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ARTH/CLAR 347: Pompeii: A Time Capsule of Ancient Life

Spring 2026

T TH 1:30-3:30pm

SAV 131

• Prof. Levin-Richardson (you can call me Professor Levin-Richardson, Professor L-R, or just Professor)
• Pronouns: she/her/hers
• sarahlr@uw.edu
• Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 11am-noon or by appointment; I am happy to meet on zoom if you can’t meet in person
• Office: Denny 227; enter the main doors of Denny, pass the water fountain and elevator, and it’s the first office on the left

Description:

This class explores the power differentials among individuals of different genders, legal statuses, and citizenship in the cultural melting pot of ancient Pompeii, which was preserved by a volcanic eruption in 79 CE. Graffiti, skeletal remains, everyday objects, humble and world-class art and monuments will be analyzed.

Learning Objectives:

• Be able to discuss and analyze a range of evidence (art, architecture, graffiti, objects) from Pompeii

• Be able to situate Pompeian material culture within its broader historical and social/cultural context
• Be able to discuss and analyze the constraints and opportunities offered to different types of individuals (women, children, enslaved individuals, formerly enslaved individuals, foreigners, and elite men) at Pompeii

Supporting your learning and well being:

I will post powerpoints and record all lectures for accessibility. If you know of something that might affect your learning (technology problems; health or family crisis; religious observance) please contact me as soon as possible, ideally at the beginning of the quarter, so that I can make appropriate accommodations. Below you can find further resources:

• (for ������ majors and ������ minors)
• • If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.
  • If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to: mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at uwdrs@uw.edu or DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions.  Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS.  It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.
• Religious Accommodations:
  • Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at . Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the .

Required Readings:

The required textbook for this class is Mary Beard’s The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found from Belknap Press. This book be found in the (as well as other sites) for under $25, and one copy will be available via course reserves in Odegaard. The book is also available as an e-book and audio book (via Amazon.com). Other required readings can be found on Canvas. is designed to defray the cost of textbooks for ������ majors and ������ minors).

Each meeting in the schedule below has one or more readings to be read for that class session. For the Thursday of Week 1, for example, please come to class having read: 1) the sections on “Life Interrupted” and “A city of surprises” in the course textbook (which I refer to as Beard on the schedule); 2) the selections of the Haley article in the week 1 folder on Canvas); and 3) the HuffPost article in the week 1 folder on Canvas. These readings are a starting point for in-class lecture and discussion, which often expand upon the assigned readings and/or present new material. Thus, I strongly recommend careful reading of the assigned material as well as attending class.

Grading:

AI/Chat GPT is not allowed for any assignment, including studying for quizzes/exams/assignments. Use of AI/Chat GPT will be considered an academic integrity violation and be reported to the Office of Student Conduct.

• Quizzes: 40% (to be completed on Canvas before each class during weeks 2-9)
  • Multiple choice and true-false quiz on the assigned readings to be completed on Canvas before each class. You may consult only the readings and your own notes; you may not work with other individuals on the quizzes. The lowest three quizzes will be dropped.
• Object writing assignment: 20% (due Tuesday April 28 at the beginning of class via Canvas)
  • 4-5 page double-spaced essay on objects related to various types of individuals (men, women, children, freedmen and freedwomen, enslaved individuals). See guidelines on Canvas for more details (including your assigned category).
• Final exam (IN PERSON): 40% (Monday June 8 4:30-6:20pm in SAV 131)
  • Essays; covers material from the entire course. A study guide will be posted on Canvas in advance of the exam.

Your final course grade is calculated from these assignments in the proportions given. Please prepare carefully for these assignments, and please come see me in advance if you have any questions about how to best prepare. There is no extra credit.

Further Expectations:

