Zahra Newby IATL Academic Fellowship Award:
Seeing, experiencing, doing: learning the methods of ancient art through performance and participation
The award’s aim was to trial the effectiveness of a number of different initiatives designed to increase students’ understanding of the techniques and
practicalities of ancient art and architecture. These consisted of guest lectures, site visits and practical, hands-on, sessions.
In order to share my experiences of organising these sessions for colleagues who may wish to set up something similar, I have given practical details in the
table below, excluding the guest lectures, which took the traditional form of lectures by invited speakers with specialisms in the following areas: the
sculpture trade (Prof Amanda Claridge, Royal Holloway, emerita); stone carving (Will Wootton, KCL) and numismatics (Marguerite Spoerri, independent
scholar).
Event
Workshop at
Butser Ancient
Farm.
4 hour-long
sessions for
groups of 10
(rotating):
Site visit with
explanation of
reconstructive
archaeology;
copper smelting;
round hut
construction;
wall painting.
Where
Butser Ancient
Farm,
Hampshire
www.butseranc
ientfarm.co.uk
Full day
For student
responses see
http://blogs.wa
rwick.ac.uk/but
ser
When
October 2015
Term 1, Wed
week 3
(students had to
miss other
lectures/sportin
g events)
Practicalities
The sessions were
organised by the Farm’s
Director, Maureen Page,
whom I contacted in May.
The timing depended on
availability of key staff,
and the season – the site
is outdoors.
Students were taken to
Butser by coach: 2.5
hours from Warwick
therefore a long day.
Costs
Workshops
:
£30/studen
t + VAT.
Travel: c.
£700
Coach.
Pros
An excellent
introduction to the
possibilities of
reconstructive
archaeology in
understanding ancient
building techniques.
Copper smelting
workshop took students
through the whole
process from malachite
to producing a lump of
copper.
Wall-painting and hut
building tasks gave
them the possibility to
try out skills and
experience the
constraints. Hut
Cons
Butser focusses on Iron
Age and Roman Britain,
therefore some aspects of
the site are less relevant
to Art and Architecture of
Asia Minor, though the
methodological issues still
stand.
Students either loved or
hated it: those who loved
it tended to be those most
interested in archeology,
rather than art.
Distance from Warwick
makes this a time
consuming trip: Students
left at 8am and returned
at campus c. 7pm.
Relatively expensive.
buildings also involved
team work skills.
Trip to British
Museum to see
collections from
Ancient Turkey
The British
Museum
November 2015
(reading week).
Half-day
Students gave
seminars on the
Nereid
Monument and
Mausoleum in
front of the
objects.
Sculpture
Workshop
Students tried
out the different
tools used in
stone carving,
and had
opportunity to
practise on
limestone, as
Held at
Warwick (GL3
in the Medical
School Building)
March 2016, in
week 11, to
avoid clashes
with lectures.
One problem with BM is
closure of galleries.
Booking in as an
educational group
doesn’t necessary ensure
access to these – you
need to check at Info
desk on arrival and
arrange itinerary
accordingly. It’s also best
to contact the relevant
Dept directly. Greek and
Roman Dept sent
someone to open up
closed galleries (though
only for 1 hour):
GreekAndRoman@thebri
tishmuseum.ac.uk
I drew on the experiences
of Will Wootton at KCL,
who had run something
similar as part of his Art
of Making project.
Full day
Useful Links:
For student
responses see
http://www.art
ofmaking.ac.uk/
Sculptor Andy Tanser led
the workshop, supported
by 2 colleagues who are
practicing stone carvers
BM: free
Coach: c.
£700
Easy to organise
Opportunity to give
presentations in front of
the monuments and to
apply their skills of
visual analysis.
Easy to organise
Very relevant to the
module as BM has
excellent holdings from
Asia Minor (though
some are inaccessible).
Good value for money.
Payment of
Andy
Tanser and
Colleagues:
1250
(300 each +
travel). This
was for 30
participant
s. 1 staff to
10 students
A very successful day:
students gained a lot
from it, and it gave
them a real taste of the
constraints of stone
carving including design.
Andy Tanser also gave a
useful talk which
explained the
processes.
Room closures means it is
necessary to plan the trip
carefully, to ensure we see
crucial sites at the right
time.
Distance from Warwick
means arrival midmorning when galleries
start to be closed.
