Homeric Archaeology and Early Greece from 1550 to 700 BC

Available to all Mods candidates

This subject comprises the archaeological history of the last centuries of the Minoan and Mycenaean world, and the first of the Greek Iron Age, the setting in which the Homeric poems were formed and which they reflect in various ways. This is where classical Greek culture and literature begin. The course covers the full range of material evidence and artefacts surviving from this period, of which there is an excellent representative collection in the Ashmolean Museum.

In the examination you are asked to answer three essay questions: some of those set are more concerned with the evidence of the Homeric poems, others with the wider problems of reconstructing history and chronology from the archaeological data. You are expected to answer at least one question from each of these groups.