Ancient Greek Handling Session & Being In Role As A Pentathlete…
I had been handed a box of what amounted to superfluous and broken artefacts from ancient Greek territories, items which would never be displayed to the public by the Archaeology Department of Birmingham’s Museum.
The visiting children would be able to handle the artefacts with great care during teaching sessions and I soon wound those sessions around a fictitious athlete called Petros. On many occasions, I was in role as Petros, chatting about my experiences as a pentathlete in the ancient Olympic Games and using the artefacts as my belongings, asking the pupils questions about them and revealing how they were used in my household.
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| THE ACTION IMAGES WERE TAKEN FOR THE SCHOOLS LIAISON WEBSITE... |
As Petros, I showed the children how a javelin and discus were thrown, using the modern equivalents as props and also how wrestling and running a short race (the stadion, around 180 metres) were integrated into the event. However, what the kids seemed to appreciate most was when I performed a standing long jump across the floor of my teaching room.
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| THE STANDING LONG JUMP START... |
When I saw an image of myself leaping I was surprised at the height I had achieved, so it must have been rather a spectacular moment in the teaching session. The jumper carried two weights called halteres which I had secured modern replicas of and the swinging of them aided longer standing jumps. It is probable that the athlete took five such leaps in each jumping attempt…
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| DEMONSTRATING THE LONG JUMP... |
I also cut out a thin leather strip, or thong, an amentum with which to demonstrate how it would have been attached to a javelin and also the athlete’s fingers, so that when released, the missile would spin and thus travel further. Typically, spinning an American football or a rugby ball works by a similar principle, as do bullets from guns, which twist against a spiral cut onto the insides of barrels, which spin them as they exit.
USING A MODERN SCHOOL JAVELIN TO SHOW HOW A THONG WAS ATTACHED...
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| HOLDING A REPLICA DISCUS... |
As for the wrestling, I would tell the kids that anything was allowed except biting, killing the opponent and gouging out his eyes… I also said that because of my size, I had to be quick and so crouched very low in order to spring upwards and unbalance my opponents and knock them down for a ‘fall’. That ruse often worked well in ancient times for the smaller pentathletes, I believe…
So, I had a tunic made, off the right shoulder, which therefore made visible a scar I have. I would tell the children, in role that it was from an injury in battle, when a javelin tip glanced from my shoulder. That, more than anything else seemed to engage the children so that they began to believe that I really was Petros, 2000 years old and chatting to them in a museum…
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| DISCUSSING THE SCAR... |
The artefacts they saw and handled were simple, including two coins which it was believed were actually 2000 year old counterfeit pieces. A couple of oil lamps were passed round too, one being quite enclosed to prevent some of the oil evaporating and to deter mice or insects from getting inside. The other lamp was flatter, with two spouts for wicks, more open than the other style with a hole through the centre, creating a channel around the edge for the oil to sit in. That one had likely been made to slip easily onto a raised stand.
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| THE TWO OIL LAMPS... |
There was a terracotta bull, made in a mould, still with a touch of the original red paint on it, plus a couple of figurines of women, one remaining as just the head, the other missing its lower legs. It was suggested that the head was actually found at Pompeii of all places. More red paint could be seen on that artefact…
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| THE BULL... |
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| THE TERRACOTTA HEAD... |
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| THE FIGURINE... |
A marble hand from a statue, missing the smallest finger was good to fit into the fictional Petros’ story as being made by a sculptor to look like the athlete’s daughter’s hand.
A terracotta tortoise was a popular artefact with the visitors, despite its head being damaged. Traces of brown paint could be seen on that…
The most attractive item was a jug, an OINOCHOE, made in the red figure style, which was decorated by the head of a woman wearing a headdress.
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| THE OINOCHOE... |
A flat dish was also passed round, which contained scored floral motifs, however a small bronze mirror and a lead slingshot bullet, which was fired by spinning it from a sling, were the very special pieces to show the pupils. I had a Roman bullet made from clay too, which looked like a small egg and I featured both bullets in my Greek sessions
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| THE DISH... |
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| THE BRONZE MIRROR... |
Often messages were inscribed on such bullets, such as ‘I HOPE THIS KILLS YOU’, something which continues to this day of course, with cynical messages being painted on bombs to be dropped upon enemy forces…
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| THE LEAD BULLET... |
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| THE TERRACOTTA BULLET... |
There was also a worksheet for the children to use in Gallery 32, although the collection of Greek artefacts there was small and largely uninteresting, even though an incongruous model of Athens’ Acropolis sat rather obscurely in the centre of the room at that time…
Dave Symons, a curator, certainly wasn’t happy to hand over the artefacts originally but one day he saw me working with my Egyptian items and thought that the session was really good, so that he soon sent me copious notes about the Greek and Roman artefacts he had been told to provide. We got on really well after that because he felt that what I was doing was so worthwhile…
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| HOLDING THE REPLICA LONG-JUMPING WEIGHTS... |
Breakages? A few rare accidents were experienced but we were always able to repair those but once, a child stole the Greek slingshot bullet… The accompanying teacher was horrified of course and she was someone I knew from Heathfield Primary School in Handsworth, the site which used to be a maternity home and actually where I was born.
She held an investigation in the lunch area after my session had finished and the bullet was subsequently found, dumped inside a waste bin…
NEXT: teaching about the ancient Romans & being the Centurion, Petronius Fortunatus…
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