Classical Studies 2500A/B Chapter Intro: Textbook: Introduction

• School: Western University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: Classical Studies 2500A/B
• Professor: Beth Greene

Document Summary

Architecture is key: the buildings, arrangement and their functions in ancient societies. Our aim is to see how buildings and objects made by people long gone help us understand the urban environments created and lived in by our distant ancestors in the mediterranean basin and the near east. Written records give invaluable information about people and their activities and concerns. 8500 bc 4th century ad: possibility to observe changes in the same region over a great length of time. Appreciating the unfolding of human actions in this rich cultural zone. The romans distinguished between population centers of different scales between city, town and village. A city exists only by virtue of its contrast to towns and other smaller settlements (city is larger) A city is also defined in opposition to the countryside. The resources of the countryside support the city, the city administers/protects the countryside.