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Greek Art and Archaeology

The following sample lists form the basis for the comprehensive exam for the Master's Degree in Greek Art and Archaeology. Students should read all the required texts listed below under General Art and Archaeology. In consultation with their advisor, they will select two specific media for closer study, and one of the topics in method and theory listed below. Students are expected to consult with their advisor before choosing the readings in those areas, which will form the basis of their special field examination.

General Art and Archaeology

Required Readings (the monuments and artifacts represented in the slide identification portion of the MA comprehensive exam will be those illustrated in these texts):

J.J. Pollitt, Art and Experience in Classical Greece (1972)

J.J. Pollitt, Art in the Hellenistic Age (1986)

A. Snodgrass, An Archaeology of Greece: The Present State and Future Scope of a Discipline (1987)

W.R. Biers, The Archaeology of Greece (1996)

J.G. Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology (1997)

J. Whitley, The Archaeology of Ancient Greece (2001)

Recommended Additional Readings:

J.J. Pollitt, The Art of Greece 1400-31 BC: A Sourcebook (1965)

R. Brilliant, Arts of the Ancient Greeks (1972)

J. Onians, Art and Thought in the Hellenistic Age: The Greek World View 350-50 BC (1979)

P. Bilde et al. (eds), Centre and Periphery in the Hellenistic World (1996)

P. Cartledge, P. Garnsey, and E. Gruen (eds), Hellenistic Constructs: Essays in Culture, History, and Historiography (1996)

M. Robertson, A Shorter History of Greek Art (1981)

S. Woodford, An Introduction to Greek Art (1986)

R. Osborne, Classical Landscape with Figures: The Ancient Greek City and its Countryside (1987)

C. Bérard et al., A City of Images: Iconography and Society in Ancient Greece (trans. D. Lyons) (1989)

W. Biers, Art, Artefacts and Chronology in Classical Archaeology (1992)

L.S. Adams, The Methodologies of Art: An Introduction (1996)

R. Osborne, Archaic and Classical Greek Art (1998)

D. Preziosi (ed),The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology (1998)

M. Shanks, Art and the Greek City State: An Interpretive Archaeology (1999)

Specific Media Studies

Students will be examined on two of the following three areas (students are expected to consult with their advisor before choosing the readings in these areas, which will form the basis of their special field examination):

I.              Architecture:

Required Readings:

R.E. Wycherley, How the Greeks Built Cities (1969)

B. Ashmole, Architect and Sculptor in Classical Greece (1972)

A.W. Lawrence and R.A. Tomlinson, Greek Architecture (1983)

F. Winter, "The study of Greek architecture." AJA 88 (1984): 103-106.

J. Camp, The Athenian Agora (1986)

N. Marinatos and R. Hägg, Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches (1993)

S.E. Alcock and R. Osborne (eds), Placing the Gods: Sanctuaries and Sacred Space in Ancient Greece (1994)

M. Parker Pearson and C. Richards, Architecture and Order: Approaches to Social Space (1994) [pp. 1-37, 98-112]

R.F. Rhodes, Architecture and Meaning on the Athenian Acropolis (1995)

J.M. Hurwit, The Athenian Acropolis (1999)

J. Camp, The Archaeology of Athens (2001)

C. Gates, Ancient Cities (2003) [part two]

Recommended Additional Readings:

H. Berve, Greek Temples,Theatres and Shrines (1963)

W.B. Dinsmoor, The Architecture of Ancient Greece (1975)

J.J. Coulton, The Architectural Development of the Greek Stoa (1976)

J.J. Coulton, Ancient Greek Architects at Work: Problems of Structure and Design (1977)

R. Osborne, Archaic and Classical Greek Art (1998) 

N.D. Cahill, Household and City Organization at Olynthos (2002)

II.              Sculpture:

Required Readings:

J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture: The Archaic Period (1978)

L.V. Watrous, "The Sculptural Program of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi," AJA 86 (1982): 159-172.

