History. See the future. It’s in the past.

Join us for a day visiting the remarkable town of Ravenna, filled with mosaic treasures and historical memories.

A small town on the Adriatic sea, Ravenna is famous today for the shimmering Byzantine-style mosaics in its World Heritage-listed buildings. This unassuming town has a long and fascinating history. In this course, we will examine the unique mosaics of Ravenna while delving into the town’s equally unique history – from Roman times up until the end of 8th century Byzantine rule.

Aims

This course aims to provide you with a detailed presentation of Ravenna’s World Heritage-listed mosaics in their art-historical context.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• demonstrate a knowledge of the historical chronology of Ravenna and its territory in the 5th-8th century AD
• show an awareness of the new archaeological research that has been undertaken at Ravenna during the past 40 years
• show an awareness of the variety of ancient written sources interpret the reliability of the evidence provided by written sources
• assess the importance of new archaeological finds for a reconstruction of everyday life in Ravenna
• evaluate the significance of key historical figures of the period
• list the materials used in the making of mosaics in the Late Antiquity
• outline the techniques and processes involved in the creation of large-scale mural mosaic decorations
• demonstrate a kn