Principles & Methods of Classical Archaeology - Essays
ASSESSED ESSAYS
The examination essays will not involve a close overlap with those titles already assessed.
Essay 2 Deadline: 29 February 2012
- 1. Is it fair to claim that archaeological dating became feasible once natural sciences became involved?
Aitken, M.J., Science-based Dating in Archaeology (London and New York 1990).
Antiquity: Special Radiocarbon Section 61 (1987), pp. 97-138.
Archaeology, Dendrochronology and the Radiocarbon Calibration curve, ed. B.S. Ottaway (Edinburgh 1983).
Biers, W.R., Art, Archaeology and the Chronology in Classical Antiquity (London 1992).
Baillie, M.G.L., Tree-Ring Dating and Archaeology (London 1982).
Baillie, M.G.L., A Slice Through Time. Dendrochronology and Presicion Dating (London 1995).
Bowman, S., Radiocarbon Dating (London 1990).
Dendrochronology in Europe: Principles, Interpretation and Applications to Archaeology and History: based on the Symposium held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, July 1977, ed. J. Fletcher. British Archaeological Reports International Series 51 (Oxford 1978).
Eckstein, D., in collaboration with Baillie, M.G.L & Egger H., Dendrochronological Dating,Handbooks for Archaeologists 2 (Strasbourg 1984).
Fleming, S., Dating in Archaeology. A Guide to Scientific Techniques (London 1976).
Fleming, S., Thermoluminescence Techniques in Archaeology (Oxford 1979).
Mook, W.G. & Waterbolk H.T., Radiocarbon Dating. Handbooks for Archaeologists 3 (Strasbourg 1983).
Striker, C.L., What is Dendrochronology? A Brief Introduction for Archaeologists and Historians of Art and Architecture (Philadelphia 1985).
Taylor, R.E., Aitken M., Chronometric Dating in Archaeology. Advances in Archaeological and Museum science 2 (London and New York 1997).
See also the review Archaeometry of the University of Oxford. - 2. Underwater archaeology and land archaeology are complementary. Discuss.
Bass, G. F., Yassi Ada, A Seventh Century Byzantine Shipwreck, Archäologischer Anzeiger (1962), pp. 538-563.
Bass, G. F., Beneath the Seven Seas: Adventures with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology(London 2005).@Carlson, D. N., ‘The Classical Greek Shipwreck at Tektaş Burnu, Turkey’, American Journal of Archaeology 107 (2003), pp. 581-600.
Coates, J. F., The Trireme Trials 1988: Report on the Anglo-Hellenic Sea Trials of Olympias (Oxford 1990).
Dean, M., Ferrari, B. et al., Archaeology Underwater. The NAS Guide to Principles and Practise (London 1992).
Delgado, J. P., British Museum Encyclopaedia of Underwater and Maritime Archaeology (London 1997).
De Donato, G., Mare Nostrum, The Roman Sea (London 2003).
Green, J. N., Maritime Archaeology. A Technical Handbook (San Diego, California and London 2004) (second edition).
Kingsley, S., Barbarian Seas. Late Roman to Islam (London 2004).
Muckleroy, K., Maritime Archaeology (Cambridge 1978).
Archaeology under Water. An Atlas of the World’s Submerged Sites, ed. K. Muckleroy (New York 1980).
McCann, A. M., Oleson, J.P., Deep-water Shipwrecks off Skerki Bank: The 1997 Survey. Journal of Roman Archaeology. Supplementary Series 58 (Porthmouth, Rhode Island 2004).
Parker, A.J., Ancient Shipwrecks of the Mediterranean, BAR International Series 580 (Oxford 1992).
Rudel, M. et. al., Underwater Archaeology, History and Methodology (London 2003).
Rule, M., Monaghan, J., A Gallo-Roman Trading Vessel from Guernsey. The Excavation and Recovery of a Third Century Shipwreck, Guernsey Museum Monograph 5 (Guernsey 1993).
Throckmorton, P., Shipwrecks and Archaeology. The Unharvested Sea (London 1970).
M. Walsh, Roman ‘Maritime Archaeology around Britain: What is the evidence and how might it be enhanced?’, in G. Finchamet al. (ed.), Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (Durham 1999), pp. 53-63.
- 3. Is it correct to regard style as an important source of information in archaeology?
Beazley, J.D., Attic Black-Figure Vase Painters ( Oxford 1956).
Beazley, J.D., Attic Red-Figure Vase Painters, 2nd edition (Oxford 1963).
Beazley, J.D., Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Rigure vase-painters, 2nd edition (Oxford 1971).
Beazley, J.D., The Berlin Painter (Mainz 1974).
Beazley, J.D., The Kleophrades Painter (Mainz 1974).
