Butser Ancient Schoolroom 2024

This post was written by undergraduate student Jacinta Hunter.

The Ancient Schoolroom’s second summer residency at Butser Ancient Farm was no less magical than the first: swallows wheeled and darted around us as we walked from era to era; four-horned sheep still grazed in the adjoining fields; we cooked Roman meals over an open fire each night; and a recently born kid goat called Nutmeg greeted us each morning with enthusiastic bleating.

However our daily routine was a little different this time. As well as the usual schoolroom activities of reading, writing, and counting board maths, we were able (thanks to a host of Reading staff, students, and Schoolroom associates) to also offer spinning, board games, gem-charm making, curse-writing, and geometry!

Gem carving

But perhaps the biggest difference was the addition of two all-day workshops, which involved staging an entire play, with a cast of 6-12-year-olds, over the course of one afternoon. The plays in question were Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus, which I (with the help of my ever supportive fiancé) adapted into short, child-friendly scripts, and made props and costumes for. Many a late night in the lead-up to Butser found us sewing capes, constructing cardboard weapons, and flicking red paint at an old sheet so Agamemnon could have a suitably (but not too gruesomely) bloodied robe.

This was a new endeavour for both me and the Ancient Schoolroom, so I was rather nervous about how well it would all turn out. But I needn’t have worried at all as, thanks in large part to the amazing support and diligence of the rest of the Schoolroom team, each play was triumph!

There was a real sense of anticipation in the air once our young actors were in costume and the audience of parents and guardians was in place, and the children really rose to the occasion. Highlights from Agamemnon included: a particularly spectacular entrance of the chorus with their walking sticks; a spirited characterisation of frustrated Cassandra; a surprise star-turn from Aegisthus; and a comedic entrance of the ‘dead’ Agamemnon in a wheelbarrow, which raised a hearty laugh from the audience.

Miles Gloriosus, with its complex and farcical plot, proved a little more challenging, but our performers still carried it off with aplomb. Credit for this has to go in large part to our very talented Palaestrio, who somehow knew what was going on after only one rehearsal, and to all the rest of our fabulous actors doing an excellent job at remembering which door they should be going through when!

I felt very proud of the performances, actors, and Schoolroom team, and it was lovely to have these feelings validated by positive feedback from the parents and Butser staff.

The Roman villa and performance area

Jacinta taking a short break

What with all these new activities, all day workshops, and productions, it certainly felt like we were doing rather more work than play, so we were very excited to be invited back to Sally Grainger’s house for another expertly cooked, authentic Roman meal. We were even joined by our very own Professor Emma Aston, which made it all the more special.

Sally Grainger preparing us for a garum tasting

Emma, and Roman fruit

The core Schoolroom team enjoying some downtime

Of course, all good things have to come to an end. I felt sad as we packed the car and bid farewell to each other on our final morning, knowing I was leaving the darting swallows, clear night skies, open fires, and Nutmeg the goat behind. But not too sad, as I know it will be just as magical next year.

Semester 2 2025 Reading Classics Research Seminars and Ure Lecture

We are pleased to announce the launch of our Reading Classics Seminar Series for Semester 2 2025, which will boost our Wednesday afternoons with constructive and stimulating lectures and discussions on various aspects of Classics research!

In this series of lectures, starting on 19 February 2025, we welcome a diverse group of speakers in our Departmental seminars. Our Semester 2 seminar series will explore a variety of topics and periods of Classical studies. Most seminars are hybrid and will be livestreamed on MS Teams. No registration is required. Attendance is free and open to all!

We are also pleased to invite you to attend the 2025 Ure Lecture by Dr. Jane Masséglia (University of Leicester) on “The Trojan War Mosaic at Ketton: How Greek Stories Came to Roman Britain”. Join us on Friday, 28 March 2025 at 5 PM for an exciting talk and reception. Entry is free, but booking is required here.

For more information, contact e.m.m.aston@reading.ac.uk.

Below you can find a poster with all titles and times (UK Time):

Full list of titles

19 February – 16:00-17:30 (Edith Morley G25)

Prof. Lene Rubinstein, Royal Holloway, University of London, Displaced civilians in fourth-century Athens: Social repercussions and political challenges.

20 March (Thursday) – 16:00-17:30 (Palmer 102) [This talk will only be in-person]

Dr Elena Chepel, University of Vienna, Festival mobility in Graeco-Roman Egypt.

28 March – 17:00-18:00 (Henley Business School G15)

Dr Jane Masséglia, University of Leicester, The Trojan War Mosaic at Ketton: how Greek stories came to Roman Britain. [Registration Required Here]

30 April – 16:00-17:30 (Edith Morley G25)

visual artists and researchers Aaron Ford (Institute of Classical Studies) and Hardeep Dhindsa (King’s College London), Race, Empire, and Decoloniality Seminar.

14 May – 16:00-17:30 (Edith Morley G25)

Alessandra Rocchetti, University of Oxford, The spatiality of magic across curse tablets, literary, and para-literary sources.

21 May – 16:00-17:30 (Edith Morley G44)

Dr Davide Massimo, University of Nottingham, “Hellenisation” and cultural identity in the Hellenistic world: insights from verse inscriptions.

 

See How the Ancient Mediterranean is Distorted by Generative Image AI

Edward A. S. Ross, Hannah Gage, Jacinta Hunter, and Jackie Baines standing next to the Distorted History: AI's Skewed Visions of the Ancient World exhibit information poster in the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology

The project team posing with one of the exhibit information posters on opening night.

On September 24th, 2024, the Department of Classics celebrated the opening of a new temporary exhibit at the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology: “Distorted History: AI’s Skewed Visions of the Ancient World”. This exhibit was organized by Edward A. S. Ross and Jackie Baines as part of their generative image artificial intelligence (AI) research with undergraduate research assistants Jacinta Hunter, Hannah Gage, and Shona Carter-Griffiths.

This exhibit started as a conversation in the hallway about how AI-generated images were being used to illustrate “history” narratives on most social media platforms. There were several biases present in these images that could skew an uninformed observer’s view of the discussed ancient figure or concept. With a Research Collaboration and Impact Fund (RCIF) Grant and an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) Grant from the University of Reading and an Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities Grant from the Society for Classical Studies (SCS), the project team was able to critically examine the sources for AI-generated images of the ancient world through a series of tests.


Shona Carter-Griffiths standing in front of the Distorted History exhibit's "Hoplite Wall" with 6 AI-generated images of ancient figures. Shona is gesturing to an AI-generated image of Agamemnon.

Shona Carter-Griffiths with her favourite AI image, Agamemnon.

Jacinta Hunter with her favourite comparison, Arachne.


As a pilot study, Shona Carter-Griffiths generated images using OpenAI’s DALL-E-2 and DALL-E-3. Jacinta Hunter continued this work, generating images using 8 additional programs. Hannah Gage then examined these images and identified ancient sources and modern media representations that might have influenced their features.


Hannah Gage with her favourite comparison, Clytemnestra.

Jackie Baines with her favourite comparison, Nike.


Altogether, the project team generated 3,860 images of ancient figures and concepts using 10 different generative AI tools and identified hundreds of links to ancient sources and modern media.


Edward A. S. Ross with his favourite comparison, Cleopatra.


The exhibit at the Ure Museum illustrates 18 of these comparisons, demonstrating a clear bias towards modern representations of ancient figures. The physical version of the Distorted History exhibit will be open until February 7th, 2025, but an online version of the exhibit is available on the Ure Museum website.

The project team would like to thank the Society for Classical Studies, the University of Reading, and the Department of Classics for their financial support of this exhibit.

