Site Papers and Reports

Here are some ideas, but this list is neither definitive nor exhaustive. The best way to approach this assignment is to answer the questions you would be likely to ask of a tour guide.

• Why is this site historically important? Just because we have as much of it preserved as we do, or did something interesting happen involving this?.
• Is some particular event or person associated with this site? (Esp. some event or person we encounter in the course)
• Describe the main features of this site, artistically or archaeologically.
• How did this site look in antiquity? How do we know that? (Picture on coins, literary passage, etc.)
• How did it come to look the way it does now?  How was this used, both originally and subsequently?

• Don’t rattle off too many facts of mind-numbing specificity, about dates, names, and the like. So no need to dump on us “This was dedicated April 12, 1538” when “This was dedicated in the mid-1500’s” would suffice. (You should be more specific in your site paper.) Reciting lists of numerical data that any of us could find on our own has not been known to be helpful (like “This structure is 17.4 meters long by 21.3 meters wide, with a maximal height of 11.5 meters. Each column is 6.4 meters high….”).
• For any information you do include, make sure you understand what you are saying. For example, if you say “This was constructed as distyle in antis” or This was destroyed by the Herulians,” then you jolly well had better understand what you’re saying. We’ll ask questions.
• Don’t give just a list of (even rounded-off) facts. Any good tour guide knows more about a site than the guide shows to those on the tour. A tour guide needs to find a narrative thread or two.
• Don’t hesitate to employ a diagram with relevant parts marked, since many of these sites are worn down with the weight of enough centuries that they are difficult to visualize in their original form using only an auditory description. (Consider bringing with you 5 or so copies of any visual aids, so that the rest of can look on in order to better follow your report. Sometimes the Blue Guide or other guide books will have a helpful diagram.).
• When we get to your site, we’ll still try to give you a couple of minutes to orient yourself, but that’s not much. So you need to prepare yourself well.
• Related, sometimes we will visit a site for your report right after having gone through a museum in which there happens to be an exhibit about your site. Be sure not to ignore what is to be learned from the exhibit; be flexible enough not to stick with any script you have, thereby ignoring the exhibit that we all will have just seen.

• Completeness
• Accuracy
• Clarity
• Use of appropriate sources (Not relying on touristy websites or other non-refereed sites.)

Completeness  (Hits what’s important?)                                  /10
Accuracy  (Gets the details right?)                                             /10
Focus  (Avoids what’s extraneous?)                                          /10
Clarity of presentation  (Confusing? Also, projecting voice, pronouncing names; and for the site reports, explaining technical terms, appropriately using any handouts)             /10
Evidence of preparedness  (Smooth?)                                      /10                                                                                                                                                                           Total               /50