Roman – Kentiquity: Classical & Archaeological studies

May 28, 2019April 7, 2021

Short story competition winners

We were delighted by the response to our short story competition this year. We received over 100 entries from schools across the country and from pupils in years 7-11. Each entry told a unique story inspired by an artefact from the “Roman and Late Antique Artefacts from Egypt” project. This exciting research brings artefacts from the past back to life – and that’s exactly what our storytellers did after exploring the project’s blog or visiting the ‘Sounds of Roman Egypt’ exhibition at the Petrie Museum, London.

There were so many excellent stories that the panel of judges had a tough job deciding on the winners, but in the end the following stories scooped prizes for their accuracy, originality, and vividness:

1st prize Amani Holden (Forest school) 2nd prize Amelia Mitchell (Roedean) 3rd prizes Emily Ward (Ardingly college) & Madeleine Hodge (Forest school)

Our congratulations to the prize winners and also to everyone who sent in a story. The stories showed just how evocative objects can be when it comes to imagining the past. We hope you’ll all keep exploring the ancient world – there’s so much more to discover!

We’re hoping to run another competition next year so keep an eye out for it. In the meantime, you can enjoy being transported back to ancient Egypt by the story which won first prize (thanks to Amani for allowing us to publish it):

The Panpipes of the Night by Amani Holden (Winner of the University of Kent CLAS Short story competition 2019)

The day had been hot and busy, the market teeming with people, the golden sand swirling through the streets and the Nile rushing forth as always. Ana had spent the day cowering from the heat, sitting indoors and weaving with her mother; thinking. There was a lot of time for thinking in the quiet house. It was a while away from the hubbub of the village, but close enough to the banks of the Nile to hear its rushing waters. How she longed for the cool waters, she had never felt right in the village. She thought about the yarn she wove with her friends, her future, and her strange recurring dream, and how even in the blazing heat, she shivered.

When the sweltering day came to a close, and the deep blanket of night began to smother the sky, Ana curled up on the mat, still thinking. And as the night darkened and the sky was pierced with stars, Ana lay awake restless from her curiosity. She battled with sleep, but her eyelids were sinking by the minute…

The eerie moan of the panpipes snaked through the still Egyptian night. The sounds was mournful and yet somehow beautiful, but quiet as if played through a veil. Ana woke with a start, but the town was silent. Who was the player of the pipes, so skilled but anonymous? And why when she woke, did he cease to play? Was it really just a dream? With these questions running around her head, she fell back into an uneasy sleep, the endless notes playing in her dreams.

The morning came, hazy in the heat. Ana stumbled out of bed, sleep in her eyes. The night’s mysteries came flooding back to her. She grabbed her flask of water and a knife – the market could be a nasty place for a girl, alone. She headed out, unsure of where she was going. She let her thoughts and feet wander, and daydreamed aimlessly.

Her legs carried her there naturally, to the bustle and shouts of the marketplace, and the chorus of voices brought her back to the present. She looked around her. Shouting stall holders, whispering women and the rumble of voices filled the air. Stalls of food, jewellery, clothing, fabric, stones and…. panpipes. She rushed over. But the stall was deserted and still, as if an invisible bubble of calm had enveloped it. The panpipes lay in rows, large and small all covered in a thin blanket of sand, untouched. Her hand was immediately drawn to one small and elegant and jet black. She looked around, but still no one was there, so she left money on the counter and took the pipes.

Determined now to hear her purchase she pushed her way through the crowds and headed for the open desert. Soon she was free from the swarm and by her favourite spot next to the river. As she lifted the pipes to her lips and blew, the sky went dark and all was silent for a while. Silent until she heard an answering call, like an echo in the night. The hour of the panpipes had arrived….

