DOCSLIB.ORG

Making a Stink with STEM in the Classics Classroom: Exploring Ancient Roman Writing Through Experimental Archaeology by Nathalie Roy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Making a Stink with STEM in the Classics Classroom: Exploring Ancient Roman Writing Through Experimental Archaeology by Nathalie Roy Making a StINK with STEM in the Classics Classroom: Exploring Ancient Roman Writing through Experimental Archaeology by Nathalie Roy ave you ever wondered what it would teacher, could not do the same thing with record keeping (abacus, finger signalling, Hbe like to take notes for Pliny the my students. After all, the Romans were wax tablets, papyrus, ink, sundials), food Elder? Surely he had a secretary to assist STEM geniuses. I had seen countless (wine flavourings, bread), hydraulics him with his writing, or did he take his own television shows about Caesar’s army (aqueducts, water screws, baths), warfare notes? He left a huge body of material in building bridges (Cannon, 2005-07), (shields, catapults), and construction his Historia Naturalis. What must his home Trajan’s architects designing and building (concrete mixing). office have looked like with all the detritus his column (Weise, 2015), and modern The culminating project of last year’s of constant writing and research scattered engineers trying to reproduce the elevator class was building a 20-foot interactive about? I have often wondered these things system that made lions appear on the analemmatic sundial with decorative and many others about the process of floor of the Colosseum (PBS, 2015). And mosaic designs. When standing on the ancient writing. As a Latin teacher, I what about all the aqueducts and the current month, the viewer’s shadow decided to try out ancient writing with my heated baths? The more I thought about indicates the correct time. For this students as a STEM project. it, the more I was convinced that I could project, the students read about the STEM, an acronym for science, integrate STEM into Latin classes. analemma described by Vitruvius in Book technology, engineering, and math, has Fast forward two years, and I’m now IX.7 and the horologium Augusti (the sundial been an educational buzzword for the teaching a full-year class called Roman of Augustus located near the Ara Pacis) past ten years or so in the United States. Technology. The goal of the class is to described by Pliny the Elder in Book With its growing need for engineers of all reproduce the products and processes of XXXVI.72. They learned to use kinds, the US has stressed the importance ancient Roman daily life using compasses, oriented to true north, and of developing STEM programs at all experimental archaeology. Every measured the hour markings on the levels of education so that children get 90-minute class consists of two segments: sundial using x/y coordinates. In addition, accustomed to STEM thinking at an early 1) a short lecture about how we know they learned to use mosaic hammers and age. Many schools hire science about a particular aspect of the ancient hardie wedges to cut marble stone “instigators” (education speak for world whether it be through the tesserae, designed mosaics, laid the stone coordinators or facilitators) to assist archaeological or literary record, and 2) a into mortar, grouted it, and cleaned it. teachers with integrating STEM activities hands-on interactive lab in which students Our monument, even though small in in every area of the curriculum. For get to experience, first-hand, a product or comparison to Augustus’, stands as a example, students in a middle school process of the ancient Roman world by testament at our school to the power of social studies class might throw projectiles actively reproducing it. Dr. Alan K. STEM integration in a humanities course. with atlatls, a Native American hunting Outram calls experimental archaeology As you’ve probably guessed, these tool, to learn about the lives of our early “‘actualistic’ experiments that test out projects are costly. Luckily, there are ancestors. Students in elementary physical hypothetical scenarios using potentially grants available to assist with STEM education class might learn to track heart authentic materials and conditions” integration projects. With such grants, I rates using graphs and charts. These (Outram, 2008, p.1). was able to fully fund my Roman activities relate to the content area of the In the class, we explore units of technology class for one year, purchasing class but add a little STEM into the mix. study such as household crafts (spinning, some equipment and supplies which will At a school of just this kind, I found weaving, making Roman leather bullae), be reused from year to year. To find myself wondering why I, as a Latin personal beauty (hairstyling, makeup), STEM grants in your area, be sure to ask The Journal of Classics Teaching 20 (40) p.14-19 © The Classical Association 2019. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and Downloaded14 from https://www.cambridge.org/corereproduction in any medium,. IP providedaddress: 170.106.33.42 the original ,work on 01 is Oct properly 2021 at cited.09:33:07, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631019000278 your school administrators or grant by an adult with a sharp knife. The actual softness when examining a moistened sea writer if one is employed in your district. process of assembling papyrus strips into sponge. A wet sea sponge is effective as If your area has petrochemical or other sheets is fascinating to see in action. After an eraser too, and students should industry nearby, visit the websites for being presented with this information, experiment with this process. their companies and look for grant students should come to an After introducing students to at least opportunities. If the grants specifically understanding of how time-consuming one or two of the above sources for how ask for STEM connections in your and expensive papyrus production was. If we know about ancient Roman writing, curriculum, be sure to draw attention to you don’t want to try making your own, it it’s time to introduce a short text on the use of ancient sources for STEM. It is still made regularly in Egypt and readily ancient writing. Since most ancient seems to catch the eye of the grantors available from online stores. writing about technical things is not (or so has been my personal experience Students should also know how canon literature, it’s difficult to find texts so far). papyrus sheets were glued together into that are annotated and glossed for Responses to my presentations on long rolls, attached to a wooden dowel beginning students. To help with this this class from fellow Latin teachers with knobs at each end, and written on process, I copy and paste the text from generally have been, “That sounds horizontally to express chapters worth of the Perseus Digital Library into fantastic, but I don’t understand math” or text. They should also be introduced to NoDictionaries.com, create a simple “but I’m not qualified to teach science” or the work being done to read the vocabulary, and discuss any odd Latin “but I don’t have the money to do Herculaneum scrolls, charred by the 79 forms with the students as we go through projects in my classroom” or “but I’m on CE eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. They are the text together. Reading unusual texts a strict curriculum timeline, and we don’t only now being read in the past couple of with no commentary can be a time- have time for lengthy projects”. If you’re years, without the destructive process of consuming and frustrating process one of these teachers, or you just want to unrolling, using sophisticated x-ray sometimes so choosing texts far in try out a STEM project for the first time technology (Marchant, 2018). advance is a wise choice. in your Latin class, this article is for you. I A very interesting papyrus Suetonius, in his Divus Augustus, 85, will detail two simple, inexpensive, and phenomenon is the palimpsest, or a describes Augustus discussing a tragedy quick projects that are light on the science papyrus which has been recycled by he was writing about the mythological and heavy on the fascinating and fun. erasing it and writing over it. The residue character of Ajax. Evidently, the Both these projects, from my Roman of the original writing leaves traces experience did not go well: technology class’s unit on record keeping, detectable by scholars, and the manuscript are tried and true favourites with my then becomes a double one with multa varii generis prosa oratione students and involve writing in the ancient remainders of both texts. The word is composuit, ex quibus nonnulla in coetu world: writing with reed pens and squid ancient Greek for “scraped”, and students familiarium velut in auditorio recitavit, sac ink on papyrus and writing with a enjoy seeing pictures of these and asked sicut “rescripta Bruto de Catone,” quae metal or wooden stylus on wax tablets. to reflect on why they were recycled, volumina cum iam senior ex magna parte which writing came first, and how legisset, fatigatus Tiberio tradidit modern scholars are able to interpret perlegenda; item “hortationes ad them. A Nova television programme tells philosophiam,” et aliqua “de vita sua,” Project 1: Papyrus and reed pens. the story of the Archimedes palimpsest quam tredecim libris Cantabrico tenus and how it came to be (Tucker, 2002). bello nec ultra exposuit. poetica summatim I begin the unit by asking how we A number of frescoes from Pompeii attigit. unus liber exstat scriptus ab eo (modern people) know about writing in contain images of writing utensils hexametris versibus, cuius et argumentum the ancient Roman world.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Romans in Worcester a Town and Its Hinterland Education Pack