J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period (1985)

C.C. Mattusch, Greek Bronze Statuary from the Beginning through the 5th century BC (1988)

A. Stewart, Greek Sculpture: An Exploration (1990)

R.R.R. Smith, Hellenistic Sculpture (1991)

R. Osborne, "Looking On -- Greek Style: Does the Sculpted Girl Speak to Women Too?" In I. Morris (ed), Classical Greece: Ancient Histories and Modern Archaeologyis (1994): 81-96

N. Spivey, Understanding Greek Sculpture: Ancient Meanings, Modern Readings (1996)

R. Osborne, Archaic and Classical Greek Art (1998)

A. Stewart, Art, Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece (1998)

N.T. de Grummond and B.S. Ridgway, From Pergamon to Sperlonga (2000)

J. Neils, The Parthenon Frieze (2001)

Recommended Additional Readings:

V. Brinkmann, "Die aufgemalten Namenbeischriften an Nord und Ostfries des Siphnierschatzhauses. " BCH 109 (1985): 78-130.

M.C. Root, "The Parthenon Frieze and the Apadana reliefs at Persepolis: reassessing a programmatic relationship." AJA 89 (1985): 103-20.

S. Howard, "Laokoon re-restored." AJA 93 (1989): 417-22.

J.M. Hurwit, "The Kritios Boy: discovery, reconstruction and date." AJA 93 (1989): 41-80.

I. Jenkins, The Parthenon Frieze (1994)

III.              Painting & Pottery:

Required Readings:

J. Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases (1974)

J. Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period (1975)

K. Arafat and C. Morgan, "Pots and Potters in Athens and Corinth: A Review," Oxford Journal of Archaeology 8 (1989):311-346

J. Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Classical Period (1989)

R.M. Cook, "The Francis-Vickers chronology." JHS 109 (1989): 164-70.

A.D. Trendall, Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily (1989)

D. Gill and M. Vickers, "Reflected glory: pottery and precious metal." JDAI 105 (1990): 1-30.

T. Rasmussen and N.J. Spivey, Looking at Greek Vases (1991)

B.A. Sparkes, Greek Pottery: An Introduction (1991)

M. Robertson, The Art of Vase Painting in Classical Athens (1992)

B.A. Sparkes, The Red and the Black: Studies in Greek Pottery (1996)

R. Lissarrague, Greek Vases: The Athenians and their Images (2001)

Recommended Additional Readings:

J.D. Beazley, ‘Citharodus.’  JHS 42 (1922): 70-98

R.M. Cook, Greek Painted Pottery (1972)

T.B.L. Webster, Potter and Patron in Classical Athens (1972)

H. Hoffman, ‘In the wake of Beazley.’  Hephaistos 1 (1979): 61-70

A. Cameron and A. Kuhrt, Images of Women in Antiquity (1983)

W.G. Moon (ed), Ancient Greek Art and Iconography (1983)

M. Robertson, "Beazley and Attic vase painting." In D. Kurtz, ed., Beazley and Oxford (1985): 19-30.

D. Williams, Greek Vases (1985)

J. Boardman, "Herakles, Peisistratos and the unconvinced." JHS 109 (1989)

J. Whitley, ‘Beazley as theorist.’  Antiquity 71 (1997): 40-47

R.T. Neer, Style and Politics in Athenian Vase-Painting (2002)

R.M. Cook and P. DuPont, East Greek Pottery (2003)

Topics in Method and Theory:

Students will be examined on one of the following topics (students are expected to consult with their advisor before choosing the readings in this topic).  The MA comprehensive exam will not include a separate question on this topic, but students will be expected to incorporate the readings and their own thoughts about the topic into their essays on the material categories selected from the choices above (architecture, sculpture, painting).

Although it is not required, it is recommended that students read one or more of the following general books:

R.W. Preucel and I. Hodder (eds), Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: A Reader (1996)

D. Preziosi (ed),The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology (1998)

M. Johnson, Archaeological Theory: An Introduction (1999)

Topic 1:  Archaeology and Social Memory

How have people made different uses of the past, in the past?  How do shared remembrances of group experience help create identity and provide an image of the past?  Is it possible archaeologically to study social memory in antiquity, and if so,  how?

I. Morris, ‘Tomb cult and the “Greek Renaissance”: the past in the present in the 8th century BC.’  Antiquity 63 (1988): 750-61.

