a diverse collection of artifacts—including pottery, coins, and figurines—students will learn about the societies of the ancient Mediterranean as well as methods of artifact analysis and theories of material culture studies. We will explore the history of the objects now at Wellesley, with attention to ethical and legal aspects of collecting antiquities. We will also consider the presentation of ancient objects as art and artifact in various local museum settings. Students will work collaboratively to design an exhibition of select pieces.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: None. Open to First-Years only.
Instructor: Burns
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis; HS - Historical Studies
Other Categories: FYS - First Year Seminar
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Roman chariot races and gladiatorial combat were not just entertainment for the masses, just as the ancient Olympic games were much more than sporting events. Athletic competitions, theatrical performances, and militaristic parades were all public enactments of political and religious ideology. This course examines the spectacle of competitive performances and rituals of power that helped shape ancient Greek and Roman society. Students will investigate ancient writings alongside art-historical and archaeological evidence to consider how social values and identities were constructed through these shared experiences. We will also consider how the modern performances of ancient texts, the Olympic Games, and cinematic representations have emphasized the splendor, drama, and gore of antiquity.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 16
Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 305.
Instructor: Burns
Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course. This course is also offered at the 300-level as CLCV 305; This course is not offered at the 300-level in 2022-23
The mythic tales of gods and heroes featured in the epic poems, sacred hymns, and tragic theatre of Greece and Rome were also present in material form as votive statues, on painted vessels, and in architectural decoration. This course will focus on the interplay between textual and visual representations of Olympian deities like Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon; legendary figures such as Heracles, Theseus, and the heroes of the Trojan War; and the infamous women of myth: Helen, Clytemnestra, and Medea. We will analyze how visions of the heroic age-replete with legendary battles, divine seductions, and exotic monsters-provided ancient societies with new opportunities to create a shared history, foster ethnic and civic identity, and transmit ideological values about age and gender.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Burns
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video; HS - Historical Studies
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Antigone in Ferguson and in Puerto Rico, a Kabuki Medea, a Nigerian Dionysus -- why do contemporary playwrights and authors from around the world keep returning to ancient Greek tragedy? It is not because “we” are particularly like the ancient Greeks. Rather, for many artists and activists, Greek tragedy offers a world that is familiar yet remote, one that provides a space where questions too thorny to be tackled head on can be played out at a safe distance. This class will combine discussion of plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in their original context with analysis of their afterlife on the current world stage. How do contemporary, cross-cultural versions of plays like Antigone, Oedipus the King and Medea unsettle our familiar readings of ancient drama? How do these age-old plays create a space to answer the questions about politics, community, power and identity that dominate an increasingly diverse collective cultural identity in the 21st century? All readings will be done in English.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 310.
Instructor: Dougherty
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video; LL - Language and Literature
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CLCV 310.
Every story is a travel story, and this class introduces students to the theme of travel as it appears in a range of literary texts from Homer's Odyssey to Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Toni Morrison's novel Home. We will focus on the ways that mobility, transience, and unsettledness function in these works both to confirm and challenge our ideas of home, identity (both personal and cultural), and the possibilities of return.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 212
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Dougherty
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Do notions of gender change over time? In this course, we will explore how gender was constructed in antiquity and how it functioned as an organizational principle. Through close readings of selections from Greek and Roman epics, lyric poetry and drama, as well as philosophical and historical texts, we will analyze representations of sex and gender exploring how power was shaped through these depictions.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 313.
Instructor: Gilhuly
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CLCV 313.
Ancient Greek historians associated the ruins of Bronze Age cities with the legends of the Trojan War, the lost city of Atlantis, and the labyrinth of the Minotaur. This course takes a more archaeological approach, combing the ruins for evidence that allow us to reconstruct complex societies that integrated contributions from diverse participants, including slaves and foreigners, as well as heroic adventurers. We will investigate the role of African and Asian cultures in early Greek state formation and collapse, technologies of art and writing, and religious traditions featuring a mother goddess. The course requires no background and offers an introduction to archaeological analysis as well as the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: ANTH 215
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Burns
Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies; SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
War is undoubtedly bad. But human beings have always practiced war. Indeed, war preceded history itself by tens of thousands of years-if by history we mean the written inquiry into the past. But what causes wars? How have wars been justified historically? How are wars won and lost? What are their effects? In this class, we examine a series of case studies in warfare, including the Trojan War, the Peloponnesian War, and the Roman Punic Wars. We will read classic accounts of warfare and theoretical literature about tactics, strategy, and logistics, and also will analyze how war is represented in other media, such as art and film.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None. Not open to student who have taken CLCV 330.
Instructor: Rogers
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CLCV 330.
The founders of Western civilization were not monotheists. Rather, from 1750 B.C.E. until 500 C.E., the ancient Greeks and Romans sacrificed daily to a pantheon of immortal gods and goddesses who were expected to help mortals achieve their earthly goals. How did this system of belief develop? Why did it capture the imaginations of so many millions for more than 2,000 years? What impact did the religion of the Greeks and Romans have upon the other religions of the Mediterranean, including Judaism and Christianity? Why did the religion of the Greeks and Romans ultimately disappear?
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 336.
Instructor: Rogers
Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as CLCV 336.