Humanities scholars shine in UoR’s Observe the Moon Night

We hope that many of you enjoyed an excellent view of the full ‘harvest’ moon last month. The University of Reading community welcomed this moon a few days earlier, on Saturday 14th September, as part of NASA’s International Observe the Moon Night. When asked why they had chosen to observe the waxing or growing moon, a few days before its fullness, James O’Donoghue, Associate Professor in Planetary Astronomy, explained that we wanted to be able to view the surface of the moon emerging from the dark side of the moon, which is best done a few days before the new moon. On the night, hundreds of visitors, staff and students enjoyed viewing the moon through telescopes on a clear night, supported by the University of Reading’s Meteorology Department and Astronomy Club.

International Observe the Moon Night celebrates the cultural impact the Moon has had throughout history as well as lunar observation and science, so James reached out to colleagues in Humanities who might like to talk about their moon-related research. Four members of the school of Humanities shared their research: Dr Tony Capstick (English Language and Applied Linguistics), Prof. Anne Lawrence-Mathers (History), Cong Xia Li (Department of Languages and Cultures) and our own Prof. Amy Smith (Classics), who spoke about The Moon in Ancient Athens’ Festival Calendar. Ancient Greeks used the phases of the moon to time their festivals and started each month with a new moon. Amy’s current research involves the material evidence of Athenian festivals so this gave her an opportunity to think and talk about the rare personifications and other images of the moon and months in Athenian art.

Another part of the evening’s programme took us virtually to Mediterranean, specifically to view the Moon live from Cyprus, for a ‘Remote Observation’ of the Moon with Agapios Elia in discussion with David Arditti, the British Astronomical Association‘s President.

The full programme for the evening is here. As it turns out the event was booked out almost immediately, but you can catch up with it on a YouTube broadcast hosted by the Royal Astronomical Society.

Semester 1 2024 Reading Classics Research Seminars

We are pleased to announce the launch of our Reading Classics Seminar Series for Semester 1 2024, which will boost our Wednesday afternoons with constructive and stimulating lectures and discussions on various aspects of Classics research!

In this series of lectures, starting on 30 October 2024, we welcome a diverse group of speakers in our Departmental seminars. Our Semester 1 seminar series will explore a variety of topics and periods of Classical studies. All seminars are hybrid and will be livestreamed on MS Teams. No registration is required. Attendance is free and open to all!

The first session of our series is part of a public talk series on Generative AI and Ancient World Studies over Semester 1. These talks, starting 9 October 2024, are organized as part of the iGAIAS project and the Distorted History: AI’s Skewed Visions of the Ancient World exhibition at the Ure Museum of Archaeology. Registration is required for these talks, and a link for the 16 October 2024 session is available below.

For more information, contact e.m.m.aston@reading.ac.uk.

Below you can find a poster with all titles:

Full list of titles

16 October – 16:00-17:30 (EM G44)

Prof. Genevieve Liveley, University of Bristol, The silence of the LLMs – Speaking silence with generative AI. [Registration Link]

30 October – 16:00-17:30 (EM G25)

Dr. Sally Grainger, independent scholar, Cooking with silphium: experiments with Ferula asafoetida and Ferula drudeana.

20 November – 16:00-17:30 (EM G25)

Dr. Mathura Umachandran, University of Exeter, Race, Empire, and Decoloniality Seminar.

4 December – 16:00-17:30 (EM G25)

Dr. Annelies Casimir, University of Southampton, Networking with gods: Greek religious sites and the rise of Rome.

13 December – 16:00-17:30 (EM G25)

Dr. Ari Bryen, Vanderbilt University, Law among the degraded: two stories from the Roman Empire.

Aphrodite’s first birthplace

Prof. Smith on 'Aphrodite's Isle', Cranae, near Gythio.

Prof. Smith on ‘Aphrodite’s Isle’, Cranae, near Gythio.

