Greek Art & Archaeology M.A. Reading List

Students should read all the required texts listed below under General Art & Archaeology. In consultation with their advisor, they will also select at least three areas for closer study, for each of which they should read all the readings given below and plan to write a half-hour essay in their written M.A. Exam.

General Greek Art & Archaeology

Required Readings

The monuments and artifacts represented in the slide identification portion of the M.A. comprehensive exam will be those illustrated in these texts.

  • Whitley, J. 2001. The Archaeology of Ancient Greece
  • Pedley, J. G. 2007. Greek Art and Archaeology
  • Neer, R. 2018. Greek Art & Archaeology
  • Stansbury-O’Donnell, M. 2015. A History of Greek Art
  • Barringer, J. 2015. The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece

Essays

Students should demonstrate advanced knowledge and critical reading in at least THREE and not more than FIVE areas of Greek Art and Archaeology.  Keep in mind that you must write a total SIX essays based on the Greek and Roman Archaeology reading lists for the M.A. Archaeology track.

I. Greek Architecture

  • Lawrence, A. W. and R.A. Tomlinson. 1996. Greek Architecture (5th edition)
  • Barletta, B.A. 2001. The Origins of the Greek Architectural Orders
  • Nevett, L. 1999. House and Society in the Ancient Greek World
  • Camp, J. . The Athenian Agora
  • Cahill, N.D. 2002. Household and City Organization at Olynthus
  • Cerchiai, L., L. Jannelli, and F. Longo. 2004. The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily
  • Mazarkis-Ainian, A. 1997. From Rulers’ Dwellings to Temples. Architecture, Religion and Society in Early Iron Age Greece(1100-700 BC)
  • Miles, M. (ed.) 2016. A Companion to Greek Architecture
  • Spawforth, A. 2006. The Complete Greek Temples
  • Hurwit, J. M. 2004. The Acropolis in the Age of Perikles

II. Sculpture

  • Stewart, A. 1990. Greek Sculpture: An Exploration
  • Osborne, R. 1998. Archaic and Classical Greek Art
  • Palagia, O. (ed.) 2008. Greek Sculpture: Function, Materials, and Techniquesin the Archaic and Classical Periods
  • Neer, R. 2007. “Delphi, Olympia and the Art of Politics” in The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece: 225-264
  • Neer, R. 2011. The Emergence of Classical Style in Greek Sculpture
  • Boardman, J. 2012. Greek Sculpture: The Archaic Period
  • Boardman, J. 2005. Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period
  • Boardman, J. 1995. Greek Sculpture: The Late Classical Period
  • Smith, R.R.R. 2014. Hellenistic Sculpture
  • Dillon, S. 2012. Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture
  • Jenkins, I. 2006. Greek Architecture and its Sculpture

III. Painting & Pottery

  • Neer, R. 2002. Style and Politics in Athenian Vase Painting (2002)
  • Stansbury-O’Donnell, M. 1999. Pictorial Narrative in Ancient Greece Art (1999)
  • Boardman, J. 1988. Early Greek Vase Painting, 11th-6th c. BC (1998)
  • Boardman, J. 2010. Athenian Red-Figure Vases: The Archaic Period (2010)
  • Boardman, J. 1989. Athenian Red-Figure Vases: The Classical Period (1989)
  • Boardman, J. 2014. Athenian Black-Figure Vases (2014)
  • Trendall, A.D. 1989. Red-Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily (1989)
  • Bundrick, S. 2019. “Contexts, Consumption, and Attic Vases in Etruria,” in Athens, Etruria, and the Many Lives of Greek Figured Pottery: 51-93
  • Langdon, S. 2008. Art and Identity in Dark Age Greece: 1000-700 BC
  • Plantzos, D. 2018. The Art of Painting in Ancient Greece

IV. Aegean

  • Cline, E. H. (ed.) 2010. The Oxford handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC)
  • Shelmerdine, C. W. (ed.) 2008. The Cambridge companion to the Aegean Bronze Age
  • Dickinson, O. T. P. K. 2006. The Aegean from Bronze Age to Iron Age: continuity and change between the twelfth and eighth centuries BC [Chapters 1-3]
  • Cullen, T. (ed.) 2001. Aegean prehistory: a review
  • Broodbank, C. 2000. An island archaeology of the early Cyclades
  • Preziosi, D. and L. Hitchcock. 1999. Aegean art and architecture
  • Driessen, J., I. Schoep, and R. Laffineur. 2002. Monuments of Minos: rethinking the Minoan Palaces; proceedings of the international workshop "Crete of the hundred palaces?" held at the UniversitĂ© Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, 14-15 December 2001
  • Pullen, D. J. 2010. (ed.) Political economies of the Aegean Bronze Age: papers from the Langford Conference, Florida State University, Tallahassee, 22-24 February 2007
  • Gorogianni, E., P. PavĂşk, and L. Girella. (eds). 2016. Beyond Thalassocracies: Understanding processes of Minoanisation and Mycenaeanisation in the Aegean
  • J.-C. Poursat. 2008-2014. L’art Ă©gĂ©en. Paris: Éditions Picard. [English translation in the works by Carl Knappett, to be published by Cambridge University Press]

V. Near East

  • Collon, D. 2005. First Impressions. Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East
  • Dusinberre, E.R.M. 2013. Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia
  • Frankfort, H. 1996. Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient
  • Roaf, M. 1990. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East
  • Root, M. C. 1979. The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art
  • Kuhrt, A. 1995. The Ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 B.C. 2 Vols.
  • Bahrani, Z. 2017. The Art of Mesopotamia
  • Feldman, M. H. 2002. "Luxurious forms: refining a Mediterranean 'international style,' 1400- 1200 BCE," Art Bulletin 84: 6-29
  • Hawkins, J. D. 1998. "Hattusa: home to the thousand gods of Hatti," in J. G. Westenholz (ed.), Capital Cities: Urban Planning and Spiritual Dimensions: 65-82
  • Pollock, S. 2007. "The Royal Cemetery of Ur: Ritual, tradition and the creation of subjects," in M. Heinz and M. H. Feldman (eds.), Representations of Political Power: Case Histories from times of Change and Dissolving Order in the Ancient Near East: 89-110
  • Watanabe, C. 2004. "The 'Continuous Style' in the Narrative Scheme of Assurbanipal's Reliefs." Iraq 66/1: 103-114
  • Winter, I. 1996. "Sex, rhetoric and the public monument: the alluring body of Naram-Sin of Agade" in N. B. Kampen (ed.), Sexuality in Ancient Art: 11-26

VI. Hellenistic

  • Shipley, G. 2000. The Greek World after Alexander 323-30 BC
  • Pollitt, J. J. 1986. Art in the Hellenistic Age
  • Burn, L. 2005. Hellenistic Art: From Alexander to Augustus
  • Smith, R. R. R. Hellenistic Sculpture
  • Dunbabin, K. 1999. Mosaics in the Greek and Roman World [Ch. 1-4]
  • Lawrence, A. and R. Tomlinson. 1996. Greek Architecture 5th edition) [Ch. 19, 21, 23]
  • Westgate, R.C. 2000. "Space and decoration in Hellenistic houses" ABSA 95: 391-426
  • Stewart, A. 2014. Art in the Hellenistic World
  • Ma, J. 2013. Statues and Cities: Honorific Portraits and Civic Identity in the Hellenistic World
  • Thonemann, P. 2016. The Hellenistic World: Using Coins as Sources
  • Kosmin, P. 2014. The Land of the Elephant Kings [Ch. 7, 8]

Approved by the CU Classics Faculty (05/2021)