What can you learn about ancient Greece from Hollywood?

Read this article in today's Guardian and find out about a new film set in the Ancient World 'The 300'...

Classics Reading Group Strikes Again...

...all friends of literature, wine, charming company and the delights of the imagination are warmly invited to join us for a reading, in English, of the opening of Petronius' Menippean novel The Satyricon. This will include the dinner of that familiar old arriviste Trimalchio.

Wednesday March 14th, 19h00 at the lovely

home of Priscilla & Ron Hall. Please email me if you wish to come at

d.vanschoor@ru.ac.za

Bring a drink & your sense of fun.We look forward to seeing you there...

(The picture above is from a brothel mural at Pompeii, in the spirit...)

Click on this link to find an introduction to this wonderful work...

Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'

Recent provocative reports of 'paleolithic' human behaviour amongst Senegalese chimpanzees...

CCI Introduction-Bibliography

This still incomplete bibliography will be regularly updated:

- Civilization -

An Introduction
to Ancient History & Literature

BIBLIOGRAPHY I

General

Braudel, F. On History [trans. Sarah Matthews] (London, 1980)
Burkert, W. Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis : eastern contexts of Greek culture
(Cambridge, Mass., 2004)

Greek Religion- Archaic & Classical [trans. John Raffan] (Harvard, 1985)
Childe, V. Gordon What happened in history (Harmondsworth, 1954)
Social evolution (London, 1957)
Finley, M. I. The Ancient Economy (London, 1973)
(ed.) Atlas of classical archaeology (London, 1977)
Fornara, C.W. The nature of history in ancient Greece & Rome (Berkeley, Calif., 1983)
Humphrey, John W. [edd.] Greek & Roman Technology: a sourcebook (London, 1988)
Momigliano, A. Alien Wisdom: the Limits of Hellenization (Cambridge, 1975)
The classical foundations of modern historiography (Berkeley, Calif., 1990)
Starr, C. A History of the Ancient World (New York, 1974)

Prehistory

Cauvin, J. The Birth of the Gods & the Origins of Agriculture [trans. Trevor Watkins] (Cambridge, 2000)
Cunliffe, B [ed.] The Oxford illustrated history of prehistoric Europe (Oxford,2001)
Delson, E. (ed.) Encyclopaedia of human evolution & prehistory (New York, 2000)
Megarry, T. Society in prehistory: the origins of human culture (London, 1995)
The Cambridge Ancient History vol. I pts I & 2 (London, 1970)
McKern, S. Living prehistory : an introduction to physical anthropology and archaeology (Menlo Park, Calif., 1974)

Near East
Mesopotamia- Hattusa- Persia

Van de Mieroop, M. A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC (Oxford, 2004)
Von Soden, W. The Ancient Orient [trans. Donald Schley] (Darmstadt, 1985)

Egypt

Bower, J. Ancient Egyptians (London, 2002)

David, R. Handbook to life in Ancient Egypt (New York, 2003)

Hart, G. Ancient Egypt (New York, 2004)

Johnson, P. The civilization of Ancient Egypt (London, 2000) [good for pictures]

Nicholson, P.T. & Shaw,I. [edd.] Ancient Egyptian materials & technology (Cambridge, 2000)

Shaw, I. (ed.) The Oxford history of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000)

Bronze Age Greece: Crete & Mycenae

Evans, A. The palace of Minos : a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustrated by the discoveries at Knossos vol. 1-4 (London, 1921-35)
Finley, M.I. Early Greece : the Bronze and Archaic ages (London, 1970)
Fitton, J. Lesley Minoans (London, 2002)
The discovery of the Greek Bronze Age (Cambridge, Mass., 1996)
Cycladic Art (Cambridge, Mass., 1989)
Higgins, R. Minoan & Mycenaean Art (London, 1967)
Renfrew, C. The emergence of civilisation : the Cyclades and the Aegean in the third millennium B.C. (London, 1972)
Palmer, L.R. Mycenaeans and Minoans : Aegean prehistory in the light of the linear B tablets (London, 1961)
Van Effenterre, H. La Seconde Fin du Monde (Toulouse, 1974)

Mediterranean Movers:
Etruscans- Phoenicians- Celts

Haynes, S. Etruscan Civilization (London, 2000)

Markoe, G. E. Phoenicians (London, 2000)

