Postgraduate Course: The late antique city in Asia Minor (PGHC11385)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | As most cities in Asia Minor were largely or completely abandoned after Antiquity and their state of preservation is truly remarkable, the region is exceptionally exciting for all those interested in the last centuries of classical urbanism. Based on a combination of archaeological and literary sources, this course will study the appearance and functioning of fortifications, major streets and squares, traditional monuments, statuary decoration, markets, temples and churches. There will be particular attention for how these buildings and locations would have been seen and experienced by contemporaries and how they reacted to them throughout time. Some of their responses have been registered in literary or iconographic sources, others have left material traces, e.g., the numerous graffiti that city inhabitants have applied to walls, floors, columns and so on. Students taking this course will gain a clear idea of everyday life in a late antique city and how it differed or resembled that in a Roman or Byzantine city. They will become aware of, and be able to engage in, critically informed discussion on how changes in late antique material culture resulted from political, religious, social and economic evolutions between the 4th and the 7th century. |
| Course description |
Week 1: Asia Minor in Late Antiquity
Week 2: Fortifications, function and representation
Week 3: Areas of display in the late antique city
Week 4: What happened to temples?
Week 5: The theatre and theatre plays
Week 6: Physical evidence of Christianisation
Week 7: Late antique housing
Week 8: Artisanal and commercial activities
Week 9: The role of statuary
Week 10: Spolia and re-used building materials
Week 11: Daily life in the late antique city
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | n/a |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Standard VS pre-reqs for this level in this Subject Area |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to demonstrate by means of a coursework essay:
- a broad understanding of the urban culture of Late Antiquity, in all its different aspects and their interrelations
- a comprehension of the expression of ideas in architectural form and the various artistic and material choices made by Late Romans
- an understanding of the uniqueness of Asia Minor, its similarities and differences with other regions in the Roman Empire
- observational and interpretative skills with respect to material culture of the period and region
- a familiarity with a range of forms of material evidence for late antique civilisation, and an understanding of how they can be exploited in combination with literary and documentary evidence
- an awareness of the contribution of new discoveries to the evolutionary nature of late antique urban studies
- the ability to conduct personal research and to present this research to the lecturer and fellow students.
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Reading List
- Dally, O. and Ch. Ratté (eds) (2011) Archaeology and the Cities of Asia Minor in Late Antiquity, (Kelsey Museum Publication 6), Ann Arbor.
- Jacobs, I. (2013) Aesthetic Maintenance of Civic Space. The ¿Classical¿ City from the 4th to the 7th c. AD (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 193), Leuven-Paris-Walpole.
- Özgenel, L. (2007) Public use and privacy in aristocratic late antique houses in late antique Asia Minor: the architecture of spatial control, in: L. Lavan, L. Özgenel and A. Sarantis (eds) Housing in Late Antiquity. From Palaces to Shops (Late Antique Archaeology 3.2), Leiden, 239-81.
- Roueché, Ch. (2000) Asia Minor and Cyprus, in A. Cameron, B. Ward-Perkins and M. Whitby (ed.) Late Antiquity: empire and successors, A.D. 425-600 (The Cambridge Ancient History XIV), Cambridge, 570-87.
- Saradi, H. 2006. The Byzantine City in the Sixth Century. Literary Images and Historical Reality (Monographs of Messenian Archaeological Studies). Athens: Society of Messenian archaeological studies.
- Smith, R. R. R. (2012) Defacing the gods at Aphrodisias, in: B. Dignas and R. R. R. Smith (eds) Historical and Religious Memory in the Ancient World, Oxford.
- Smith, R. R. R. (1999) Late antique portraits in a public context: honorific statuary at Aphrodisias in Caria, AD 300-600, Journal of Roman Studies 89, 155-89.
- Talloen, P. and L. Vercauteren (2011) The fate of temples in late antique Anatolia, in: L. Lavan and M. Mulryan (eds) The Archaeology of Late Antique Paganism (Late Antique Archaeology 7), Leiden-Boston, 347-87.
- Whittow, M. (2001) Recent research on the late-antique city in Asia Minor: the second half of the 6th c. revisited, in: L. Lavan (ed.) Recent Research in Late-Antique Urbanism (JRA Supplementary Series Number 42), Portsmouth, 137-53.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
At the end of the course the student will be able, through written examination, coursework, oral presentation and class discussion, to demonstrate:
- his/her written skills and presentation skills
- his/her analytical skills
- his/her ability to recognise and focus on important aspects of a wide-ranging subject and to select specific examples
- his/her ability to produce a concise summary |
| Keywords | Late antique city Asia Minor |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Ine Jacobs
Tel: (0131 6)50 3854
Email: Ine.Jacobs@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Amanda Campbell
Tel: (0131 6)50 3782
Email: amanda.campbell@ed.ac.uk |
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