Classical Archaeology

Dates of course:

Sunday 7th July - Wednesday 10th July 2024

Course description:

The Classical Archaeology & Ancient History (CAAH) programme will give you the opportunity to encounter the culture and history of ancient Greek and Roman societies through a wide range of kinds of evidence: art, architecture, domestic artefacts, inscriptions on stone, coins, and literary sources. 

The course will be focused on the broad theme of family and household in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. What choices are involved in the appearance and use of a house? How are familial relationships thought of, celebrated, and used in Greek and Roman societies? What can we discover about how people lived their daily lives, based on what is left behind in the archaeological record? What sources allow us to hear the marginalised voices within the household? How do patterns of kinship and household organisation vary in ancient societies?

You will take part in lectures, tutorials, object-handling sessions, and visits to the Ashmolean Museum, covering a number of topics, from the world of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey to the later Roman empire, and giving you the opportunity to think about the ancient Mediterranean world from archaeological, historical, and literary perspectives. You will also have a chance to consider material from some of the many other cultures of the ancient Mediterranean.

The aim of this course is to give you an idea of what the CAAH degree at Oxford looks like, in combining different methods of looking at the ancient world and different types of evidence. Tutors and student ambassadors will help you as you develop a taste of the key skills required and the Oxford student experience: of note-taking in lectures, independent study, and writing a short essay for discussion in a tutorial.

Course requirements:

None