grading

        This course is an exploration of the character, context, and development of ancient cities. The city has long been the dominant model for conceptualizing life in the ancient world, and certainly cities were the locus of experience for many people. Recent scholarship, however, has realized that cities were complex communities with astounding internal diversity and intervariability, and that they represent one element in regional hierarchies of settlement also involving, for instance, individual residences, hamlets, villages, interstate centers, and ports. Moreover, while the natural setting of cities has always been considered a central factor in their unique character, modern interdisciplinary research particularly among geographers, ecologists, sociologists, and geologists has clarified the dynamic relationship between urban centers and the natural environment.

        In investigating these questions, we will cover several major themes: the various definitions and depictions of the ancient city from antiquity to the Renaissance and the early modern era; different approaches to understanding life in ancient cities as political, economic, social, religious, and cultural entities; the fundamental importance of a regional perspective and the concept of landscape; urban planning, topography, and architectural forms; the constitutent parts of a city and the experience of inhabiting and interacting in those parts (“encountering”); the mapping of social structure onto the civic landscape; the notion of a “civic biography” and how cities evolve over time. Our investigation of these major themes will be illustrated with case studies drawn from the Mediterranean world and the Near East during Classical Antiquity. Our discussion of cities will be organized chronologically, so that we begin to see similarities and differences between major centers during broad times periods: the Late Bronze Age (Mycenae), the Archaic to Late Classical periods (Athens), the Hellenistic period (Alexandria and Pergamon), Republican to Imperial Roman times (Rome, Pompeii, Lepcis Magna, Ephesos, Palmyra), and Late Antiquity (Constantinople).

        The format of the class will combine interactive presentations, discussions, and student-led seminars that will depend closely on but also expand upon the required readings. Graded work will include four short papers, two midterms, a presentation, and a long final paper. This course is a central component in the Classical Archaeology major within the Classics Department at Macalester.