Curriculum

A. Academic Curriculum

I. Field Archaeology, Archaeological Theory, and museum/lab training (FARC)

  • FARC101: Field Archaeology I (A.TR.E.U.S. dig simulator: aerial photography, topographical survey, geophysical survey, full-scale excavation, architectural planning, 3-D site scanning, restoration and conservation)
  • FARC102A: Field Archaeology II - Field School (practical training in the field through participation in actual archaeological survey and/or excavation)
  • FARC102B: Field Archaeology II - Virtual Field School
  • FARC103: Archaeological Theory and Interpretation
  • FARC201: Archaeological Drawing
  • FARC202: Ceramics: A Guide to Study, Recording, and Identification
  • FARC301: Analytical Methods in Artifact Studies

II. Ancient Art and Archaeology (ARCH)

  • ARCH101: Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology
  • ARCH102: Neolithic Archaeology
  • ARCH103: Prehistoric Aegean Art and Archaeology
  • ARCH104: Greece in the Early Iron Age
  • ARCH105: Ancient Greek Art I: Sculpture
  • ARCH106: Ancient Greek Art II: Painting
  • ARCH107: Ancient Greek Architecture
  • ARCH108: Roman Art and Architecture
  • ARCH109: Byzantine Art and Architecture
  • ARCH201: Minoan Art and Archaeology
  • ARCH202: Mycenaean Art and Archaeology
  • ARCH203: Cyprus in the Bronze Age
  • ARCH204: Mediterranean Interconnections: the Aegean, Egypt & the Near East
  • ARCH205: Death in Prehistoric Greece
  • ARCH206: Prehistoric Aegean Religions
  • ARCH207: Ancient Greek Religion and Sanctuaries
  • ARCH208: Ancient Greek Athletics
  • ARCH209: The Monuments of Ancient Athens
  • ARCH301: From Villages to Cities: The Emergence of 'Civilization' in the Prehistoric Aegean
  • ARCH302: Collapse of Complex Civilizations
  • ARCH303: Archaeology of Politics: Ancient Greek Democracy
  • ARCH304: Introduction to Comparative Archaeology: Mycenae and the Shang Dynasty
  • ARCH305: Legends and Archaeology of Early Complex Bronze Age Polities

III. Biological Anthropology/Bioarchaeology (BARC) - Paleoenvironmental Studies (PENV)

  • BARC101: Introduction to Bioarchaeology
  • BARC102: Human Osteology & Funerary Archaeology: introduction to theory and methods
  • BARC103: Digging Bones: An Introduction to Field Anthropology
  • PENV101: Introduction to Archaeological Science & Environmental Archaeology
  • PENV102: Introduction to Archaeobotany
  • PENV103: Introduction to Environmental Archaeology
  • PENV104: A Climatic History of Man
  • PENV201: Biomolecular Archaeology
  • PENV202: Agriculture in Prehistoric Aegean: from neolithisation to complex societies
  • PENV203: Cultivating Classical Culture: installations, texts and organic remains

IV. Geoarchaeology/Geophysics (GARC) - Archaeometry (ARCM) - Archaeoastronomy (ASTR)

  • GARC101: Introduction to Geoarchaeology
  • GARC102: Geophysical Survey: methods and techniques (lab)
  • GARC103: Geophysical Prospection: Mapping Techniques
  • GARC201: Sedimentology and Soil Micromorphology (lab)
  • ARCM101: Introduction to Archaeometry
  • ARCM102: Digital Applications in Archaeology
  • ARCM103: Information Science
  • ASTR101: Archaeoastronomy for Archaeologists
  • ASTR102: History of Ancient Western Astronomy

V. 3-D Architectural Modeling & G.I.S. (ARCH)

  • ARCT101: Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology (lab)
  • ARCT201: Principles of Monument Restoration (theory and workshops)
  • ARCT202: Digital Documentation of Monuments and Archaeological sites (lab)

VI. Cultural Heritage Studies (CHST)

  • CHST101: Management of Heritage Sites and Monuments
  • CHST102: Heritage and Land Use Planning
  • CHST103: Heritage and Education
  • CHST104: Travel, Tourism and Archaeology
  • CHST201: The International Illicit Antiquities Market
  • CHST202: Protection of Cultural Property in War

VII. Classics: Classical Studies (CLST) - Ancient History (HIST) - Ancient Greek (GREE) - Modern Greek (MGRE)

  • CLST101: Greek Civilization
  • CLST102: Classical Mythology
  • CLST103: Geomythology
  • HIST101: Ancient History I: Archaic and Classical Greece
  • HIST102: Ancient History II: the Hellenistic World
  • GREE101, GREE102, GREE103: Intensive Ancient Greek I-ΙΙΙ  
  • GREE201: Ancient Greek Epic Poetry: Homer (topics)
  • GREE202: Ancient Greek Historiography: Herodotus & Thucydides (topics)
  • GREE203: Ancient Greek Tragedy (topics)
  • GREE204: Ancient Greek Philosophy (topics)
  • MGRE101, MGRE102, MGRE103: Intensive Modern Greek I-ΙΙΙ

