ARAS 321 - Aggregates in Space: Cities and Urban Space in the Ancient Mediterranean

CR: 3
Prerequisite: One ARAS course or CORE 120. This course explores the interrelated themes of urban formation, social stratification, and social complexity. Focusing on a series of case studies ranging from Ur to Athens, Rome to Leptis Magna, students will explore the ways in which power is generated, both individually and structurally. Questions of the centralization of power, the distribution of resources, and the materializations of these notions in architectural constructions and environmental interventions will be contextualized through the integration of comparative sociological theory. Joining together texts ranging from Herodotus to Aristotle to Livy with archaeological and visual evidence, the course invites students to investigate the connections between power and social conglomeration, considering the implications of wide ranges of human experience and the ways in which variables ranging from gender ideology to resource availability influenced the articulation of shared social spaces in the ancient world. Offered alternate years. III.W, V.1, V.2