Site Report Information

You should find this information very useful, and consult it before the middle of Spring Semester.

A. Identify your site and compile a bibliography.

1) Skim handbooks treating your site

2) Check what the ancients said about your topic. Pausanias' Description of Greece, and commentary by J. G. Frazer

3) Locate an up-to-date atlas or topographical dictionary to get an overall sense of your site, and scour it for bibliography. Check out The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, J. Travlos, Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens.

4) Consult our trip bibliography for Greece 2007,here:

http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/dlevine/BibliographyGreece2007.html

5) Consult Daniel Levine and George Paulson for other help.

6) Mullins and Fine Arts Library have lots of stuff!

B. Research your topic.

1) Read original excavation reports, books, articles which mention your site, and the latest works.

2) Identify problems inherent in your topic. What is in dispute?

3) What are the recurring themes in the articles and books you read? What do scholars focus on?

C. Report Preparation

1) Focus your report on the most significant aspects of the topic. Tell the group why we came 6,000 miles to see this site/monument.

2) Answer the basics: where? when? why (function)? how? (plan, style, tactics). MOST IMPORTANT: Why is your site/monument important in the overall history of Greek civilization?

3) Try to relate your site or monument to other similar ones which we will see on the trip.

4) Make photocopies of a one/two- page handout to distribute. Some samples are below. Look them over. Basically, you want to include important facts, diagrams/photos, bibliography, so that when we look at the handout afterwards we remember what is important about your report. Strike a balance between "too much information", and too little.

D. Delivery

1) You will have a few minutes to orient yourself on the site, so you will know where things are. We will help you get oriented.

2) You are the teacher. What must we understand about your topic? This is your site; do it justice.

3) Do not read your report. Use an outline, or note cards.

4) Speak to the group, not to the monument.

5) As you talk, point out relevant features of your site/monument.

6) Rehearse and time your talk; try to keep it to 20 minutes.

7) Make us remember your report!

SOME SAMPLE SITE REPORT HANDOUTS: