ROMAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Throughout the course we will explore various social, political, and cultural aspects of
life in the ancient Roman world through art, architecture, and material culture. This project will
allow you to examine one area (that may or may not have been directly addressed in class) in
further depth. Possible research topics include, but are not limited to:
– Political propaganda and euergetism
– Women in the Roman world (choose Elite or Lower-Class for research)
– Birth and childhood in the Roman world
– Life of the Roman family
– Roman views on sex and sexuality
– Daily life in the countryside, city, or provincial town (select one for research)
– Influence of Greek art on Roman art
– Food production and/or distribution
– Transportation and travel
– Roman hospitality and dining practices
– Social status and slavery in Rome
– Roman views on illness and death
– Representations of Roman myth and literature in art
Within these topics, you may wish to choose a particular historical period (e.g., the Republic, the
Julio-Claudian period, the later Roman Empire) to focus your paper. Before starting, you may
wish to browse online through books, articles, and webpages that deal with Roman society in
order to get an idea of which topic interests you and is viable to discuss at length in a research
paper. Consider also looking at the websites for museums and what Roman antiquities they have
in their collections.
You are welcome to select a research topic that is not on this list; however, you must contact me
to get your idea approved.
The assignment itself is divided into two parts.
Part 1: Research Paper
After having selected your topic, you will write a research paper using five pieces of
material evidence as the core of the paper. The material evidence may include art (mosaics, wall
paintings, statues), architecture (buildings, monuments, aqueducts, bridges), archaeological sites
(Pompeii, Rome, Ostia, Vindolanda), and/or small finds of material culture (dishware, utensils,
coinage). Your paper should explore the material evidence available to us and address how it
can help us understand a particular aspect of ancient Roman society.
You will be required to do research using a variety of secondary source material (books
and peer-reviewed journal articles). While you will need to do most (if not all) of your research
online, please remember that websites like Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica are not
acceptable academic sources. The online database JSTOR is a particularly useful online resource
through which you can access electronic copies of articles from many academic journals. If at
any time you are unsure if a source is acceptable, feel free to contact me to check. You are
Fall 2020 Saint Mary’s University
Department of Modern Languages and Classics
encouraged (but not required) to use primary source material (writings by ancient Greek and
Roman authors) if they are directly relevant to your topic.
Remember: All information that is not your own opinion or considered common
knowledge should be properly cited using footnotes (author, page number) with a full
bibliography at the end of the paper. Improper citation is a form of plagiarism and will be
evaluated as such.
Your final paper must be a minimum of 8 pages, double-spaced (Times font, size 12). A
title page and bibliography are required but are not included in the assigned 8 pages. Any
images should appear at the end of your paper and are also not included in the 8 pages (just be
sure to label them and refer to them clearly in your paper). I will accept the use of any
recognized citation style in your bibliography (MLA, APA, Chicago) so long as all entries
remain consistent in style and provide all necessary bibliographical information.
A successful research paper will:
– Have a clear topic that is addressed throughout
– Discuss at least five pieces of material evidence
– Demonstrate both quality and quantity in the research presented
– Demonstrate close analysis of the evidence
– Give a coherent and informative discussion of the chosen topic
– Have clarity of expression in writing style and be free of spelling and grammatical
errors
– Properly cite all evidence
– Meet assignment requirements (min. 8 pages, title page, bibliography)
In order to conduct the necessary amount of research and have time to properly write and
edit your research paper before moving on to Part 2, I strongly recommend you begin research
right away. Once your research is complete and writing is underway, you may wish to start work
on