Beazley, J.D., The Pan Painter (Mainz 1974).
@Beazley, J.D., Development of the Attic Black-Figure, Revised edition (Berkeley1986). http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1f59n77b/
Beazley, J.D., Greek Vases: Lectures, ed. by D.C. Kurtz (Oxford 1989).
Beazley, J.D., Ashmole, B., Greek Sculpture & Painting to the End of the Hellenistic Period (Cambridge 1932).
Boardman, J., Athenian Black Figure Vases. A Handbook (London 1974).
Boardman, J., Athenian Red Figure Vases. The Archaic Period. A Handbook (London 1975).
Boardman, J., Greek sculpture. The Archaic Period. A Handbook (London 1978).
Boardman, J., Greek sculpture. The Classical Period. A Handbook (London 1985).
Boardman, J., Athenian Red Figure Vases. The Archaic Period. A Handbook (London 1989).
Snodgrass, A., ‘Greek Archaeology’, in Classical Archaeology, S.E. Alcock and R. Osborne ed. (Oxford, 2007), pp. 13-29 and 48-50.
See also the Beazley Archive in Oxford: http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/index.htm
- 4. With reference to an individual site and/or area discuss where and why you would you plan a survey and how you would organise it.
Alcock, S.E., ‘The essential countryside. The Greek World’, in Classical Archaeology, ed. S.E. Alcock and R. Osborne (Oxford 2007), pp. 120-138 and 156-161.
Aston, M., Rowley, T., Landscape Archaeology: An Introduction to Fieldwork Techniques on Post-Roman Landscapes (Newton Abbot ecc. 1974).
Aston, M., Interpreting the Landscape (London 1985).
Banning, E.B., Archaeological Survey (New York 2002)
Bettless, F., Surveying for Archaeologists (Durham 1992).
Brown, A.E., Fieldwork for Archaeologists and Local Historians (London 1987).
Coles, J., Field Archaeology in Britain (London 1972).
Drewett, P., Field Archaeology. An Introduction (London 1999).
Hooke, D., Landscape: The Richest Historical Record (Amesbury,Wiltshire 2000).
Hoskins, W.G., The Making of the English Landscape (London 1988).
Terrenato, N., ‘The essential countryside. The Roman World’, in Classical Archaeology, ed. S.E. Alcock and R. Osborne (Oxford, 2007), pp. 139-161.
Essay 1 Deadline: 29 November 2011
- 1. Is it correct to claim that the history of research is not relevant to the concrete work of today's archaeologists?
Millet, M. Roman Archaeology, in Alcock S.E. & Osborne R. (ed.), Classical Archaeology, 2007, pp. 30-52.
Snodgrass, A., Greek Archaeology, in Alcock S.E. & Oosborne R. (ed.), Classical Archaeology, 2007, pp. 1-29. - 2. Archaeology in the Mediterranean areas and in the North-Western Provinces:
how are they different?
Biers, W., 'Archaeology in Greece'. In: The Archaeology of Greece: an introduction, 2nd ed., London 1996, pp.13-22 .
Hunter, J., Ralston, I. (ed.), The Archaeology of Britain, London, New York 1999.
Snodgrass, A., An Archaeology of Greece, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1987.
Wacher J., The Towns of Roman Britain, 1974.
Whitley J., The Archaeology of Ancient Greece, Cambridge 2001. - 3. Archaeology is fun: Comment.
Darvill T., 'Reeling in the years. The past and the present', In J. Hunter, I. Ralston, The Archaeology of Britain, London, New York, pp. 410-432.
Renfrew C. & Bahn P., Archaeology, Theories Methods and Practice, London 1991 (2008, fifth edition), pp. 470ss. (edition 1991), pp. 558-577 (edition 2008). - 4. Can we hope to retrieve any major insight from a single discovery?
Wallace-Hadrill, Pompeii and Herculaeneum, 1994.
Zanker, P., Pompeii, Public and Private Life, Cambridge, Mass., 1998.
Essays should be provided with proper bibliographic references, and be in a legible form with spelling and grammar of an acceptable standard; the use of a word-processor is to be encouraged. Essays should also be submitted anonymously, identified only by University number. Students should be aware that work submitted will initially be penalised 5% a day. If you think you have a justified reason for submitting an essay late (see Departmental Handbook), you should see the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Andrew Liard. Students are reminded that written work is expected to be their own, and that unacknowledged or disguised quotation of others’ work constitutes plagiarism and will attract a mark of zero.
See:
Departmental Guidelines on Writing Essays.
Rome, Basilica Aemilia on the Forum Romanum: lump of coins in the ashes of the late Roman destruction layer attributed to the sack of Alarich's troops in 410 AD.
