How do we read objects and images from cultures that lived thousands of years ago? What methods can we use to enhance our understanding and interpretation of ancient artefacts? With knowlegde of ancient history expanding with many new discoveries, where does this leave prehistory? This and other important questions will be addressed in this course which provides an historical , cultural and theoretical study of particular aspects of the Ancient world through examing a variety of bjects and images. This will include a range of thematic studies that examine the arts of the ancient and prehistoric worlds. A cultural decodng of the symbolic messages contained in ancient art will be presented from a variety of perspectives. An integral part of this course is the reception and reinterpretation of ancient objects, myths and symbols during the Renaissance, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The impact of ancient art and myth on early modernists is a particular focus of the course.