On the summer solstice, Prof Amy Smith made her first visit to the island of Kythera, Aphrodite’s first ‘birthplace’ according to Hesiod. During this visit coincidentally Amy’s latest article, Aphrodite signified more than beauty, appeared in The Conversation. Amy’s visit to Kythera is part of the Summer Session of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, which she is co-directing, as Gertrude Smith Professor, with Prof Amelia Brown (University of Queensland). Amelia and Amy took their students to Kythera en route to Crete and on the return yesterday visited another ‘Isle’ sacred to Aphrodite, Cranae, now home to a Greek naval lighthouse, where in antiquity Helen & Paris are rumoured to have sojourned en route to Egypt.

Profs. Brown and Smith are keen to enthuse their students with the subjects of their own research, which coincidentally intersect on Aphrodite, but also the depth and breadth of physical information — sites and artefacts as well as geography — that evidence the history and archaeology of Greece. This 6-week programme also provides students a chance to learn from the many other archaeologists, curators, conservators and other experts working on site over the summer months.

Profs Brown & Smith with ASCSA Summer Session 2024 students at Mochlos, with its excavator Dr Giorgos Doudalas (UNC Greensboro)

Profs Brown & Smith with ASCSA Summer Session 2024 students at Mochlos, with its excavator Dr Giorgos Doudalas (UNC Greensboro)

You may find some of Prof. Smith’s other work on Aphrodite here:

Classics success at the Doctoral Research Conference

On Wednesday 12th June, the University of Reading held the annual Doctoral Research Conference, an event which showcases the diversity of doctoral research undertaken at Reading.

Two of our own researchers, Adél Ternovacz and Daniel Bartle, presented posters on their research at the conference, and we would like to congratulate both of their contributions.

Adél Ternovacz discussing her poster.
Image curtesy of the Univeristy of Reading Doctoral and Researcher College.

Further congratulations go to Adél, whose poster won the prize.

The posters submitted by Adél and Daniel cover two very different, but equally interesting topics, which demonstrate the diversity of research within the Classics department.

Adél’s research poster presents a lunula pendant adorned with a Roman carnelian gem, discovered in a Sarmatian settlement in Tiszaföldvár, Hungary. Lunulae, crescent-shaped pendants worn by women and children, served as protective amulets in both Roman and Sarmatian cultures. In the Carpathian Basin, the Sarmatians—an Iranian people—were the most significant barbarian population during the Roman Imperial Period. This research explores how Sarmatian culture adapted and incorporated the Roman gem, deepening our understanding of the cultural exchange between the two civilizations.

Daniel Bartle discussing his poster.
Image curtesy of the Univeristy of Reading Doctoral and Researcher College.

Daniel’s poster focuses on the Indo-Iranian borderlands during the late fourth to third centuries BC and the diplomatic activity across it. This period would see the establishment of new empires on each side of the frontier, the Seleukids in Iran and the Maurya on the Ganges, representing a time of political transition and upheaval in the region. This research will examine three specific interactions between the two new states and their effects, the treaty of the Indus in 303 BC, the edicts of Ashoka, and the anabasis of Antiochus III, shedding light on the dynamic relationship of warfare, trade and gift exchange that existed across the frontier.

Both Daniel and Adél reflected positively on their experience of the event, commenting on the opportunity to interact with students and their work from across the university.

“The Doctoral Research Conference offers a fantastic opportunity to meet fellow students from various disciplines and learn about their projects. It was truly inspiring to see such a diverse range of innovative work.” – Adél Ternovacz

“The Doctoral Research Conference was an interesting experience involving both varied disciplines and means of presenting. Likewise, offering fresh perspectives from the other disciplines.” – Daniel Bartle

Once again, congratulations to Adél and Daniel, and to all the students who contributed to the event.

Adél Ternovacz

Upcoming Conference: Narrative and argument in Greco-Roman antiquity

On 4-5 July 2024, the University of Reading is hosting a two-day conference which seeks to re-investigate the relationship between narrative and argument in ancient literature (broadly defined).

