Oh, so THIS is why I got a MA in history and not education….
You can do five million things with a history degree!!
This morning we went to the Hephaisteion, or Temple of
Hephaestus.
I’ve been there before, but
we had Professor John Camp telling us about the doric architecture and it was
AWESOME!! Growing up I remember these
green books in our basement that housed all sorts of random architectural
information. I loved to look at them. Huh, wonder where that interest came
from?! We learned all about the temple
and got to go inside since Professor Camp who is head of excavation for the
ASCSA at the agora.
Hephaisteion
After that we headed to the stoa (which is a recreation) and
we had the chance to see how they processed and catalogued artifacts discovered
at the agora. It was pretty cool. We saw how the process had changed over time
and saw the new computer catalogued which is so amazing I cannot even begin to
describe it, but we will be using it in class when the program comes out!!!
Next we headed to the basement of the stoa and learned about
some of the bodies that had been discovered at the site. We got to see what arthritis looked like on
bones and how you could tell if someone had had their throat slit. I also got to hold some human remains and
look at the trauma to the bone, which was really cool. We also learned about the cremation process
and how it impacts the bones!
We had lunch and then moved on to another library at the
ASCSA the Gennadius Library. Here I got
to see the first ever printing press copy of Homer’s works made in Florence in
1488. I also got to see the archives
where they have original letters detailing the discovery of liner b!!!!!! We also saw some of the ASCSA artifacts and got the chance to hold them (it's pretty cool to hold a pot that was made in the 4th c. BCE!! It's everything you've wanted to do in a museum but were told not too!). Then we moved on to the lab where the do more
work with bone and animal remains as well as soil. They look at disease and burial practices
(and other things as well).
Homer
As a result of this day (and the fact the NYS is changing
all their standards and testing) I have decided to COMPLETELY change my
approach to teaching and I have some really cool stuff in store for the
students next year!!
Eventually dinner happened and now it’s time for bed (or to
work on my reports, whichever comes first!).
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