CLAS 2039EX - Rome's Twilight Study Tour

Explore the world of Late Antiquity first-hand by visiting key monuments, sites and museums in Milan, Ravenna, Aquileia and Rome - all cities which in the 4th century CE were home to Roman emperors. This intensive overseas study tour provides a first-hand experience of Late Roman material culture, particularly of the fourth and fifth centuries CE. Not only style, but forms of elite art changed radically in Late Antiquity. The museums of Milan, Ravenna and Aquileia as well as their accessible remains provide valuable insights into the changing tastes of this late Roman world. Plans, models and CGI are useful visualisations, but part of the professional development of an archaeologist is to experience and understand the difference between them and the often disparate fragments on which they are based. For art historians and historians, understanding what artefacts and monuments can tell us about the past is also an invaluable skill. Moreover, nothing compares with the emotional impact of experiencing the Roman world directly. Students will develop skills in observation, reflection, induction, and deduction on archaeology-specific issues in an international context, through museum- and site-based studies of published artefacts, artworks and/or sites. In Rome, students will not only study the material at the Crypta Balba museum but also explore Late Imperial buildings here as well as in nearby Ostia. We will also visit the Bay of Naples. Whilst best known for its early Imperial cities - Pompeii, Herculaneum - this region also has its share of Late Antique monuments, including painted tombs in Naples, whilst the National Museum of Naples is one of the world's greatest archaeological collections. Finally, day visits to the 1st century cities on the Bay of Naples will allow students to form their own comparisons and contrasts with the Late Roman cities previously explored.