Sand swirled around her rising into a huge cloud, snaking up in a golden band to the heavens. Her headscarf came loose, and her hair rippled about her head in raven waves. She felt free and refreshed, like her whole life she had held her breath, and now she could finally breathe. The sand storming about her seemed like a dream, all around her but she felt nothing. When the note began to die, the sand came falling back to earth. A shining mist of sand covered her entirely, and as the sun rose in the sky, it caught the gleam of her cloak, and any who saw her thought she was a goddess of the desert standing erect and still by the rushing river.

Ana felt a heavy hand clamp around her mouth, and before she could protest, she felt her legs leave the floor and then a sense of falling. Her stomach rose to her throat and her eyes strained in the sudden darkness. Then fear took her and she fell into an even deeper blackness. Down, down, down…

When she awoke it took her a while to adjust to her surroundings. She was in a sort of tavern, dimly lit by wavering torches. Her head swam as she tried to remember what had happened. “Panpipes…” she whispered coarsely, but to her relief they were still there, her hand clutched them and her knuckles were white Her heart rate eased slightly. Propping herself up onto her elbows she tried in vain to locate herself. Nothing came to her. She passed a hand over her eyes. Where was she and how long had she lay there. By the burning cramp in her legs, she guessed about a day. She needed water and instinct made her rise.

“She has awoken.” A booming voice behind her stopped Ana in her tracks. Her hand flitted to her waist, searching for her knife. It had gone. Panic struck her. Slowly she turned, squaring her shoulders. “Who are you? What do you want?” She tried to sound confident, but her voice shook and ended in a whisper. The man laughed, but his laugh was warm, “Ah, a feisty one, ready to fight, well your majesty, I am sorry to rouse you from your sleep. I am Gamal, and as I was saying, I want nothing from you, just your trust.” He bowed low. “What?” Ana looked at him searchingly. “What sort of trick is this?” The man paused, then said “I’m not sure if I’m the one to tell you but…you are the lost princess of the night panpipes, Ana Lileh. And you have come to take up your post and begin a new era. The age of the panpipes.” Ana stared at him steadily, then, feeling a burst of strength, blew a note, pure and strong.

January 17, 2019April 7, 2021

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.

August 9, 2017April 7, 2021

Discover the Ancient World

This event is designed especially for teachers, and their students, who would like to learn more about ancient Greece and Rome. We’ve put together an entertaining schedule of informative presentations on aspects of Classical Civilisation and Ancient History for you and your students to enjoy over a Saturday afternoon. Come and meet people who love the ancient world including other teachers, students, lecturers, and celebrities. We’ll also tell you more about how to fund the introduction of these subjects in your school. This event is part of the Advocating Classics Education campaign (click here to read more about it). We’re delighted that the legendary Natalie Haynes, of BBC fame, will be joining us and will be presenting her own brilliantly witty take on the ancient world. We’re looking forward to seeing you there! It’s free to attend please simply register at Eventbrite by clicking here. If you have any queries then we’d love to hear from you: aceclassics@kent.ac.uk

Venue details: Grimond Lecture Theatre, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NZ Saturday 30th September 2017, 2pm-5.45pm Schedule for the afternoon: 2-2.30 Introduction to the Advocating Classics Education (ACE) project 2.30-3 ‘What discovering the Ancient World did for us’ Dr Christopher Burden-Strevens, University of Kent & Caroline Ball (Oxford undergraduate) 3-3.15 The Dea Nutrix Challenge 3.15-3.30 Break 3.30-4.30 Student presentations from Norton Knatchbull school, Ashford 4.30-4.45 Break Opportunity to meet Kent undergraduate students 4.45-5.30 The legendary Natalie Haynes 5.30-5.45 Round up: winner of Dea Nutrix challenge announced and ACE final steps

November 15, 2016April 7, 2021

Take a smell walk into the past – anyone for Garum?

Paula Lock will be leading a smell walk as part of the Being Human Festival of the Humanities. She has written this blog to introduce you to this topic. You can join Paula on Thursday 24 November – see this link. She is a PhD student at the University of Kent.

I’m doing a spot of time travel for the Being Human festival this year. Anyone who’s prepared to join me on a stroll around Canterbury will have the chance to be transported back to Roman times with the sights, sounds and smells of the past.

