The project is about redesigning a first-year BA course on Greek art on the empirical basis of previous students' evaluations. The study of Classical Archaeology starts with a "school of seeing and describing artifacts". The seminar takes place in the classroom and in three different art collections in Copenhagen. There, students learn to work actively with objects, from description to interpretation to presentation of artifacts.
The course involves the main problems of teaching Archaeology today: On the one hand, learning how to deal with material culture and the properties of different materials; on the other hand, it is necessary to incorporate digital archaeology (i.e., simulation of real objects) into teaching at an early stage in order to keep up with current archaeological methods. Combining traditional autopsy with digital imaging and creating a critical awareness among students of how to use these digital tools is paramount. In this short presentation, I attempt to explain this problem by comparing a 1775 architectural drawing of the Porta Maggiore in Rome by Piranesi with a 3D model of Roman architecture created by a former student of mine in 2020 for his BA thesis.