VIII. Art History (ARTH) - Studio Art (ARTS)

  • ARTH101: Introduction to Art Histrory
  • ARTH102: The Survival of Antiquity in the Italian Renaissance
  • ARTS101: Landscape Drawing & Painting
  • ARTS102: Studio Art: Study of the Human Body

IX. Archaeological Tours (TOUR):

  • TOUR101: extended weekends (3 days): Athens, Crete, Cyclades (Santorini-Mykonos/Delos or Melos), Northern Greece (Thessaloniki-Vergina-Pella-Meteora), Western Greece (Dodona-Ioannina-Lefkada); weekends: Olympia, Pylos, Delphi, Boeotia (Thebes-Orchomenos-Glas), Corinth, Tiryns, Nafplio, Argos, Epidaurus, Sparta-Mystras, Monemvasia, Mani-Methoni-Koroni, Aegina, Hydra-Spetses, Euboea

X. USC-faculty-led courses (SCGR)

  • SCGRXXX (TBA for Summer and Maymester courses taught by USC faculty)

B. The A.TR.E.U.S. Comprehensive Fieldwork Certificate in Terrestrial & Maritime Archaeology

A unique dig simulator of unparalleled complexity and unprecedented size (300 m2 or 3,000 sq. feet, 1-1.5 m deep) will be constructed on the lowest terrace of the hillside, south of the ‘Melathron’ (Simulated Excavation Field). This is designed to be an outdoor, monumental version of the Keck Archaeological Laboratory dig simulator at Dickinson College, which has proven highly efficient and pivotal for student training in archaeological fieldwork (cf. http://www.dickinson.edu/info/20093/archaeology/1884/keck_archaeology_lab).

The A.TR.E.U.S. field program (Archaeological Training in Excavation and Underground Survey) and the dig simulator at Mycenae, which finds no parallel in Greece, will facilitate intensive, interdisciplinary ‘hands-on’ education and practical field training for undergraduate and graduate students in real conditions in the controlled environment of a simulated excavation field (aerial, ground, and geophysical survey, excavation, restoration, digital applications). The dig simulator will also be made available to archaeologists of the Greek Archaeological Service so that they may be trained on the latest field methods and use of electronic equipment. 

The dig simulator will feature reconstructed architectural ruins and diagnostic archaeological contexts (hearths, kiln, well, houses, shrine, cist and pit graves, a rock-cut chamber tomb, part of a collapsed fortification wall), plotted portable finds and spatial distribution of physical remains, including artifacts (reproduced pieces of pottery, figurines, jewelry, tools and weapons) and ecofacts (casts of human skeletons, animal bones and teeth, carbonized wood, organic remains and other bioarchaeological material), and reproduced stratigraphy filled with different types of sediment (occupation layers, destruction layers, floor levels, burnt deposits) (cf. http://acamycenae.org/photo-gallery).

The students will be trained in:

  • aerial reconnaissance (aerial photography with use of octocopter drone);
  • archaeological survey methods (with use of compass, Total Station, and Differential GPS);
  • geophysical survey techniques (GPR, gradiometer, ERT);
  • excavation methods and techniques (digging, recording, measuring -triangulation/depth - and georeferenced plotting with use of Total Station, labeling, drawing plans/sections, filling out forms and writing field notes, photography, sifting, floatation with use of Flote-tech);
  • synthesis and interpretation of stratigraphic sequence, spatial distribution of finds, spatial function of rooms/areas, identification of archaeological contexts, patterns of uniformity and variation;
  • study of portable finds (construction, typology, function, dating) with brief introduction to the study of ceramics, lithics, metal artifacts, bioarchaeological material, and osteoarchaeology (human/faunal)
  • architectural study and 3-D digital reconstruction of the ruins with use of a site scanner;
  • application of digital technology in archaeology, creating, maintaining, and using a G.I.S. database
  • restoration of building ruins, conservation of portable finds, analysis of storage procedures;
  • final excavation report;
  • dig simulator activities will be recorded by fixed web-cameras for training purposes, in-depth analysis and evaluation in class.

In addition to the semester-long, intensive field training course in the dig simulator, the students will also participate in an intensive practical field training in underwater archaeology at various submerged sites in the Argolic Gulf to earn a comprehensive fieldwork certificate in land/underwater archaeology (A.TR.E.U.S. Fieldwork Certificate) – which is unique in the US, Europe and Greece.

The dig simulator will not only serve for field training, but will also facilitate experimental archaeology: faculty and students will be experimenting with the application of different geophysical survey methods (including pioneer methods, such as drone-mounted gradiometer) and their varying degree of effectiveness with different types of sediment, depths, and diagnostic contexts (melted clay, burnt mud brick, hearths, wells, graves, pressed earth floors, etc.), thus generating gradually a reference index for equipment behavior, which may prove invaluable in fieldwork for recognizing and identifying possible features in geophysical surveys.