Bronze Age Activities for students of the Trojan War

TROY
Bronze Age Activities

1. Read The Trojan War, Chapter 1: "Bronze Age Mycenae and Troy: Archaeological Evidence" (13-24).

2. Explore the links on The Mycenaean Bronze Age page.

3. Read through all the Activity questions on this page before selecting Activities to work with. This Area is especially suited to students taking this course as Humanities 241, although English 255 students are also welcome to select Activities here. Some of the Activities are fairly easy to do, while others are more demanding.

4. Select Activities that interest you and are appropriate to the time you have to spend on them. You will not get a higher grade because you select a more difficult Activity. Some Activities that are especially complex will offer double credit; if so, that will be stated in the Activity question. If you select the double credit option, you must write "double credit" on your Activity AND you must develop your Activity in more depth, in order to qualify for the double credit.

NOTE : Select one or two of these Activities for this Area; make a copy of the Activity question to begin your response. Post your Activity to the Blackboard Bronze Age Forum.

Read the material in Troy VII and the Historicity of the Trojan War and write a well-developed, detailed summary of the information you find there.

Read the material in The Collapse of Mycenaean Palatial Civilization and the Coming of the Dorians and write a well-developed, detailed summary of the information you find there.

Browse through the pages devoted to Mycenaean .Art. Write a detailed review of what you find there. Be very specific about each artifact, what it looks like, where it comes from, and what it was used for. Then, explain how it might have been used in the Iliad or the Odyssey.

Go to a museum that has a collection of Bronze Age artifacts. Write a detailed, well-developed review of what you find there and how the various artifacts might have been used in specific scenes in the Iliad and/or the Odyssey. In the D.C. Metro Area, the Walters Museum in Baltimore is the best place to find Bronze Age artifacts.

Browse through the various sites on the Bronze Age: Main Page and select one interesting site that has images and/or information about Mycenae and/or Troy. Write a detailed, well-developed review of that site, describing specific images/artifacts and how they might have been used by characters in the Iliad. Be sure to include the title and URL of the site.

Watch Michael Woods' wonderful series, In Search of the Trojan War, and write a detailed, fully-developed review. It has just been released on DVD. Worth double credit: up to 100 points if the review is very well done. You may only receive credit for reviewing either the video or the book, not both.

Read Michael Woods' book, In Search of the Trojan War (2nd edition) and write a review. Worth double credit: up to 100 points if the review is very well done (lots of specific information and some good ideas of your own). You may only receive credit for reviewing either the book or the video, not both.

Read Latacz, Troy and Homer, (2004), which is about the recent excavations by Manfred Korfmann, claiming that historical Troy was indeed much larger than previously realized, and an important trading center--thus much like the Troy described by Homer. Write a detailed review of the book. This is worth double credit (up to 100 points), if very well done.

Select a book from the Bibliography. Read it and write a review.

Make up an interesting question of your own about the Mediterranean Bronze Age and answer it with detailed analysis and specific references to the Iliad.