Amidst strong trends in both rhetorical and narratological analysis, observations about the interplay between narratological structures and rhetorical methods of persuasion have tended to be at the margins of classical scholarship; but there are indications of a shift towards the foreground. For example, recent scholarship on Archaic and Classical Greek Lyric and Drama explores the discourse of ideology through the analysis of literary mechanisms and language shaping the political dimensions of the various genres. Another example of a recent shift is in the field of hagiography, where literary aspects are increasingly investigated in the context of the texts’ assumed ideology, resulting in some interesting insights into the unexpected complexities of the relationship between what the texts appear to want to the readers to do or believe, and the narrative strategies employed in these texts.

To explore and consolidate these trends, our conference brings together scholars interested in the interaction of political, literary, narratological, and cultural analysis of ancient literature to retrace the narrative mechanisms and discourses shaping the (im)balance between ideology, argument, and narration in ancient texts.

This conference will be held as a hybrid with both in-person and online attendees welcome. You can register your attendance here.

New Survey for Teachers in Ancient World Studies

Figure 1: Generative AI in the Ancient World Studies Classroom Teacher Survey –
https://forms.office.com/e/NdTnesja9i

Do you teach any topic related to the ancient world? Do you have thoughts about generative artificial intelligence? Researchers in the Department of Classics at the University of Reading want to hear from you!

Thanks to a University of Reading Research Collaboration and Impact Fund (RCIF) grant, Jackie Baines and Edward A. S. Ross are carrying out survey research into the impact of generative AI in wider ancient world studies classrooms. If you teach about any aspect of the ancient world (broadly conceived), please take 10 minutes to complete the survey here (Figure 1).

Figure 2: iGAIAS: Investigating Generative Artificial Intelligence in Ancient World Studies.

This research is part of Jackie and Edward’s wider project iGAIAS: Investigating Generative Artificial Intelligence in Ancient World Studies (Figure 2). Their work explores ethical and effective applications for generative AI in ancient world studies to make them more accessible for classicists and the wider public. This includes an upcoming temporary exhibition in the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology on inherent biases about the ancient world in generative image AI. Research for this exhibit is supported by undergraduate students Shona Carter-Griffiths, Hannah Gage, and Jacinta Hunter.

Jackie and Edward have also recently published a new article on the first phase of their generative AI research in the Journal of Classics Teaching. This article discusses the generative AI ethics training sessions for ancient language students and teachers over the Autumn 2023 term.

Summer Term 2024 Reading Classics Research Seminars

We are pleased to announce the launch of our Reading Classics Seminar Series for Summer Term 2024, which will boost our Wednesday afternoons with constructive and stimulating lectures and discussions on various aspects of Classics research!

In this series of lectures, starting on 24 April, we welcome a diverse group of speakers in our Departmental seminars. Our Summer seminar series will explore a variety of topics and periods of Classical studies. All seminars will be livestreamed on MS Teams; tune in every Wednesday at 4pm (unless otherwise stated)! Attendance is free and open to all! To attend please follow this link: https://bit.ly/3UkPo10. Below you can find a poster with all titles.

Full list of titles

24 April

Shaohui Wang, Northeast Normal University, China, and University of Cambridge, ἰὼ, ἰή, ἰέ – a survey of ritual cries and emotions in ancient Greek religion and the parallels in Chinese religious practice

1 May

Chris Pellin, University of Oxford, I want to be Great too – but how? Alexander, Augustus, and Livy

8 May – Postponed

Mathura Umanchandran, Exeter University, Race, Empire, and Decoloniality Seminar

15 May

Jordan Miller, University of Cambridge, Under the Bed and among the Dead: Monsters in Ancient Egypt

29 May

Polly Low, Durham University, Nothing to see here? Inscriptions and the early Athenian Empire

 

All (unless otherwise labelled) starting at 16:00 in Edith Morley 126J

For more information contact e.m.m.aston@reading.ac.uk