What you'll do
This will be done in class in Week 13. It will be an object or artifact chosen from Table A: International Collections (Minoan and Mycenaean) or Table B (the Walters). We will do this after our class visit to the Walters.
You can choose which object to write about, and you will have plenty of time to study and prepare at home.
Exam conditions
You may not bring notes to the exam or use connected devices in class — unless you have a specific accommodation, of course.
Preparation
We will model an object analysis in class on several occasions in advance of the exam, and you will see a rubric for the types of things you might wish to say in the “Begin Here” folder on Blackboard.
“Is the trip to the Walters mandatory?”
Please do go, but we can't go during class, as the museum is not open then. You will have a class off in lieu of time spent on the visit. I won't demand to see a ticket or a photo of you standing next to a Dionysiac sarcophagus — unless I do.
International collections — Minoan and Mycenaean through Hellenistic.
| # | Period | Object | Location | Key themes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minoan / Bronze Age | “Prince of the Lilies” fresco | Knossos heraklionmuseum.gr |
Palace culture, Minoan religion, ritual |
| 2 | Mycenaean / Bronze Age | Mask of Agamemnon | National Archaeological Museum, Athens odysseus.culture.gr |
Elite burial, social hierarchy, identity, funerary ritual |
| 3 | Mycenaean / Bronze Age | Linear B: Pylos “Tripod tablet” PY Ta641 | National Archaeological Museum, Athens odysseus.culture.gr |
Bureaucracy, palace economy, early Greek language |
| 4 | Dark Age / Geometric | Large funerary krater, c. 750 BCE | Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC metmuseum.org |
Funerary ritual, hero, transition from Bronze Age collapse |
| 5 | Classical / Colonial | Apulian red-figure vase: Hades & Persephone | Naples, National Archaeological Museum museoarcheologiconapoli.it getty.edu |
Colonization, myth, funerary imagery, diaspora |
| 6 | Classical / Athenian | Parthenon (temple & sculptural program) | Athens / British Museum casts theacropolismuseum.gr britishmuseum.org |
Civic identity, religious ritual, civic art, political symbolism |
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
| # | Period | Object | Accession no. | Walters URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Minoan / Bronze Age | Intaglio with Two Bulls Reclining | 42.402 | art.thewalters.org/object/42.402 |
| 8 | Mycenaean / Bronze Age | Long-Beaked Jug with Paper Nautilus | 48.2098 | art.thewalters.org/object/48.2098 |
| 9 | Dark Age / Geometric | Amphora with Funerary Scenes | 48.2231 | art.thewalters.org/object/48.2231 |
| 10 | Classical / Athenian | Funeral Stele with a Woman and Child | 23.176 | art.thewalters.org/object/23.176 |
| 11 | Classical / Athenian | Pyxis with Maenads | 48.2019 | art.thewalters.org/object/48.2019 |
| 12 | Hellenistic | Carved ivory head of Alexander | 71.493 | art.thewalters.org/object/71.493 |