• Illness
  • Keep yourself and the rest of our community healthy! If you are feeling unwell, please stay home until you are better (no need to email me unless you are missing the deadline for the object writing assignment or the exam; no make-up quizzes will be given). Remember that all classes are recorded!
  • Feel free to consult
  • Free masks are available at the information and circulation desks at Suzzallo Library
• No recording, photographing, posting, or distributing of course materials of any kind is permitted without my written authorization.
• Getting in touch with each other
  • Please check Canvas and your UW email daily; this is how I will communicate with you about pertinent information. You are responsible for all information disseminated over email and through the course website, in addition to information discussed in class.
  • I’m available in office hours for you! If you are anxious about assignments, please set up a time well in advance of the assignment or exam so we can discuss strategies. I’m also happy to chat about any other class-related concerns you have, or study abroad opportunities, how to follow your interest in archaeology, ������, or ancient history, etc. I am happy to answer questions over email, but please check the syllabus first to see whether the answer is there.
  • I will respond to emails by the end of the next working day (which means that if you email me on Friday afternoon, I may not respond until Monday afternoon).
• Grading
  • Students are expected to adhere to ethical behavior in their work, including following guidelines posted for each assignment concerning group work and plagiarism/cheating. AI/Chat GPT is not allowed for any assignment, including studying for or taking quizzes/exams/assignments. Use of AI/Chat GPT will be considered an academic integrity violation and be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. Failure to adhere to these policies will be considered an academic integrity violation and can be reported to the and you might receive a zero on the assignment. If you have any questions about what is or is not allowable for an assignment, I’d be more than happy to clarify!
  • I’d be happy to discuss any of your graded work with you, but I ask that you wait twenty-four hours after receiving your assignment back in order to begin to process my feedback. After the twenty-four-hour period, please feel free to email me to set up a time for a meeting. Due to University policy, I cannot discuss grades over email.

Schedule of Topics and Required Readings:

Week 1: Introduction

T March 31: Introduction

Th April 2: ������

• Beard 1-9, 23-25 (“Life Interrupted” “A city of surprises”)
• Haley, Shelley. 2009. “Be Not Afraid of the Dark: Critical Race Theory and Classical Studies,” in Prejudice and Christian beginnings: investigating race, gender, and ethnicity in Early Christian Studies, ed. L. Nasrallah and E. Schüssler Fiorenza. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Pp. 27-50. [Read selection in Week 1 folder]
• Ungar, Laura. “” HuffPost November 7 2024. [Week 1 folder or click the link]

Week 2: Infrastructure; Development of Pompeii

T April 7: Access to Resources: Managing Streets, Water, and Waste

• Beard 53-65 (“Beneath your feet” “What were streets for?” “Boulevards and back alleys” “Water features”), 70-72 (“Pavements [=sidewalks]: public and private”), 78-80 (“The city that never sleeps”)

Th April 9: Multiculturalism and the Development of Pompeii: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Beard 26-43 (“Glimpses of the past” “Before Rome” “Becoming ������”)

Week 3: The Economy

T April 14: Commerce: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Beard 152-153 (“Profit margins”), 162-169 (“City trades”), 177-185 (“A banker”)

• Cheung, Caroline, 2024. Dolia: the Containers That Made Rome an Empire of Wine, Princeton: Princeton University Press. [available in week 3 folder or online through UW libraries; read pp. , , ]

Th April 16:  Occupations: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Beard 170-177 (“A baker”), 185-187 (“the garum maker”)
• Clarke, John. 2003. Art in the Lives of Ordinary ������s: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D. 315. Berkeley:  University of California Press. [week 3 folder; don't forget to look at the color plates at end!]

Week 4: Politics; Religion

T April 21: Politics and the Forum: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Beard 188-195 (“Vote, vote vote”), 203-215 (“The face of success” “Beyond the male elite”)

Th April 23: Religious Practices: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Beard 276-281 (“Those other inhabitants” “A religion without the book”), 290-301 (“Celebrating the gods: in public and private” “Politics and religion: emperors, attendants and priests”)
• Excerpts from Snowden, Frank M., Jr. 2010 [1976]. “Iconographical Evidence on the Black Populations in Greco-������ Antiquity.” In The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the ������ Empire, ed. David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr. New Edition. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. [week 4 folder; Cat no. 288, 289]
• Terpstra, Taco. 2015. “������ Trade with the Far East: Evidence for Nabataean Middlemen in Puteoli” In Across the Ocean: Nine Essays on Indo-Mediterranean Trade, eds. Federico De ������is and Marco Maiuro. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 73-94. [week 4 folder]

Week 5: Objects and Identity; Housing

T April 28: Objects and Identity

• No Quiz; Object writing assignment due via uploading to Canvas by the beginning of class

Th April 30: Housing and Identity: From Work Lofts to Villas: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Beard 88-110 (“The art of reconstruction” “Upstairs, downstairs” “Show houses” “For richer for poorer: not ‘the Pompeian house’”; stop before the paragraph beginning “But it was not only the poorer…”); 118-119 (“79 CE: all change”)

