Unknown (Roman), Flavian Portrait Bust of a Woman, ca. 88 AD, marble, Williams College Museum of Art, On extended loan from Hiram Butler, MA ’79.

February 25, 2012 – August 19, 2012

Benjamin Rubin, Assistant Professor of Classics, has worked closely with the museum’s collection of antiquities to create this exhibition. Focusing on ancient Rome, he grouped objects thematically: jewelry, coins, sculpture, household objects, military accoutrements, and grave goods. This exhibition supports Professor Rubin’s spring course, “Roman Archaeology and Material Culture,” which is cross listed with the departments of anthropology, art history, classics, and history. Students will explore the meaning and function of these objects in their original cultural context.

Griffin 7

Would you like to participate in archaeological excavation?

Or spend a year studying abroad in Athens or Rome? If so, please come to the Classics Department information session on study abroad opportunities, Wednesday, February 15 at 7:00 in Griffin 7. We will discuss the deadlines and requirements for applications to the American School in Athens and ICSS program in Rome.

Professor Ben Rubin will also give a short presentation about his upcoming archaeological field project at Omrit in Israel. The purpose of this presentation is to familiarize students with the history and archaeological significance of the Roman temple-complex at Omrit, and to solicit volunteers for the 2012 field season. Professor Rubin is currently seeking five students to accompany him on the excavations this summer (May 24-June 24, 2012). Interested students will be required to fill-out a short application available at the information session.

Thursday, April 12 at 7:00pm in Griffin 7

small bronze bust of Juno Etruscan, 300-100 BCE London, British Museum.

Joseph Farrell is the Joseph B. Glossberg Term Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Latin Language and Latin Culture from Ancient to Modern Times. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) and Vergil’s Georgics and the Traditions of Ancient Epic. The Art of Allusion in Literary History. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), and recently co-edited (with Michael Putnam) A Companion to Vergil’s Aeneid and its Tradition. (Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.)

Professor Farrell is currently at work on a book about Juno’s Aeneid, from which his lecture will be drawn, as well as another project, co-edited with Damien Nelis, on the treatment of the Roman republic in poetry of the Augustan period. He has served a term as associate dean of Arts and Letters at Penn, as well as associate dean of Graduate Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences and he is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, several of them for bringing new digital technologies to the study of ancient texts.

Michael Nelson is an art historian and an active field archaeologist studying the ancient architecture of the Mediterranean. For more than a decade, he has been a member of an international team of scholars excavating at Omrit, a Roman and Early Byzantine site in northern Israel. Currently, his research focuses on the well-preserved temple complex at Omrit and its three Corinthian temples. His interests include the use and reception of Roman religious architecture and temple sculpture in the fringe areas of the empire and the transmission of stoneworking techniques. He also works at Leukos, a Roman and Early Byzantine port settlement on the Greek island of Karpathos in the Dodecanese. His research here explores insular settlement archaeology in relation to seaborne trade.

In this lecture Nelson will briefly summarize the history of the excavations at Omrit and discuss the historical significance of the site. His paper will focus on examining the architectural remains of the three phases of the Roman period temple at Omrit, which date between the late first century BC and the late first century AD. He plans to walk the audience through the process of architectural reconstruction and then discuss the symbolic significance of the hybridized appearance of the Omrit temples, which incorporated elements of Greek, Roman and Near Eastern architectural orders.

More information about Michael Nelson’s summary of Omrit excavations can be found here.

Michael Nelson’s  CV can be found here.

Wednesday from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm, and by appointment. Drop-ins welcome.

Professor Edan Dekel:

Tuesday from 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm and by appointment.

Professor and Chair Meredith Hoppin:

Monday from 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm and by appointment.

Professor Benjamin Rubin:

Tuesday from 1:00 pm -2;00 pm, Wednesday from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm.

Professor Amanda Wilcox:

Monday and Wednesday from 11:00 am – 11:50 am, and by appointment.