At the birth of the Roman Empire virtually all of its inhabitants were practicing polytheists. Three centuries later, the Roman Emperor Constantine was baptized as a Christian and his successors eventually banned public sacrifices to the gods and goddesses who had been traditionally worshipped around the Mediterranean. This course will examine Roman-era Judaism, Graeco-Roman polytheism, and the growth of the Jesus movement into the dominant religion of the late antique world.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: CLCV 240
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Geller
Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Ancient Rome’s economy was pre-industrial but highly developed and sophisticated. We will study fundamental large-scale questions such as the labor force with both free and slave labor, raw materials acquisition, start-up capital, transportation by land and sea, state involvement in the economy, banking, production methods, marketing, and retail trade. We will also study how individual businesses and trades operated, such as restaurants, furniture making, agriculture, pottery production, construction, stonework, lodging, sex work, handcrafts, textile and clothing production, dry-cleaning, and professional services (e.g., education). What modern models and approaches, including behavioral economics, help us understand ancient Roman businesses? Possible projects include case studies, consultations with modern craftspeople, and development of business plans.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Starr
Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies; SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Ancient Roman civil law; its early development, codification, and continuing alteration; its historical and social context (property, family, slavery); its influence on other legal systems. Extensive use of actual cases from antiquity.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 30
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Starr
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis; HS - Historical Studies
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
In a 1970 treaty, members of the United Nations set forth a definition of cultural property that includes diverse natural and cultural objects as components of a shared global “civilization.” Now endorsed by 140 countries, this agreement sets the terms for an international approach to heritage focused primarily on efforts to halt the illegal sale and unauthorized movement of historical objects across international boundaries. This course explores the negotiations and partnerships through which nation-states collaborate to protect high-value artifacts, rare objects, and artistic masterpieces. Students will analyze the historical, legal, and ethical dimensions of ongoing cultural heritage issues, including laws about the sale or import of cultural heritage, the repatriation of seized and stolen objects, and strategic funding for conservation and protection initiatives.
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Burns
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit
Roman chariot races and gladiatorial combat were not just entertainment for the masses, just as the ancient Olympic games were much more than sporting events. Athletic competitions, theatrical performances, and militaristic parades were all public enactments of political and religious ideology. This course examines the spectacle of competitive performances and rituals of power that helped shape ancient Greek and Roman society. Students will investigate ancient writings alongside art-historical and archaeological evidence to consider how social values and identities were constructed through these shared experiences. We will also consider how the modern performances of ancient texts, the Olympic Games, and cinematic representations have emphasized the splendor, drama, and gore of antiquity.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 16
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor required. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 205.
Instructor: Burns
Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course. This course is also offered at the 200-level as CLCV 205.
Antigone in Ferguson and in Puerto Rico, a Kabuki Medea, a Nigerian Dionysus -- why do contemporary playwrights and authors from around the world keep returning to ancient Greek tragedy? It is not because “we” are particularly like the ancient Greeks. Rather, for many artists and activists, Greek tragedy offers a world that is familiar yet remote, one that provides a space where questions too thorny to be tackled head on can be played out at a safe distance. This class will combine discussion of plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in their original context with analysis of their afterlife on the current world stage. How do contemporary, cross-cultural versions of plays like Antigone, Oedipus the King and Medea unsettle our familiar readings of ancient drama? How do these age-old plays create a space to answer the questions about politics, community, power and identity that dominate an increasingly diverse collective cultural identity in the 21st century? All readings will be done in English.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor required. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 210.
Instructor: Dougherty
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CLCV 210.
Do notions of gender change over time? In this course, we will explore how gender was constructed in antiquity and how it functioned as an organizational principle. Through close readings of selections from Greek and Roman epics, lyric poetry and drama, as well as philosophical and historical texts, we will analyze representations of sex and gender exploring how power was shaped through these depictions.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: 200 level course in CLCV, GRK, or LAT; or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 313.
Instructor: Gilhuly
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CLCV 213.
War is undoubtedly bad. But human beings have always practiced war. Indeed, war preceded history itself by tens of thousands of years-if by history we mean the written inquiry into the past. But what causes wars? How have wars been justified historically? How are wars won and lost? What are their effects? In this class, we examine a series of case studies in warfare, including the Trojan War, the Peloponnesian War, and the Roman Punic Wars. We will read classic accounts of warfare, theoretical literature about tactics, strategy, and logistics, and also will analyze how war is represented in other media, such as art and film.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor required. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 230.
Instructor: Rogers
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; HS - Historical Studies
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CLCV 230.
The founders of Western civilization were not monotheists. Rather, from 1750 B.C.E. until 500 C.E., the ancient Greeks and Romans sacrificed daily to a pantheon of immortal gods and goddesses who were expected to help mortals to achieve their earthly goals. How did this system of belief develop? Why did it capture the imaginations of so many millions for over 2,000 years? What impact did the religion of the Greeks and Romans have upon the other religions of the Mediterranean, including Judaism and Christianity? Why did the religion of the Greeks and Romans ultimately disappear?
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor required. Not open to students who have taken CLCV 236.
Instructor: Rogers
Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as CLCV 236.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the department.
Instructor:
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: CLCV 360 and permission of the department.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.
New technologies that enable the 3D scanning and fabrication of art and architecture have become integral in attempts to combat the decay, destruction, and disputed ownership of ancient works. Our seminar contextualizes the development of these current approaches within the longer history of collecting and replicating artifacts from the ancient Mediterranean. We will think critically about the role that replicated antiquities play in site and object preservation, college and museum education, and the negotiation of international political power. Potential case studies include the Bust of Nefertiti, the Parthenon Marbles, the Venus de Milo, and the Arch of Palmyra, all of which now exist globally in multiple digital and material iterations. The seminar will culminate in a critique of the digitization and replication of Wellesley’s own antiquities collections.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: CLCV 373
Prerequisites: Prior college-level coursework in Art History and/or Classical Civilization.
Instructor: Burns
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes: