Introductory description

This is the core module for the new taught MA in Ancient Visual and Material Culture. It is designed to introduce students to the major issues in the study of ancient visual and material culture, and to key methodologies and approaches. This module provides a broad grounding in the interpretation of the various different aspects of ancient material culture, which can then be pursued further in the individual option modules.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

This module runs in Term 1, for 10 weeks. Sample syllabus (with small changes year-to-year) Week 1, Induction Week 2 Approaching Ancient Art 1 Week 3, Approaching Ancient Art 2 Week 4 Ancient Epigraphy, induction to resources Week 5 Renaissance Medals Week 6: Seminar at the British Museum Week 7: The Lives of Objects Week 8, Public Museums in Britain Week 9: Exploring Greek Vases Week 10: Essay presentations

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Appreciation of methodological issues in dealing with material evidence
• Understanding of the ways that visual and material evidence has been studied since Antiquity

Indicative reading list

(in order of seminars)
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique
A. E. Cooley ed., The Afterlife of Inscriptions
P. Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus
A. Wallace-Hadrill, review of Zanker, in JRS 79 (1989), 157-64.
J. Elsner, ‘Cult and Sacrifice in the Ara Pacis’ JRS 81 (1991) 50-61
D Irwin ed., Winckelmann. Writings on Art (London, 1972)
A. Potts, Flesh and the ideal: Winckelmann and the origins of art history (1994)
M. Beard, 'Adopting an approach II' in T. Rasmussen & N. Spivey eds., Looking at Greek Vases (Cambridge, 1991) 12-35
A. A. Donohue and M. D. Fullerton, Ancient Art and Its Historiography (Cambridge, 2003)
W. V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (1989)
J. H. Humphrey ed., Literacy in the Roman World (Ann Arbor, 1991)
A. K. Bowman & G.D. Woolf, Literacy and power in the ancient world (Cambridge, 1994)
G. Woolf, 'Literacy' in CAH XI (2000)
G. Woolf, 'Monumental writing and the expansion of Roman society in the early empire', JRS 86 (1996) 22-39
E. Meyer, E. Explaining the Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire: The Evidence of Epitaphs," JRS 80 (1990) 74-96
R. Macmullen, (1982) 'The epigraphic habit in the Roman empire' AJPhil 103 (1982), 233-46.
Carradice I, & Price M.J., Coinage in the Greek World, (London, 1988).
Burnett A., Coinage in the Roman World (London, 1988).

Subject specific skills

Cognitive Skills

• Ability to present structured chain of argument drawing together evidence into cohesive whole
• Ability to select & apply appropriate problem-solving methodologies
• Ability to conduct independent research & analysis

Subject-Specific Skills

• Ability to select and respond to particular methodological approaches when dealing with material evidence

Transferable skills

Key skills

• Written communication skills
• Oral communication skills
• Organisational skills
• Ability to evaluate intellectual progress
• IT skills - word processing/ use of internet