Research
Research conducted by Cornell Classics faculty follows a variety of models. Dendrochronology and archaeology involve extensive field work conducted by teams of investigators, and use sophisticated statistical and other “scientific” methods to analyze the material gathered. Historians bring social science models to bear on the interpretation of the material and documentary record. Cornell has been a pioneer in the digitization of one of the most important types of primary document to survive from the ancient world, i.e., inscriptions on stone. Literary scholars combine traditional tools of Greek and Latin philology with a variety of modern interpretative models; comparable combined approaches are adopted (or invented) by our philosophers and linguists. Ancient art and sculpture, represented at Cornell in particular by an outstanding and unique collection of casts, is not just studied by art historians, but increasingly drawn upon by students of literature, religion, and cultural history. The intersection of the visual and textual records is an emerging field in which Cornell is beginning to take a pioneering role.