    The Romans in Worcester A Town and its Hinterland Education Pack Education Pack Welcome The Romans in Worcester resource is intended to align with the national curriculum in England, with the focus on Worcester and its hinterland bringing the wider understanding of Roman Britain closer to home. The resource book provides information for teachers of Key Stage 2 learners, along with accompanying PowerPoint presentations, suggested activities and other resources. There is an accompanying loan box incorporating replica items as well as archaeological finds from the Mab’s Orchard excavation at Warndon, Worcester. The book is laid out with information for teachers shown alongside the relevant PowerPoint slides, to help you explore a variety of themes with your learners. At the start of each chapter and before each activity, we provide a listing of relevant points in the Key Stage 2 programme of study. The understanding of historical concepts, such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity and difference, is a key aim within the national curriculum for history, while the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain (including ‘Romanisation’ of Britain: sites such as Caerwent and the impact of technology, culture and beliefs, including early Christianity) is a required part of the Key Stage 2 curriculum. Therefore we have highlighted key changes and new introductions that took place in the Roman period by marking the text in bold. We hope that you will find this a useful and inspiring resource for bringing archaeology and the Romans into your classroom. There were glaciers in the Scottish Timeline of Archaeological Highlands until around 10,000 years ago Periods in England Last Ice Age Palaeolithic 500,000 BC Hunting and gathering se of flint tools Spear point People being to move from hunting 10,000 BC esolithic and gathering towards food production i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 44 (2007)
    THE BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PapYROLOGIsts Volume 44 2007 ISSN 0003-1186 The current editorial address for the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists is: Peter van Minnen Department of Classics University of Cincinnati 410 Blegen Library Cincinnati, OH 45221-0226 USA [email protected] The editors invite submissions not only fromN orth-American and other members of the Society but also from non-members throughout the world; contributions may be written in English, French, German, or Italian. Manu- scripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the address above. Submissions can be sent as an e-mail attachment (.doc and .pdf) with little or no formatting. A double-spaced paper version should also be sent to make sure “we see what you see.” We also ask contributors to provide a brief abstract of their article for inclusion in L’ Année philologique, and to secure permission for any illustration they submit for publication. The editors ask contributors to observe the following guidelines: • Abbreviations for editions of papyri, ostraca, and tablets should follow the Checklist of Editions of Greek, Latin, Demotic and Coptic Papyri, Ostraca and Tablets (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/clist.html). The volume number of the edition should be included in Arabic numerals: e.g., P.Oxy. 41.2943.1-3; 2968.5; P.Lond. 2.293.9-10 (p.187). • Other abbreviations should follow those of the American Journal of Ar- chaeology and the Transactions of the American Philological Association. • For ancient and Byzantine authors, contributors should consult the third edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary, xxix-liv, and A Patristic Greek Lexi- con, xi-xiv.
    [Show full text]
  • Ceu Teaching Development Grants
    CEU TEACHING DEVELOPMENT GRANTS REPORTING FORM 1. Title of the teaching development project Experimental Written Culture 2. Start and end dates of the project Winter term 2018/19 3. Short narrative account of the activities undertaken and results of the project. (approx. 2 pages). Please describe the questions or issues you investigated, activities undertaken, and observations and reflections about what you discovered. Please focus on specific concrete activities and observations. You may also wish to describe any changes or on-going experimentation you are planning to incorporate into your teaching as a result of this project. (Please enclose any documents, including assignments or student work, if appropriate and available). At the end of this term I have taught twice a class called ‘Gospels, Graffiti, Grocery Lists: Writing Culture an its Material Evidence in Antiquity and the Middle Ages’ as a mandatory elective class on ‘Written Culture’ for our Cultural Heritage Program. After teaching the class for the first time last year, I encountered the problem that certain notions in scholarship about advantages or disadvantages of the writing materials used, were partially inconsistent or contradictory, and made me curious to understand better the material evidence for myself – and thereby also to teach students from first-hand knowledge. As a very few specialized shops do offer ancient and medieval writing material, I saw the chance to revive ancient and medieval writing techniques to experiment with my students together in order to understand how writing worked in different cultures and at different times. For obvious reasons, inscriptions on stones as well as on/in clay had to be excluded but writing on wood, wax, papyri and parchment with stylus (on wax), reed (on papyri), reed pen (wood) and quill (on parchment) with three different inks was a full success! Wax tablets were the ‘notebooks’ of the ancient world, and students were easily able to write texts with a metal ‘stylus’ on the wax tablets.