Week 6: Housing

T May 5: Frescoes: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Beard 126-130 (“Pompeian colours”; stop at the bottom of page 130), 134-151 (“What went where” “Myths do furnish a room” “A room with a view?”)
• Molkova, Diana. 2023. The Lived Experience of Short-Statured ������ in the Early ������ Empire. PhD Dissertation, University of Washington. [excerpts; week 6 folder]

Th May 7: NO CLASS

Week 7: Housing

T May 12: Women and Houses: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. 1996. “Engendering the ������ House,” in I Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome, eds. Diana Kleiner and Susan Matheson. Austin: University of Texas Press. 104-115. [week 7 folder; read only to page 112 [page 5 of the PDF], stopping before the section on “������ Archaeology and Gender”]
• Allison, Penelope. 2009. “Domestic Spaces and Activities,” in The World of Pompeii, eds. John J. Dobbins and Pedar W. Foss. New York: Routledge. 269-278. [week 7 folder]

Th May 14: Children and Slaves in Houses: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Huntley, Katherine. 2011. “Identifying Children’s Graffiti in ������ Campania,” in Ancient Graffiti in Context, J.A. Baird and Claire Taylor, Routledge. 69-89. [week 7 folder; read pages 69-70 (stop before “Studying Childhood or Studying Children”); 73-83 (starting with “A Developmental Psychological approach…”)]
• Joshel, Sandra and Lauren Hackworth Petersen. 2014. The Material Life of ������ Slaves. New York: Cambridge. [week 7 folder; read pp. 27-30 (starting at “Yet slaves figured as part…”); 40-46 (start at “slaves on the move”; stop before “This architectural pattern”); 59-63 (start at “slave tactics”; stop before “At the house of the Ceii”)]

Week 8: Public Entertainment

T May 19: Baths and Theaters: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Beard 241-243 (“A Good Bath”; stop before the paragraph beginning “The variety of opportunities” on p. 243), 253-259 (“Starstruck?”)
• Edmondson, Jonathan. 2002. “Public Spectacles and ������ Social Relations,” in Ludi ������i: Espectáculos en Hispania ������a, ed. T. Nogales Basarrate. Madrid. 8-27. [week 8 folder; read pages 9, 11-15 (starting with “Augustus and the Regulation of Seating at Public Spectacles”; stop before “Gladiatorial Presentations”)]

Th May 21: Amphitheaters and Gladiators: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Beard 259-260 (“Bloody Games”; stop before paragraph beginning “the Amphitheater”), 264 (starting with the paragraph beginning “Advertisements”)-275 (the rest of “Bloody Games” and “Heartthrobs of the girls”)
• Edwards, Catharine. 1997. “Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome,” in ������ Sexualities, ed. M. Skinner. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 66-95. [week 8 folder; read pp. 66-68]

Week 9: Private Leisure

T May 26: Sex, Sexuality, and Desire: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Milnor, Kristina. 2014. Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in ������ Pompeii. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [selections in week 9 folder]
• Haley, Shelley. 2009. “Be Not Afraid of the Dark: Critical Race Theory and Classical Studies,” in Prejudice and Christian beginnings: investigating race, gender, and ethnicity in Early Christian Studies, ed. L. Nasrallah and E. Schüssler Fiorenza. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Pp. 27-50. [read selection in week 9 folder]

• Åshede, Linnea. 2020. “Neutrumque et Utrumque Videntur: Reappraising the Gender Role(s) of Hermaphroditus in Ancient Art.” In Exploring Gender Diversity in the Ancient World, ed. Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Pp. 81-94. [week 9 folder]

Th May 28: Sex, Sexuality, and Desire: complete quiz on reading before class!

• Clarke, John. 1998. Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in ������ Art 100 B.C.-A.D. 250. Berkeley: University of California Press. [week 9 folder; read pages 212 (starting with the section on "Sex and Laughter in the Suburban Baths")-240].

Week 10: Death and Destruction

T June 2 Death

• Berry, Joanne. 2007. The Complete Pompeii. London: Thames and Hudson. [week 10 folder; read pages 92-101]
• Lazer, Estelle. 2007. “Victims of Cataclysm,” in World of Pompeii, eds. J.J. Dobbins and Peder Foss. Routledge. 607-619. [week 10 folder]

Th June 4: Destruction; Review

• Cooley, Alison and M. G. L. Cooley. 2004. Pompeii: A Sourcebook. Routledge. [week 10 folder; read intro on page 27, and entries C9 (with short introduction before it) and C12]

Final Exam: Monday June 8 4:30-6:20pm in SAV 131

The grading scale used in this class is as follows: