Instructions:
The paper for this class should be 5-7 double-spaced pages. It should deal with either a
single work of art or architecture. Come up with a thesis about the work. Don’t be afraid to think critically:
what do YOU think about the work? Support any claims with evidence. You should also look at your secondary sources critically. Do they disagree? Which one is more likely right in
your opinion?
Writing assignments are graded on the following criteria:
1) Choice of a suitable topic. Choose a narrow topic such as “The Hermes of Praxiteles,”
“The East Frieze of the Parthenon,” or “The Eleusis Amphora.” That is, your topic should be
on a specific artifact, monument, or building. Under no circumstances should there be a
paper with a topic like “Roman Art” which is a difficult subject to do justice to in a full-length book, let alone a short paper!
2) Citation. Cite your sources. Any thought that is not original to your paper that cannot
reasonably claimed to be common knowledge should have a footnote, endnote, or
parenthetical citation. If you have no idea how to do this, please have a look at the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, or the Chicago Manual of Style, or my website
here: http://peternulton.com/index.php/assignment-a/
Example: The Parthenon is in Athens. (no citation needed) It is made of limestone and Pentelic marble. (no citation needed) It was made to communicate with aliens. (Here you
either need to cite your source, or take responsibility for this goofy claim, and spend the
rest of your paper defending it. Good luck with that.)
The existence of citations does not absolve you from needing to include a bibliography or
list or works cited at the end.
(Please note that site, cite, and sight are different words with different meanings! archaeological site, website, cite a source, sight for sore eyes…)
3) Making and defending reasonable claims. If you have an original thesis, please try to
show supporting evidence. This also covers critical use of sources. When an author makes an unusual claim, to what extent can they defend it? Some sources are better researched than others. Beware most internet sources. You might read Wikipedia but use it to find
other sources. As it is “authorless” (crowd sourced authoring) and changing, it does not
constitute a source in itself. If you need to rely on what you find online, try accessing JSTOR through the library website. Even then, read carefully and critically. This is often the way in which new discoveries are made.
(Several of my publications, for example, are the result of a feeling of skepticism while
reading articles or listening to lectures.)
Try to avoid random websites, or those not of scholarly intent. The paper for this course is
to be around five pages in length. Try to have at least five sources.
If you still have questions about the paper: http://peternulton.com/index.php/assignment-a/
Content/Topic of class:
This course discusses developments in architecture, painting, and sculpture in Southern
Europe,
Northern Africa, and Western Asia, in the Hellenic sphere of influence between 900 BCE and CE
400. Topics include Greek and Hellenistic Art, Etruscan and Roman Art, and the archaeological
methods used to investigate these civilizations. Emphases will include the
importance of cultural
exchange in the development of what would become Greek culture and the immense plurality seen
in those regions during that period.
Expectation: 1. Increase understanding of art and art-making in the ancient Mediterranean, and appreciate
the differences between the diverse cultures that existed there.
2. Understand the chronology of historical and art-historical periods during this period.
3. Practice the archaeological skills of visual and contextual analysis. 4. Understand how
these artifacts, artworks, buildings, and sites relate to contemporary civic
and/or religious contexts.
Required texts:
-Neer, R. T. (2012). Greek art and archaeology: A new history, c. 2500-c. 150 BCE.
-Steven Tuck (2015) A History of Roman Art.
