AR2408:04
*Archaeology of Art, Images and Symbols
Townsville
Prerequisites: At least 12 units of level 1 subjects
Inadmissable Subject Combination: AR3408
26 lectures, 12 tutorials. First semester.
Staff: Dr D Roe.
This subject is concerned with the nature and use of symbols, images and art in the societies of the past. It will review both established and innovative approaches to the understanding and interpretation of images, structures and landscapes as symbols of human thought and belief. Addressing questions of form, style, function and meaning, the subject will investigate such topics as the development of writing and other non-verbal communication systems; portable art and rock art; tomb architecture and the afterlife; megaliths and archaeoastronomy; African metallurgy and the symbolism of landscapes and monuments. Interpretative methods that will be reviewed will include cognitive archaeology, the role of art in information exchange, the relationship of altered states of consciousness to art production and ethnoarchaeological approaches to the understanding of style in pottery design and stone tool manufacture.
Learning Objectives:
- develop an understanding of the problems of interpreting art and symbols from archaeological contexts;
- development of a critical appreciation of a number of approaches to the investigation of art, symbols and images;
- develop an understanding of the contexts in which art, symbols and images were produced and consumed;
- develop an understanding of the methods and techniques by which art, symbols and images were produced.
Assessment by major essay (60%); tutorial exercises (40%).
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