But time travel takes a bit more effort than just hopping into the nearest phone box. If my audience is going to get a whiff of ancient Roman life, then I first had to create those smells — an unexpected career diversion into scent creation beckoned.

In casting around for the smells that might best evoke a Roman way of life, there was an obvious place to start. And so it was with some trepidation that I began to delve into the arcane world of Roman ‘ketchup’ — the fish sauce known as garum. Described by one ancient author as a ‘costly extract of poisonous fish, that burns up the stomach with its salted putrefaction’ (Sen. Ep. 95.25), the thing to do — obviously — was to make some.

Garum was commonly made by allowing fish to ferment in the Mediterranean sun for several months. Fortunately, the Romans had alternative recipes that avoided protracted exposure of dead fish — disappointing for the local cats, but useful given the London climate in November.

Let’s get cooking!

The first step was to get some fish, and after a visit to the local fishmonger, I stood in my kitchen armed with a big bag of mackerel and sardines, along with a sea bass head and sundry innards. These all went into a large pot with loads of salt, oregano and water. I lit the gas and stood well back.

The first aroma that came from the bubbling mixture was the fragrant smell of oregano. Maybe, I thought, this wasn’t going to be as bad as I’d feared. However, the pleasant herby smell was rapidly overtaken, first by sardines and then finally by the full force of mackerel wafting through the house — a ‘perfume’ that lingered well into the following day.

I steeled myself, and stood over the steaming pot to take in the full force of the smell. Boiled fish, not too unpleasant, but there was a second, more acrid and powerful note — it’s difficult to explain, but the overall reaction was to say ‘Eurrgh’ and step swiftly back. Although I was prepared for some kind of unpleasant fishy scent, I was surprised to find that the smell made me feel quite queasy for the rest of the day.

As the sauce developed, it changed not only its smell, but also its appearance. At first, the boiling mass resembled a frothy cappuccino — albeit one with fish floating in it. After 20 minutes of cooking, the recipe says to break the fish up and the sound of the bubbling concoction was accompanied by the soft crack of fish bones as the spoon got to work. I was eventually left with a mixture that had turned to a sludgy brown colour — not particularly appetising.

The last stage of the production was to sieve the steaming mixture, which left me with a colander full of unidentifiable grey fishy mush and a VERY cloudy brown liquid. After much filtering this liquid turned a soft amber colour. I had my garum! Time for the moment of truth.

Having chilled the liquid down, I uncorked the bottle with some dread. But, the smell of the finished product was much subtler than the cooking smell, just a light earthy fishy aroma with a background hint of herbs. As for the taste, the first hit is of intense salt, then a general fishy flavour that is overtaken by the full force of boiled mackerel — but it is the salt that really lingers.

Although I don’t think I’ll be dousing my chips with garum anytime soon, this was a worthwhile experiment. I now have a much greater idea of both the taste and smell of the condiment that played such a big part in the everyday lives of the Romans. I also have a strong sense of why garum factories tended to be located on the outskirts of the city!

If you are in Canterbury on 24th November, come along to the Roman Museum at 2pm and join me for my sensory walk around the city — and experience garum first hand for yourself. I would love to know what you think.

For updates see Twitter @PaulaLock5

The full list of the Being Human events taking place in Canterbury can be found here.

November 8, 2016April 7, 2021

The Humanities and the Public: A View from the University of Kent

People have an insatiable curiosity and inventiveness to create and to analyse what it is to be human. The 2^nd National Festival of the Humanities (Being Human) brings the work of academics at the University of Kent out of the campus and within the reach of the public – in the very centre of Canterbury – at the Canterbury Roman Museum and the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge (from 18-24 November).

