Monthly Archives: February 2017

Congratulations, you’ve just about made it to the home stretch of the year! We at CLASSU have some exciting events coming up this March, as well as some things that are not events but still exciting!

NEW!!! CLASSICS-themed Merchandise!

Does the UofT Bookstore’s lack of CLASSICS clothing bother you? Do you feel ignored, being relegated to the anonymous moniker of ARTS AND SCIENCE? Cast off your feelings of neglect and rejoice, for CLASSU’s got you covered—order an (unofficially) Official Department of Classics hoodie brought to you by the Classics Students’ Union Senate. 

For only $25.00, a lovely navy or grey hoodie can be yours. Click here for details!

CLASSU Trivia
Friday 3 March 2017 – 1:00p.m. – LI 009

Come get your trivia on with CLASSU and VicTrivia! Snacks provided, of course.

Oral Reading Club Meeting
Wednesday 8 March 2017 – 2:00-3:00p.m. – LI 009

Do you fancy yourself the latest Demosthenes or Cicero? Have you been doing your breathing exercises? Or neither? Come out to the Lounge anyways! See past performances here.

Assembly of the Plebs Undergraduate Conference
Friday 10 March 2017 – 10:30a.m.-3:30p.m. – LI 220

Join us for our third annual undergraduate conference. Click on the link to see the whole schedule and Facebook event. For back issues of Plebeian, check out our website!

Academic Seminar with Professor Welsh about the Impact of Agriculture on Latin Semantics
Friday 17 March 2017 – 1:00-2:00p.m. – LI 220

Come join CLASSU and our own Professor Welsh as he takes a non-systematic look at the role agricultural language plays in Latin and the way in which agriculture provides the semantic arena and analogy for a lot of Latin that has nothing directly to do with farming. Title and Facebook event forthcoming!

Backpacks 2 Briefcases Dinner (RSVP link to be posted soon)
Thursday 23 March 2017 – 6:00p.m. – Faculty Club Dining Room

Join CLASSU and alumni guests of the BA programme in Classics from the University of Toronto (guests TBA) at a free dinner to learn more about career options in “the real world” with a degree in Classics or Classical Civilizations. Space will be limited, so stay tuned for an RSVP link!

We don’t want this email to drag on forever, so we’ll conclude by saying that there are also two more events coming up—the Social/Elections/Journal Launch and the Third Mentorship Lunch/About the Department of Classics POSts Lunch! Check out our Events Page for more info! Nomination forms for the elections will go live in early March.

That’s all from us (for now), so enjoy the last few moments of reading week,

Sam and Willem
On behalf of the CLASSU Senate

Department of Classics – University of Toronto

TREVOR VAN DAMME – UCLA

Seeking Abundance in Post-Palatial Greece: Household Economics and Community Resilience

 In this paper I compare post-palatial Mycenaean households at three settlements in central Greece: Eleon, Kynos, and Lefkandi: Xeropolis. All of these households were destroyed in violent conflagrations that resulted in a high degree of preservation. I examine three key metrics (household size, storage capacity, and textile production) in order to demonstrate that a high degree of social inequality persisted throughout the post-palatial period. Furthermore, the households with the greatest food storage capacities show evidence for large scale textile production suggesting the manufacture of value-added goods for trade. This bolsters recent evidence for continuity in long distance trade and presents a much more robust picture of the post-palatial economy of Greece challenging previously held notions of decline and stagnation. I reject the currently held position that core-periphery dynamics dictated the formation of the post-palatial landscape and instead propose a model driven by human agents seeking out new opportunities. This paper concludes that environments abundant in resources, connectivity, and new technologies played a crucial role in the development of early Greece.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017 4:00 pm

Lillian Massey Building, Room LI205

125 Queen’s Park