ARCH B257: Aromas of Antiquity

Have you ever wondered how something as unassuming as scent can shape entire civilizations? This course explores the silent power of smell and its influence on how societies interpret concepts like power and being. We’ll begin by examining how scent affects daily life in the US. With activities like scent walks and experiments, you’ll discover how smell shapes our ideas about medicine, relationships, and wealth. Meanwhile, we’ll dive into the fragrant world of the ancient Mediterranean, exploring how the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Greeks, Romans, and the early Abrahamic religions perceived scent and its entanglement with their belief systems, social lives, and power negotiations.

Instruction Mode: In Person
Class Meeting Dates and Times: 2:40pm - 4:00 pm, Tuesday/Thursday, Dalton Hall 10

Archaeology and the Senses - bmc.ARCH.B535.001.F25

ARCH B335/535 Archaeology and the Senses

How did the past feel, smell, sound, taste, and move? This graduate seminar explores the role of the senses in archaeological thought and practice. We examine how sensory experiences shaped ancient lifeways and how archaeologists today reconstruct—or invent—those experiences through theory, method, and imagination. Readings draw from archaeology, anthropology, history, and sensory studies, with special attention to embodiment, perception, colonial legacies, and the politics of interpretation. Students will engage critically with key debates while experimenting with creative, multisensory approaches to primary sources. Weekly reading journals, seminar discussions, and a hands-on midterm project will build toward a final project that explores how the sensory might shift archaeological storytelling, pedagogy, or public engagement. Throughout, we ask: Whose senses are centered? What senses are valued, and why? And what is at stake when trying to sense the past?

Graduate Intensive Survey - bmc.ARCH.B602.001.F25

The Hellenistic Age - bmc.ARCH.B557.001.F25

The Hellenistic Age - bmc.ARCH.B357.001.F25

Archaeology of Iran - bmc.ARCH.B228.001.F25

Intro:Egyptian/Near E. Arch - bmc.ARCH.B101.001.F25

Methods in Archaeology - bmc.ARCH.B233.001.F25

This course will examine the state-of-the-art methodologies for fieldwork archaeology. We will be exploring multiple techniques and technologies that serve to identify archaeological sites in different geographical settings and to process, analyze, and catalog contextual artifacts. More specifically, we will consider different approaches to archaeological research in the field, from remote sensing to micro-stratigraphy. We will be employing several techniques to excavate, record, and stratigraphically document archaeological layers; we will learn how to use GPS (Global Positioning System), GIS (Geographic Information System), and other geo-spatial data (including smartphone-based survey tools), as well as unmanned vehicles (commonly known as drones) for mapping, photographing, and visualizing archaeological sites and features. We will be learning the primary techniques and how-tos at the core of both archaeological survey and excavation. In addition, we will be also exploring different methods of processing artifacts: from archaeological photography (in the field and at the dig house/lab) to pottery analysis protocol, from in-field recording techniques to archaeological databases.

Landscape Archaeology - bmc.ARCH.B265.001.F25

This course explores the principles and methodologies of landscape archaeology, examining how past communities have consciously and unconsciously shaped their environments and physical space. Through a combination of archaeological and historical evidence, students will investigate the cultural, economic, religious, and social practices that influenced landscape organization and the construction and maintenance of space in the ancient world. The course will also examine how natural surroundings have, in turn, shaped and modified socio-economic structures, and symbolic expressions. Focusing on the Mediterranean and South-West Asia, primarily, the course also aims to equipping students with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills essential for understanding the long-terms dynamics and the complex relationship between people and their environments across time and space.

Greek Vase-Painting - bmc.ARCH.B301.001.F25

Senior Seminar - bmc.ARCH.B398.001.F25

Supervised Work - bmc.ARCH.B403.001.F25

Supervised Work - bmc.ARCH.B403.002.F25

Supervised Work - bmc.ARCH.B403.003.F25