S.E. Alcock, Archaeologies of the Greek Past: Landscapes, Monuments, and Memories (2002)

R. Bradley, The Past in Prehistoric Societies (2002)

J. Boardman, Archaeology of Nostalgia: How the Greeks Re-created their Mythical Past (2002)

A. Papalexandrou, ‘Memory tattered and torn: spolia in the heartland of Byzantine Hellenism.’  In R. Van Dyke and S.E. Alcock (eds), Archaeologies of Memory, 56-80.  (2003)

Topic 2: Identity and ethnicity

What are some current ideas about how ethnic and national identities are formed and change over time?  What can archaeological data contribute?  For example, can it help us determine when, how, why, and to what extent the Greeks conceived of themselves as a single people?

P. Cartledge, The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others (1993)

C. Renfrew, ‘The archaeology of identity.”  In G.B. Peterson (ed), The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, vol. 15 (1994), 283-348

J.M. Hall, ‘Review Feature: Ethnic identity in Greek Antiquity.’  Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8.2 (1998): 265-83.

I. Malkin (ed), Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity (2001)

L. Meskell, ‘Archaeologies of identity.’  In I. Hodder (ed), Archaeological Theory Today (2001):187-213

J.M. Hall, Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture (2002)

Topic 3:  Postprocessual Theory

Much contemporary archaeological theory is described as “postprocessual” (meaning that it follows, or is in reaction to, processual and “New” archaeology of the 60s and 70s), but this catch-all term conceals a great diversity of viewpoints.  What are some of the primary characteristics of postprocessual interpretation in archaeology?  To what extent has it had — or could it have? — any effect on Classical Archaeology?

R.W. Preucel, ‘The postprocessual condition.’  Journal of Archaeological Research 3.2 (1995):147-75

M. Shanks and I. Hodder, ‘Processual, postprocessual and interpretive archaeologies.’ In I. Hodder et al. (eds), Interpreting Archaeology (1995):3-28

I. Hodder, The Archaeological Process: Towards a Reflexive Methodology (1998)

M. Johnson, Archaeological Theory: An Introduction (1999) [Ch. 7.]

Topic 4:  Archaeology and Text

Studies of the historic past (including the Classical world) rely on both textual and material sources of evidence—on history and archaeology.  What is the relationship between these two sources of evidence, and what are the particular strengths and weaknesses of artifacts and documents when used in combination on specific research questions?  Is there a “text-free” zone in which archaeology can work without fear of contradiction from history?  Do texts provide any better insights than archaeology into “what was really going on” in the past?  Do documents and/or artifacts play active roles in the reproduction and transformation of power and identity?

I. Morris, ‘The use and abuse of Homer.’ Classical Antiquity 5 (1986): 81-138

S. Sherratt, ‘ “Reading the texts”: archaeology and the Homeric question.’  Antiquity 64 (1990): 807-824

E.D.T. Vermeule, ‘Archaeology and philology: the dirt and the word.’  TAPA 126 (1996): 1-10

A. Andrén, Between Artifacts and Texts: Historical Archaeology in Global Perspective (1998)

M. Johnson, Archaeological Theory: An Introduction (1999) [Ch. 10.]

J. Moreland, Archaeology and Text (2001)

Topic 5:  ‘Influence’

Historians of all casts need strategies for postulating, defining, measuring, and interpreting phenomena of ‘influence.’  Yet this term has seemed at best inadequate to (and at worst obstructive in) meeting a pressing challenge:  to characterize cultural relationships of things, processes, events, and people in complex ways that invite alternatives to authoritarian narratives of simplistic cause and effect.  How does Hermerén's Influence in Art and Literature characterize the complexities of what must be understood as encoded in ‘influence’ if we are to continue to use the term?  How can the case-studies listd below be placed within Hermerén's framework?  Consider various kinds of ‘influence’ these studies have attempted to deal with, explicitly or implicitly, and what strategies for claiming complex natures of ‘influence’ these scholars pursued.

G. Hermerén, Influence in Art and Literature (1975)

Case Studies:

M.C. Root, ‘The Parthenon frieze and the Apadana reliefs at Persepolis: reassessing a programmatic relationship.’  AJA 89 (1985): 103-20

M. Miller, Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century B.C.: A Study in Cultural Receptivity. (1997)

M.H. Feldman, ‘Luxurious forms: redefining a Mediterranean “International Style”, 1400-1200 B.C.E.’  The Art Bulletin 84 (March 2002): 6-29