Comprehensive Exams

The comprehensive examinations in Classical Archaeology divide into three parts:

(i) Two hours of identifications
     (a) 25 slides at two minutes each. Students are asked to identify and explain the significance of major monuments of the kind typically found in introductory textbooks on the archaeology of ancient Greece and Italy. The following books are useful for preparation, but the student should not expect the slide exam to be limited to images in these volumes: N. Ramage and A. Ramage, Roman Art, 4th ed. J.G. Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology, 3rd ed., L. Bonfante, Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies.
b) 25 terms (out of a selection of 35). Study lists of terms can be found here.

(ii) Two hours of essays
     (a) select one essay from either the Bronze Age or Hellenic period.
     (b) select one essay from either the Etruscan or Roman period.

(iii) Thesis or Master's Paper Proposal

The student must submit a one page Thesis or Master's Paper Proposal no later than the start of the comprehensive exams. This proposal must indicate the topic, the composition of the committee, and the timetable for completion. For students writing an MA Thesis, a Thesis Prospectus is due no later than two weeks after the exams have been taken. The proposal and the prospectus are parts of the exams, and a failure to provide satisfactory specimens of either can result in a grade of failure on the whole of the exams.

For the purpose of the comprehensive examinations, the Archaeology Committee is the examination committee. A student's thesis committee may vary, however (though it is strongly recommended that at least two members of the committee be archaeologists). It is the thesis committee that will evaluate the prospectus.