A survey of the development of archaeology. The methods and techniques of archaeology are presented through an analysis of excavations, non-invasive surveys, and recovered artifacts. Case studies span the globe with special emphasis give to projects based in the Mediterranean and 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.

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 enslaved people 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.

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.

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.

Ancient Athens is celebrated as the birthplace of democracy, but participation was limited to a small selection of the city's population: property-holding males. How did the city engage female members of the citizen class, foreign residents, and enslaved people? And how do the political dynamics of this single city compare to those of neighbors such as Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes? This course examines status and identity within and among city-states, including the ancient definitions of ethnicity that informed alliances and rivalries across the Greek world. Our study of material culture and images, alongside written sources, will enable us to understand a broader spectrum of difference and diversity within ancient Greek societies.

This course will engage with the politics and culture of classical Athens to pose questions about democracy and its contests in other times, places, and disciplines. Reading narratives that represent or embody aspects of the evolution of Athenian democracy, including Herodotus’ Histories, Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian Wars, comedies, tragedies, and Plato’s philosophy, we will explore themes that facilitated the rise and fall of Athenian democracy with attention to the problems that plagued it, such as educational innovation, economic factors, immigration and gender, class, and the threat of tyranny. Together we will develop questions about the capacity and limitations of democracy that we will pose to outside scholars, including Wellesley professors whose research is relevant as well as marquis visiting lecturers asking them to elaborate how these themes and conflicts play out in other contexts.

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.

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.

Antigone in Ferguson, Medea from Mexico, Trojan Women in Syria – why do contemporary playwrights and filmmakers keep returning to ancient Greek tragedy?  This class will combine discussion of plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in their original fifth-century BCE context with analysis of their afterlife on the contemporary stage and screen. How do contemporary, cross-cultural re-imaginings of ancient Greek plays like Antigone, Medea and the Trojan Women, unsettle our familiar readings of Athenian drama?  How do these age-old plays create a productive space for questions about politics, community and power that continue to preoccupy us today?  

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.

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.

We tend to place epic and lyric poetry at opposite ends of the spectrum: epic poetry is musty, monumental, and masculine while lyric poems are fresh, exquisite, and feminine. This class will read and discuss the works of those contemporary lyric poets who reach across this divide to embrace Homeric epic -- revising these ancient poems for modern times, for different audiences, in new forms. The class will read the Iliad and Odyssey together with the works of contemporary poets (e.g., Anne Carson, Louise Gluck, Alice Oswald, Adrienne Rich, Derek Walcott) to explore the nature of this contrapuntal conversation about poetic form across time and genre. All readings will be in English.

Through daily visits to archaeological sites and museums, this intensive travel course will explore the complexities of cultural exchange in the ancient Mediterranean world. We will assess first-hand the different forms of evidence for history and ask how ancient literary works, inscriptions, artifacts, and buildings can work together to help us understand ancient places and how they were perceived in the past. We will also consider how the challenging topics of ancient empires, colonization, and long-distance trade are currently being presented to the public, and how heritage programs sponsored by local governments, UNESCO, and private enterprises are changing how residents and visitors access sites and museums.

Not offered in 2026-2027.

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.

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?

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., medicine, education). What modern models and approaches, including behavioral economics, help us understand ancient Roman businesses? Possible projects include case studies, hands-on activities (for example, creating ancient-style papyrus sheets, grinding grain, and making thread from wool), and development of business plans.

Ancient Athens is celebrated as the birthplace of democracy, but participation was limited to a small selection of the city's population: property-holding males. How did the city engage female members of the citizen class, foreign residents, and enslaved people? And how do the political dynamics of this single city compare to those of neighbors such as Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes? This course examines status and identity within and among city-states, including the ancient definitions of ethnicity that informed alliances and rivalries across the Greek world. Our archaeological approach will enable us to position written sources alongside material evidence to understand a broader spectrum of difference and diversity within ancient Greek societies.

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.

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.

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.

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?