This module explores the Arch of Titus as an artifact. Students will learn to look closely at this and other historical monuments in order to draw out the meanings of its iconography. They will see the Arch and especially its carved relief panels through selected refracting lenses.

Roman and Talmudic sources on Titus's triumphal parade in 71 CE will be the focus of this module. Students will read these ancient texts critically and assess the historical value for understanding the Arch and its later reception.

Students will explore Jewish and Christian perspectives of the Arch and be able to explain how these perceptions affected their experience and interpretation of this artifact. Conversations with scholars and museum "visits" demonstrate a broad range of contemporary perspectives on the Arch and the continued significance of its iconography.

We will explore the ways that moderns have viewed and used the Arch, through the close reading of primary visual and literary sources. "Fieldtrips" and conversations contextualize the search for Arch imagery in our world, and demonstrate ways to recognize this iconography. Students will write a narrative of the Arch in modern times based upon primary literary sources.

Recent advances in the study of the original color, polychromy, of ancient Roman art will be presented. Students will learn the reasons for this rethinking of ancient art, and apply this learning to their own restorations of the polychrome of the Arch of Titus menorah panel.