Short Story competition 2019

We’re thrilled to launch the short story competition for UK schools and colleges (Years 7 to 13). Our competition this year has been shaped by the exciting research being undertaken in the “Roman and Late Antique Artefacts from Egypt” project. The project brings artefacts from the past back to life – and we’re inviting you to do the same through the power of your story telling. Entrants are invited to write a short story inspired by one of the artefacts featured on the project’s blog.

Why not get further inspiration by going to see the project’s free exhibition ‘Sounds of Roman Egypt’ at the Petrie Museum, London? (opens 22nd January 2019).

Prizes up for grabs are: 1st Prize £100, 2nd Prize £50, Two runners-up £25

Advice for entrants
1) Explore the project’s blog and decide on an artefact as the inspiration for your story.
2) Watch these animations ‘A Glimpse of Teenage Life in Ancient Rome’ ‘Four Sisters in Ancient Rome’ and ‘A Day in the Life of a Roman Client’ to get ideas about how research about the Roman world can be packed into a short story.
3) Think about who, what, where, when, and why for your chosen artefact (what was life like in the time and place that it was from?). You should also make your story about it as vivid as possible by thinking about how the senses (touch, smell, sight, taste and sounds) affected interactions with it.

Rules
1) An entry form must be completed – click to download one: Story-competition-2019-form.
2) Length – no more than 1000 words.
3) Subject matter – a story about one of the artefacts in the Roman and Late Antique Artefacts from Egypt: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/egypt-artefacts/
4) The text of the script needs to be double-spaced and in a font larger than Arial 11.
5) The text of the script must be written in English.
6) Entrants need to be attending a school/college in the United Kingdom – Years 7 to 13. Students in Higher Education (i.e. Universities) may not enter the competition.
7) Submission must be made by email to classicsscripts@kent.ac.uk on a completed entry form that has been signed by a member of staff at your school or college.
8) All scripts must be received by 6pm on 5 April 2019.

Judging Process
The prize-winning scripts will be judged in relation to their accuracy, originality and vividness by University of Kent staff from the Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies.

Queries may be sent to Dr Rosie Wyles m.r.wyles@kent.ac.uk

Good luck!
To download a word document with the details from this post, please click Schools-story-Competition-2019.

 

 

Dr Rosie Wyles stands up for comic costume

Kent Lecturer in Classical History and Literature, Dr Rosie Wyles (@RosieWyles) was asked to provide expert knowledge as a contributor to the Radio 4 episode one of the series “Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics” aired on 11 April at 4pm.

In the first episode of the second series of this popular broadcast the acclaimed comedian and classicist Haynes gives the case for the brilliance of Aristophanes, the ancient comic playwright.

Introducing Dr Wyles, Haynes quipped “Rosie Wyles, you quite literally, and I hardly ever get to say this accurately, wrote the book on costume in Greeks plays!”

Dr Wyles offered insight into the cost and significance of costumes in ancient comedy. She also discussed the differences in funding and participation in the 5th-century Athenian drama festivals. Astonishingly the festival could cost the city and its citizens as much as a tenth of the amount spent on its navy for a year. This contribution was informed by her research. She drew on her existing monograph Costume in Greek Tragedy (Bloomsbury 2011). She also showcased some of her new research, due to be published next year, on the role of costume and transformation in Wasps, one of Aristophanes’ most political comedies.

Dr Wyles said “I was delighted to be asked to be part of this series. I admire Natalie Haynes’ work as a comedian, writer, and leading advocate of the Classics, immensely. The broadcast chimes in well with my own commitment to highlighting the relevance of Classics in the 21st-century. It was also great to work with a producer, Mary Ward-Lowery, who was so enthusiastic about Classics”

The programme is accessible on on the BBC Radio 4 website for the next 23 days, click here.

Student trips: Rome, Athens, and the final frontier

Stuart Lidbetter (the guy with the purple t-shirt in the video below, the illustrious president of the student society ‘Kent Classics and Archaeology Society’ a.k.a. KCAS) reports on classics-inspired student trips: “In April 2015 the Kent Classics and Archaeology Society took 16 students to the ancient city of Rome. This was the society’s first trip in its current incarnation and everyone had a great time! The trip was so popular it inspired the society to go on three trips this year as they were clearly one of the most attractive aspects of the society. This, after much debate on where to go, lead to a return to Rome in January 2016, where Professor Ray Laurence accompanied us and took us round the city. Rome in turn will be followed by a trip to the city of Athens in March 2016, assisted by another Kent lecturer Dr Evangelos Kyriakidis. Finally we will be heading to the Rhine on the advice of Dr Patty Baker to explore the ruins of the old Roman frontier!”

You can also read more about the Rome 2016 trip here.

Underwater archaeology

In the run up to the British Museum’s extraordinary new exhibtion,  ‘Sunken Cities’,  on the underwater cities discovered off the coast of Egypt, Dr Csaba La’da (Reader in Ancient History, Papyrology, and Egyptology) offers insights into the extraordinary underwater discoveries that have been made from ancient shipwrecks; find out more by listening to the two podcasts below:

Shipwrecks 1 (featuring 22 shipwrecks & how the ships were identified)

Shipwrecks 2 (featuring discussion of the Antikythera mechanism)