POMPEII: CONTEXT AND SETTING

Where the Dewey number is not given look at 913.377

Amery, C. The lost world of Pompeii (Los Angeles, 2002) 937.7 AMER
Arthur, P. ‘Problems of the urbanisation of Pompeii’, Antiquaries Journal 66 (1986), 29-44. 913.4205 ANT
Coarelli, F. Pompeii (New York, 2002) 937.7 POMP
Connolly, P. Pompeii (London, 1979) 937. 7 CONN
Cooley, A. Pompeii (London, 2003) 937.7 COOL
Etienne, R. Pompeii: the day a city died (London, 1992).
Jongman, W .M. The economy and society of Pompeii (Amsterdam, 1988). 937. 7 Laurence, R Roman Pompeii: space and society (London, 1994), 937. 7
Ling, R. ‘The architecture of Pompeii’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 4 (1991), 248-55. 913.3705 JOU
Richardson, L Pompeii. An architectural History (Baltimore 1988) DA 722.7
Ridgway, D. The First Western Greeks (Cambridge, 1992).
Wallace-Hadrill, A. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (Princeton, 1994).
Wallace-Hadrill, A. ‘Public honour and private shame: the urban texture of Pompeii’, in Cornell, T. & Lomas K. (edd), Urban Society in Roman Italy (New York, 1995), 39-62
Ward-Perkins, J.B. Cities of ancient Greece and Italy: planning in classical antiquity
(New York, 1974).
Whittaker, C.R. ‘The consumer city revisited: the vicus and the city’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 3 (1990), 110-18.
Whittaker, CR, Do theories of the ancient city matter?’, in Cornell, T. & Lomas K. (edd), Urban Society in Roman Italy (New York, 1995), 9-26
Zanker, P*. Pompeii: public and private life; translated by D.L. Schneider. (Cambridge Mass., 1998)

Writing

Homerica

Buxton, R. Imaginary Greece- the contexts of mythology (Cambridge, 1994)
Finley, M. I. The World of Odysseus (New York, 2002) [very important: on short loan]
The ancient Greeks : an introduction to their life and thought (New York, 1963)
Latacz, J. Homer: his art & his world (Michigan, 1996) [short loan]

Luce, J.V. Homer and the Heroic Age (London, 1975)

Schein, S.L. (ed.) Reading the Odyssey- selected interpretive essays (New Jersey, 1996) [short loan]

CCI Term I Essay Questions

Classical Civilization I
MMVII
-Term I-
Essay Questions

1. Explain what the most significant differences are between human life under Paleolithic and Mesolithic conditions and life after the Neolithic transitions.
2. Discuss what is meant by the term ‘Civilization’ and exemplify some of the features you consider definitive. Draw for examples from Mesopotamian and/or Egyptian history.
3. Reflect on the importance of the mastery of agriculture for the birth of cities and the historical development of civilization.
4. Discuss the emergence of writing in the ancient past and its consequences for history.
5. Discuss the political, social and economic effects of one or more forms of technologies considered in this course.
6. Discuss the significance of the Mediterranean Sea in shaping the histories of Mediterranean peoples in the 2nd Millenium BC.
7. Survey the history of Crete in its Mediterranean context from Minoan Civilization to the Dark Ages.
8. Survey the history of Greece from the Mycenaean Bronze Age through the collapse of the Dark Age to Homer and the beginning of the Archaic Period.
9. Survey the history of Pompeii in its Mediterranean context.
10. Discuss the question of the composition of the Odyssey.
11. Compare and contrast the epics of Gilgamesh and Odysseus.
12. What are some of the values manifested in the Odyssey?



These essay assignments are due on March 16th and 23rd 2007 no later than 17h00, without exception. You may choose to answer either two questions at 750 to 1000 words each or one at 1500-1800 words long. If you choose to do two smaller assignments the first must be handed in on March 16th the second March 23rd. You may, of course hand in a longer assignment any time up to Friday March 23rd . Consult relevant works and write plain lucid English. Do not use internet encyclopaedias, do not plagiarize. Quote and discuss analytically rather than paraphrase. Reference the works you have used in the same format as you find in your reader, for example:

Braudel, Fernand The Mediterranean in the Ancient World [trans. Siân Reynolds] (London, 2001)

or

Starr, Chester G. A History of the Ancient World (Oxford, 1965)

You must include a signed declaration of scholarly honesty, a bibliography of works referenced, page numbers and a word count.

Wherever possible substantiate your assertions with reference to specific historical evidence and important works of relevant scholarship. If you wish use photographs, maps, pictures or graphs of any kind that are pertinent to your discussion, just remember to acknowledge all sources.

You will not be judged very harshly for this first assignment, but you must try to excell. I shall look for evidence of a critical historical awareness, signs that you have internalized information and reflected on the meaning of historical processes and can read, interpret and analyse works pertinent to your given question.

Most important: Enjoy yourself...

Economic Liberation for Women

An article in The Economist that I hope will make you think about social freedom and its relation to economic freedom...