First-Year Seminar: Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production

Humans of the ancient world had to devote vast amounts of time and resources to the production of textiles such as clothing, bedding, ship's sails, and beyond. In this course you will dive into the textile production techniques of the ancient Mediterranean, with units on fiber preparation, spinning, weaving, laundry, and non-clothing textiles. In addition, we will explore the social structures (especially gender) which influence and are influenced by textile production. This course has a significant hands-on component. It will be approximately 50% engagement with scholarship and 50% studio work. That means that every week you will be participating in the processes that you are reading about. There are no required prerequisite courses or skills, but you must be ready and willing to try new things with your hands. The evidence for ancient fiber production is varied, and so the scholarship portion of this class will involve work in the fields of classical philology, art history, and archaeology.
Course Attributes: EN H; AS HUM; AS LCD; FA HUM; AR HUM; BU Hum; BU BA

First-Year Seminar: Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production

ART HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY 1011

Section 01