    [Show full text]
  • A VINDOLANDA JOURNEY by Deb Bennett, Ph.D
    A VINDOLANDA JOURNEY by Deb Bennett, Ph.D. In the Wild Uplands of Northumbria: Once every year since 2002, I have spent a month at Vindolanda, also known as Chesterholm Museum, a wonderfrul historical park in the wilds of northern England. For Americans, describing anything English as “wild” may sound a bit extreme: we think of England as a center of civilization, culture, and urbanity -- not a place to go camping and hiking with scenery such as you might find on the Appalachian Trail or in Yosemite Park. But England is not all London, not all Oxford or Cambridge. The northern part of the country, where it borders on Scotland, was historically known as “the borderlands” -- for centuries a dangerous, politi- cally-contested no-man’s-land laid out on steep scarps, cloven valleys, and high uplands where the only cattle are woolly sheep and the wind whips a wary lookout’s hair. This is a country for pheasant and deer, with beautiful fall colors and fast-running “burns” where trout and salmon leap. The glass-clear tarns and lochs of the Lake District, nearby to the northwest, are part of Britain’s national park system and feature mountain views and world-class fly fishing. Vindolanda sits atop a flat hill within a steep- sided valley. The long stone wall is the actual fort; ruins in the fore- ground are of the village and temple complexes. Visiting Vindolanda is easy: just go to www.vindolanda.com for details. Here almost 2,000 years ago, Roman armies built forts, and later a massive wall, to divide the civilized South from the wild North.
    [Show full text]
  • The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Seminars Number 2
    oi.uchicago.edu i THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINARS NUMBER 2 Series Editors Leslie Schramer and Thomas G. Urban oi.uchicago.edu ii oi.uchicago.edu iii MARGINS OF WRITING, ORIGINS OF CULTURES edited by SETH L. SANDERS with contributions by Seth L. Sanders, John Kelly, Gonzalo Rubio, Jacco Dieleman, Jerrold Cooper, Christopher Woods, Annick Payne, William Schniedewind, Michael Silverstein, Piotr Michalowski, Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Theo van den Hout, Paul Zimansky, Sheldon Pollock, and Peter Machinist THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ORIENTAL INSTITUTE SEMINARS • NUMBER 2 CHICAGO • ILLINOIS oi.uchicago.edu iv Library of Congress Control Number: 2005938897 ISBN: 1-885923-39-2 ©2006 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published 2006. Printed in the United States of America. The Oriental Institute, Chicago Co-managing Editors Thomas A. Holland and Thomas G. Urban Series Editors’ Acknowledgments The assistance of Katie L. Johnson is acknowledged in the production of this volume. Front Cover Illustration A teacher holding class in a village on the Island of Argo, Sudan. January 1907. Photograph by James Henry Breasted. Oriental Institute photograph P B924 Printed by McNaughton & Gunn, Saline, Michigan The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Infor- mation Services — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. oi.uchicago.edu v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Pompeii and Herculaneum: a Sourcebook Allows Readers to Form a Richer and More Diverse Picture of Urban Life on the Bay of Naples
    POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM The original edition of Pompeii: A Sourcebook was a crucial resource for students of the site. Now updated to include material from Herculaneum, the neighbouring town also buried in the eruption of Vesuvius, Pompeii and Herculaneum: A Sourcebook allows readers to form a richer and more diverse picture of urban life on the Bay of Naples. Focusing upon inscriptions and ancient texts, it translates and sets into context a representative sample of the huge range of source material uncovered in these towns. From the labels on wine jars to scribbled insults, and from advertisements for gladiatorial contests to love poetry, the individual chapters explore the early history of Pompeii and Herculaneum, their destruction, leisure pursuits, politics, commerce, religion, the family and society. Information about Pompeii and Herculaneum from authors based in Rome is included, but the great majority of sources come from the cities themselves, written by their ordinary inhabitants – men and women, citizens and slaves. Incorporating the latest research and finds from the two cities and enhanced with more photographs, maps and plans, Pompeii and Herculaneum: A Sourcebook offers an invaluable resource for anyone studying or visiting the sites. Alison E. Cooley is Reader in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick. Her recent publications include Pompeii. An Archaeological Site History (2003), a translation, edition and commentary of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (2009), and The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy (2012). M.G.L. Cooley teaches Classics and is Head of Scholars at Warwick School. He is Chairman and General Editor of the LACTOR sourcebooks, and has edited three volumes in the series: The Age of Augustus (2003), Cicero’s Consulship Campaign (2009) and Tiberius to Nero (2011).
