Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture

Welcome to the home page for Carleton’s new OCS program in Greece! My name is Alex Knodell, and I am an archaeologist specializing in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East. I’ve been a professor in the Classics Department and Archaeology Program at Carleton since 2014.

My work as an archaeologist has taken me to a lot of interesting places over the years. I’ve done fieldwork in Jordan, Guatemala, and the US, and traveled more broadly to visit and study archaeological sites on five continents. The one place I keep coming back to, though, again and again, is Greece. My research in Greece focuses on long-term social change in a variety of regional contexts, mostly through team-based international survey projects like the Mazi Archaeological Project and the Small Cycladic Islands Project. I also wrote a book called Societies in Transition in Early Greece, which focused on central Greece in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age—the very cusp of history, in which we see the development of Greek city-states, writing and the poetry of Homer, and a more interconnected, multicultural Mediterranean world.

I’ve been coming to Greece for over 15 years. I’ve lived in Athens (off and on) for about four of them. While Greece is obviously a place where I work and study, I’ve also developed a deeply personal connection to the people, language, and culture (especially the food!). I’ve enjoyed sharing all of these things with Carleton students over the years, both on campus and on field projects. I couldn’t be more excited to introduce a new group of students to Greece on this OCS program. Πάμε! (let’s go!).

Alex Knodell, Associate Professor of Classics, Director of Archaeology

This program is a collaboration between Carleton and College Year in Athens (CYA), an international academic center in Athens, which will provide housing in apartments, custom programing, and elective courses with expert faculty based in Greece. Students will take one core course taught by the faculty director, Alex Knodell (CLAS 200 – Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture), and choose two of the four supporting courses offered by CYA faculty (see below). This combination provides opportunities for students in all majors and backgrounds— students in classics, archaeology, and history, as well as students interested in contemporary politics, literature, international relations, economics, digital humanities, and European and Middle East studies.

Learning Goals

This program provides a long-term view of the history, landscape, and material culture of Greece, from prehistory to the present day. It also provides practical training from several disciplinary perspectives, focused particularly on personal observation and the study of primary sources, whether geological features, archaeological objects, texts, or ethnographic interviews.

Within this framework, the program has three overarching goals:

1. to examine the role of geography and regional history in situating Greece at a cultural crossroads at the intersection of Asia, Africa, and Europe;
2. to understand what is unique about the history of Greece during its rich and storied past;
3. to consider how particular methods of inquiry—archaeological, historical, literary, ethnographic—can be applied in a variety of site-specific contexts.

Students will take a core course on the history, landscape, and material culture of ancient Greece (including also forays into medieval and modern periods), then select from electives that allow for more detailed engagement the contemporary culture and recent past of Greece in its wider European and Middle Eastern context (especially with respect to migration and multiculturalism); archaeological methods in the digital age; or Greek and Latin literature in context. Students will all learn “survivor” Greek and there will also be the possibility to organize tutorials in Ancient Greek or Latin for students who wish to continue in those language sequences.

Prerequisites

There are no formal prerequisites, but previous coursework in Classics or the history of the eastern Mediterranean is strongly encouraged. Applicants are particularly encouraged to take CLAS 123: Greek Archaeology and Art before the OCS program. If that is not possible, it is recommended that they have taken at least one of the following courses:

• ARCN 101: The Human Story: Archaeology and the Anthropocene
• CLAS 100: The Trojan Legend: Mythology, Archaeology, and Legacy
• CLAS 145: Ancient Greek Religion
• CLAS 227: Athens, Sparta, and Persia
• CLAS 230: The Rise and Fall of the Hellenistic Kingdoms
• HIST 233: The Byzantine World and Its Neighbors, ca. 750-1453

Required Core Course

CLAS 200: Greece at a Crossroads: History, Landscape, and Material Culture (6 credits)

This course provides a long-term view of the history, landscape, and material culture of Greece, from prehistory to the present day. While the monuments of ancient Greece are cultural touchstones, Greece has a remarkably diverse past, occupying a borderland between continents, empires, and cultures, both ancient and modern. Classroom study and on-site learning examine the wide range of sources that inform us about the Greek past (texts, archaeology, the environment), and focus especially on the stories told by places and things. Site visits in Athens and on trips throughout Greece highlight the importance of local and regional contexts in the “big histories” of the eastern Mediterranean.
Instructor: Alex Knodell
Humanistic Inquiry, International Studies; Classics: Archaeological Analysis; Archaeology: Core Courses