The festival makes the work of staff and PhD students from the Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies accessible to the public. Going to an event, will quite literally cause you to think about things differently or to share your ideas about things as varied as the smells of the past through to the technologies behind 3D printing. The focus of the events is upon artefacts from the Roman past, often found in Canterbury – a Roman town – in excavations by Canterbury Archaeological Trust. To understand and articulate our thoughts about the past, a poet – Dan Simpson – will hold workshops to find a voice for our thoughts that are stimulated by looking into the past.

There are also two walks led by PhD students from the University of Kent. 18 months ago, Julia Peters left Canterbury to walk the Via Francigena to Rome in just less than 80 days. She will be sharing her experiences by walking with the public on the first section of the route to Dover. Paula Lock will be exploring the smells of the past in a walk through Canterbury. Walking is a human action that is fundamental to the human experience.

There will also be a panel discussion of the Hopes and Fears of the Humanities that will be led by Dr Simon Kirchin – the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities following the showing of the film: What is Humanities Research at the University of Kent? Brexit, the distrust of experts, and a priority given to STEM subjects may cause those in the Humanities to fear for the future. Amongst the panellists will be Professor April McMahon, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at Kent, and herself a researcher in Linguistics. She stresses the enduring value of the humanities in challenging times:

‘I can understand why there might be fear for the future, but I am determined that we should stress the benefits people derive from humanities research. Our lives are enhanced by our experiences in reading literature, finding out about the histories of people and places, going to the theatre, and discussing our pasts and futures, characters and beliefs. But it’s not just about those engaging experiences – we gain so much more if we make the effort not simply to consume, but to understand. Humanities research helps us to do exactly that, adding a richness to our experiences, whether we are in a context of hopes or fears’.

There is a place for the Humanities in the work-life balance of the 21^st century and the new dynamics of ageing, in which our life expectancy is increasing. We need to keep a focus on explaining what it is to be Human and what it is to exist within a culture, as well as within a balance sheet. Both are a set of values that are needed for our existence. The Humanities, in short, has a key role in understanding or making sense of what it is to be human and to explain the creativity of humanity. This need not be some abstract notion that is inaccessible to the public. Instead, through a focus on our shared cultural assets found in Canterbury’s Museums, we can bring about new forms of contact and collaboration between Universities and the public. Through the festival, the thoughts and discoveries of academics at Kent are communicated to the public, but this is done in anticipation of a response – for example the creation of new poetry to articulate in words the relevance of objects and actions from the past for the present.

For Professor Ray Laurence, the organiser of the Being Human 2016 events in Canterbury, the realisation of the importance of explaining human actions struck him, when he was a student and visited Pompeii:

‘The visit focussed on the art found in houses throughout the city, but that did not spark my curiosity. Instead, it was the sense of place that I felt standing in the streets of the city and a desire to find a way to analyse an ancient city’s built environment. ‘

‘Years later with two books published on Pompeii, I am still amazed by the human creativity that we can find in the houses and streets of Pompeii. These people from the past really did imagine the improbable and sought to make it possible, which can be seen so clearly in the houses of Pompeii. They were quite simply creating a new architecture that culminated in the magnificent beauty of structures such as the Pantheon in Rome that cannot fail to move the visitor today. That to me, is what it is to be human and why I believe that what I do as an academic has an intrinsic value that is only realised when it is shared with others, whether students or academics, schoolchildren and teachers, or the wider public .’

pantheon

Book to join the debate on Tuesday 22 November: https://alumni.kent.ac.uk/events/registration-hopesandfears-humanities

For full programme of Being Human 2016 in Canterbury: http://beinghumanfestival.org/?s=university+of+kent

Blogs associated with Being Human 2016 in Canterbury: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/clas/

Blog about ancient Rome: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/lucius-romans/

October 21, 2016April 7, 2021

All Roads lead to Poems – All Odes lead to Rome

November brings Being Human 2016 (The National Festival of the Humanities) to Canterbury with a series of events organised by staff and students of the Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies. We’ve added a page to this blog with full details of the events. Further details on the Public Engagement with Research page from the University of Kent.

January 28, 2016April 7, 2021

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.

December 17, 2015April 7, 2021

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)