    [Show full text]
  • The Gold Plates and Ancient Metal Epigraphy
    THE GOLD PLATES AND ANCIENT METAL EPIGRAPHY Ryan Thomas Richard Bushman has called the gold plates story “the single most trouble- some item in Joseph Smith’s history.”1 Smith famously claimed to have discovered, with the help of an angel, anciently engraved gold plates buried in a hill near his home in New York from which he translated the sacred text of the Book of Mormon. Not only a source of new scripture comparable to the Bible, the plates were also a tangible artifact, which he allowed a small circle of believers to touch and handle before they were taken back into the custody of the angel. The story is fantastical and otherworldly and has sparked both devotion and skepticism as well as widely varying assessments among historians. Critical and non-believing historians have tended to assume that the presentation of material plates shows that Smith was actively engaged in religious deceit of one form or another,2 while Latter-day Saint historians have been inclined to take Smith and the traditional narrative at face value. For example, Bushman writes, “Since the people who knew Joseph best treat the plates as fact, a skeptical analysis lacks evidence. A series of surmises replaces a documented narrative.”3 Recently, Anne Taves has articulated a middle way between these positions by suggesting that 1. Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 58. 2. E.g., Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945); Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004).
    [Show full text]
  • Lucerna 24, July 2002
    iucsrna -Iuf;t 2##; lucerna Roman Finds Group Newsletter 24 Contents Editorial RFG Vicg-Presidgnt . ., . r, r . r . r . 2 I would like to thank all the contributors to Catherine lohns: selected bibliography . 2/24 this issue far their work, especially as I Catherine lohns: retirement speech . ., . 3 brought the deadline forward. Coopered object from Dorchester . ., 7 Lucerna 24 ls out now in order to publicise Ngxt RFG Meeting . r, ., !, . r . r ! . ., . 10 the University of Durham's conference on Odd brooch, any idgas? .,, . ! r .,, . 11 Roman Finds on July 6th-7th, further details Bone styli . r . r . r r . r r r . r . r . r 11 of which will be found on pp 17 and 25, and Referencing policy for contributors . Lz inside the back cover. It is not too late to Some portable antiquities from Hants . 13 book a place. New wax spatulae from . Suffolk,, !4 The most important item in this issue is the Morg arnulgts . r r ., . r . r . t . r r 15 announcement that we now have Vice- Candlesticks in Roman 15 a Britain........ Presidefrt, Catherine lohns (p 2). Catherine Crossword bytDigger' 16 ,,,.,.,,, !., worked at the British Museum for nearly 35 TRAC r r r t r ! r r . r . r . ! r . r 16 years, a cheerful source of information and Roman Finds Conference in Durham . !7 guidance. Her retirement speech was a very FRG autumn mggting r . ., r, ., !, .,, ! !7 pertinent and perspicacious assessment not Thg Cattgrick gallus . ., ., .,, . ., . 18 . only af the current climate at the British The RFG's meeting at Segedunum . 22 Museum but also of the wider world.
    [Show full text]
  • 8 Charles-Edwards
    Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 134 (2004), 173–181 CHARLES-EDWARDS: EARLY INSULAR LETTERING | 173 A reconsideration of the origins of early Insular monumental lettering of the mixed alphabet type: the case of the ‘Lapis Echodi’ inscription on Iona G Charles-Edwards* ABSTRACT The inscribed letterforms of Britain contemporaneous with Nash-Williams’s Group I inscriptions, AD 400–600, of Early Christian Monuments of Wales show features that cannot be described as calligraphic. They show little scribal awareness in their execution. There are among them ‘mixed alphabet’ inscriptions that combine features of informal cursive hands with simplified and angular minuscule letters; in the course of the seventh century the haphazard mixed alphabet style improves to the level of deliberate design. This article examines one Iona survivor – the small ‘Lapis Echodi’ chi-rho cross-slab – in relation to this non calligraphic mixed-alphabet group. In it careful comparisons are made between epigraphic and scribal letterforms, with analytical diagrams based on the surviving manuscript pen-forms that represent the type of Insular bookhand that preceded those written in canonical Insular half-uncial. If it is possible to establish the existence of this earlier pre-canonical hand as an influence on epigraphy, it is hoped to refine the wide dating bands that presently exist. Wales has the largest combined concentration as calligraphy, or ‘beautiful writing’. Yet in of sub-Roman and post-Roman inscriptions discussing the intrusive letters that gradually in Britain – the latter overlapping the Latin/ appear among the debased Roman capitals Ogham bilingual inscriptions – some of which of the Group I inscriptions, Nash-Williams include minuscules.