College Year in Athens Electives (choose two courses)

SOAN 327: The Culture of Modern Greece: The Ethnography of a Society in Transition (6 credits)

This course focuses on the culture(s) of Modern Greece from the 1960s onward, drawing on authors from across the social sciences to identify key realms that make life in Greece distinct. Theories and methods of anthropology will be discussed with special attention to how ethnographies in Greece have changed over the past decades. Students will try on different lenses as they conduct ethnographic research and examine the world through theories of space, ritual, performance, gender, and symbol. This structure will allow students an understanding of contemporary Greek society and a developing awareness of their own cultural conditionings and ethnocentrisms.
Local Instructor

CLAS 111: Myth and Reception (6 credits)

This course aims to familiarize students with important Greek mythological stories and figures as represented in Greek literature and art. During the course students will be introduced to select methods of studying and interpreting myths and will explore how myths helped the Greeks organize their understanding of the world and approach issues and problems that affected the lives of individuals and communities. Students will study the way in which myths have been received, interpreted, re-imagined, and rendered into artwork, theatrical performances, opera, and dance pieces in modern times and will discuss their relevance today.
Local Instructor

ARCN 251: Digital Archaeology and Virtual Reality (6 credits)

Archaeological methodology has been changing at a revolutionary pace throughout the last decade. Today old ways of recording and interpreting archaeological data are being replaced by digital and computational methods, and virtual reality has become a key component of archaeological projects and cultural heritage management (CHM) alike. The main aim of this course is for the student to develop a comprehensive understanding of the new possibilities offered by the most recent tools and methods in analyzing the past, as well as to acquire a practical skill set, which will be useful in both archaeological fieldwork and cultural heritage
management projects.
Local Instructor

POSC 237: Borders, Boundaries and Human Mobility (6 credits)

Borders are at once real and imagined. They divide and they are crossed. The course draws case studies and examples from the United States and Europe to critically reflect on the notion of borders and to discuss both the construction and reimaging of borders in the physical and socioeconomic sense. The course connects the concept of border(s) and human mobility, from immigration to daily movement in urban spaces and examines critically the construction and deconstruction of borders, the notions of inclusion and exclusion: who has the right to it, within which borders, and at what cost?
Local Instructor

GRK 102: Intermediate Greek (6 credits)

Study of essential forms and grammar, with reading of original, unadapted passages.
Prerequisites: Greek 101 with a grade of at least C-

GRK 230: Homer: The Odyssey (6 credits)

Homer is perhaps the foundational poet of the western canon, and his work has been justly admired since its emergence out of the oral tradition of bardic recitation in the eighth century BCE. This course will sample key events and passages from the Odyssey, exploring the fascinating linguistic and metrical features of the epic dialect, as well as the major thematic elements of this timeless story of homecoming.
Prerequisites: Greek 204 or equivalent
Literary/Artistic Analysis

LATN 285: Weekly Latin (2 credits)

This course is intended for students who have completed Latin 204 (or equivalent) and wish to maintain and deepen their language skills. Students will meet weekly to review prepared passages, as well as reading at sight. Actual reading content will be determined prior to the start of term by the instructor in consultation with the students who have enrolled. There will be brief, periodic assessments of language comprehension throughout the term. Prerequisites: Latin 204 or equivalent
S/CR/NC only

Excursions

The term will include on-site teaching at the museums and archaeological sits of Athens, as well as day trips around Attica and other areas close to Athens. The program will also include several multi-day trips to the Peloponnese (to visit sites like Olympia, Nafplio, Mycenae); Central Greece (Delphi, Thebes, Euboea); and the Greek islands.

Housing

CYA will provide housing, dining, and teaching facilities in Athens, and will organize hotels and transportation for excursions outside of Athens. Apartments are located in the Pangrati neighborhood of Athens and are within easy walking distance of CYA’s Academic Center, grocery stores, cafes and restaurants, bakeries, dry-cleaning shops, banks, and other amenities. A typical apartment has 2 to 3 bedrooms (each containing one or two single beds), and also includes a common area, kitchen (stocked with tableware and basic cooking equipment), bathroom and balcony. Apartments are simply but fully furnished, with clima units (heating/cooling) in each bedroom, and WiFi Internet access. Linen and a weekly housekeeping are provided by CYA.