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Courses - Spring 2026
ARTH
Art History & Archaeology Department Site
ARTH488E
Colloquium in Art History; Life and Death in Homeric Greece: The Art and Archaeology of Bronze Age Pylos
Credits: 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Presents the art and archaeology of one of the key settings in Homer's Odyssey, Bronze Age (ca. 3000-1000 BCE) Pylos, in the Greek Peloponnese. Together, we will explore the site and its showpieces, "The Palace of Nestor" and the recently discovered "Grave of the Griffin Warrior" using a variety of methodologies and resources. We will unpack excavation strategies and learn about the site s myriad finds, includingceramics, stone seals, gold signet rings, frescoes, and clay tablets inscribed with Linear B, the script used to write the earliest form of the Greek language. We will also consider the different forms ofmanual and digital documentation and reconstruction that have been used at the site since the 1930s, and pull ideas together in the crafting of individual research papers.