    [Show full text]
  • The Supply and Movement of Denarii in Roman Britain
    The supply and movement of Denarii in Roman Britain Article Creighton, J. (2014) The supply and movement of Denarii in Roman Britain. Britannia, 45. pp. 121-163. ISSN 1753-5352 doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X14000282 Available at http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36769/ It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work. See Guidance on citing . To link to this article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X14000282 Publisher: Cambridge University Press for the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies All outputs in CentAUR are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, including copyright law. Copyright and IPR is retained by the creators or other copyright holders. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in the End User Agreement . www.reading.ac.uk/centaur CentAUR Central Archive at the University of Reading Reading’s research outputs online Britannia http://journals.cambridge.org/BRI Additional services for Britannia: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here The Supply and Movement of Denarii in Roman Britain John Creighton Britannia / FirstView Article / May 2014, pp 1 - 43 DOI: 10.1017/S0068113X14000282, Published online: 30 May 2014 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0068113X14000282 How to cite this article: John Creighton The Supply and Movement of Denarii in Roman Britain . Britannia, Available on CJO 2014 doi:10.1017/S0068113X14000282 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/BRI, IP address: 134.225.81.218 on 03 Jun 2014 Britannia 2014, page 1 of 43 doi:10.1017/S0068113X14000282 The Supply and Movement of Denarii in Roman Britain By JOHN CREIGHTON ABSTRACT Hoards of denarii are common in Britain and the number which have been recorded in detail means that it is now possible to suggest reasonably accurately what a ‘normal’ hoard of a particular date should look like.
    [Show full text]
  • Impact Case Study
    Impact case study (REF3b) Institution: University of Oxford Unit of Assessment: 31 Title of case study: Decoding Our Ancient Past: Writing Tablets from Around the World 1. Summary of the impact Research by Classicists at Oxford, led by Professor Alan Bowman, on wooden tablets found at Vindolanda, a Roman fort on Hadrian‟s Wall, has led to the publication of texts that have contributed greatly to public knowledge of life in Roman Britain. This research has been made available to the public at the British and Vindolanda Museums, and through printed and visual media. It has been particularly important in the teaching of Roman Britain and Latin in schools. Bowman‟s collaboration with colleagues in Engineering to develop new techniques, to enable a better reading of the texts of the tablets has received wide publicity, increasing public knowledge of the methods of historical and scientific research. Research by Bowman on a Frisian tablet has also had impact within the Netherlands; in this case providing the benefit of public awareness of the problems of the historical evidence that has been used to construct nationalistic narratives. Jacob Dahl‟s application of the technology, developed in Bowman‟s project to proto-Elamite tablets from south-west Iran has in turn increased public knowledge of attempts to decipher an unknown script and stimulated public engagement with the research. 2. Underpinning research The research (a collaboration between a team at Oxford led by Bowman and a team at Durham led by Professor D. Thomas) consisted in the imaging, reading, and interpretation of wooden tablets excavated at the Roman fort at Vindolanda.
    [Show full text]
  • Chickens in the Archaeological Material Culture of Roman Britain, France, and Belgium
    Chickens in the Archaeological Material Culture of Roman Britain, France, and Belgium Michael Peter Feider A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Bournemouth University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Bournemouth University April 2017 Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and due acknowledgement must always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this thesis. 2 Abstract Chickens first arrived in northwest Europe in the Iron Age, but it was during the Roman period that they became a prominent part of life. Previous research on the domestication and spread of chickens has focused on the birds themselves, with little discussion of their impact on the beliefs and symbolism of the affected cultures. However, an animal that people interact with so regularly influences more than simply their diet, and begins to creep into their cultural lexicon. What did chickens mean to the people of Roman Britain, France, and Belgium? The physical remains of these birds are the clearest sign that people were keeping them, and fragments of eggshell suggest they were being used for their secondary products as well as for their meat. By expanding zooarchaeological research beyond the physical remains to encompass the material culture these people left behind, it is possible to explore answers to this question of the social and cultural roles of chickens and their meaning and importance to people in the Roman world. Other species, most notably horses, have received some attention in this area, but little has been done with chickens.
    [Show full text]