A large group constrained
my ability to engage oneto-one with students (I ran
3 rotating seminar groups
of 40 mins each)
By far the most timeconsuming to arrange. I
spend a long time trying
to source stone, organise
the practicalities etc.
I’d be happy to talk these
through with anyone
thinking of running a
similar session.
well as creating
their own object
out of
soapstone.
http://blogs.wa
rwick.ac.uk/scul
ptureworkshop
http://www.and
rewtanser.com/
and also teach. They
provided the tools.
seems
about right.
http://www.rus
scott.co.uk/
I was responsible for
providing the stone to
carve, safety glasses and
polishing blocks.
After much searching,
local stonemasons
Russcote kindly donated
6 offcuts of limestone to
work on. These were c.
20x20x30cm, This was a
good size as it allowed a
number of people to try
out their skills. Bigger
blocks would have been
hard to lift.
Hire of
tables
(Warwick
conference
, ask for old
ones): 190
http://www.gre
atart.co.uk/
I bought the soapstone
blocks (10x10x4cm),
polishing paper and
blocks, and polish from
http://www.greatart.co.u
k/
Another constraint was
booking a room which
was not controlled by
Conferences. Only a few
options were open, and I
needed a ground floor
room with good access
Materials
(£310 in
total):
soapstone
cubes
£5.10 each
(need one
per student
plus a
couple of
spares).
Polishing
materials:
c. £20.
Safety
glasses: I
borrowed
these, but
you’d need
to buy
them if not.
Out of this and Butser I
found this the more
useful and relevant
Problems of sourcing
appropriate stone: I’m not
sure where I would have
got limestone if Russcotes
hadn’t come to my aid,
and cut them into
manageable pieces for
me. Other quarries/stone
masons I approached
were not helpful.
The most expensive at c.
£50/student. Students
said they would be willing
to spend up to £20 on
such a session.
and light. GLT3 was
perfect, esp. as the
Medical School had a
ramp from car park, and a
post tray we could use to
transport heavy stone.
It is also not surrounded
by other rooms, which
was good as we made a
lot of noise (something I
hadn’t factored in
before).
Would have been useful
to warn the Medical
School café that we were
coming as we created
long queues at lunchtime.
Problems of lack on
storage on campus meant
that I had to store all
materials at home, and
bring them onto campus
on the day: luckily I could
borrow a Range Rover
and a friend to help, but
this would have been
very difficult otherwise.
I also had to take
brushes, vacuum etc, so
that we could tidy up
afterwards – it was very
messy (I drafted in
Trip to Turkey
Optional - Open
to all students
on the module,
but at their own
cost.
Turkey, visiting
a range of sites
discussed on
the module
(Pergamum,
Ephesus,
Priene, Miletus,
Didmya,
Hierapolis,
Nysa,
Aphrodisias and
Halicarnassus)
April 2015
(easter
vacation)
www.studylinktours.co.u
k
8 days
For comparison:
Mosaic
Workshop, run
through a IATL
pedagogical
invention grant.
Opportunity for
students to
practise the
techniques of
ancient Roman
mosaic.
Warwick
Capital
Rehearsal
Room, Milburn
House
student volunteers to
help).
I have run similar trips
before, and used a tour
operator to arrange the
trip, since we need a
coach, Turkish guide, etc.
This year I used Studylink
Tours, but I have also
used Equity travel in the
past:
Feb 2014
Half Day
For report and
video, see
http://www2.w
arwick.ac.uk/fac
/arts/classics/st
udents/modules
/domspace/mos
aic
http://www.equity.co.uk/
Both are good. The
University’s preferred
suppliers of travel are
unfortunately unable to
arrange such specialist
trips at equivalent cost.
Run by Lawrence Payne
of Roman Mosaic
Workshops.
http://www.romanmosai
cworkshops.co.uk/
Lawrence provided all
materials.
I hired tables (old stock)
from Warwick
conferences.
£930 per
student.
The IATL
grant
contributed
£1215 to
the overall
costs,
reducing
the amount
payable by
students.
An excellent
opportunity to see the
sites discovered in
details, and apply their
knowledge - I spotted
new details this year,
following the guest
lectures and workshops,
and took photographs
for use in future
lectures.
Only accessible to a few
students, because of the
cost involved.
Easy to organise.
£18/studen
t (based on
24
participatin
g)
Table hire:
£60
After I’d found a
suitable room, this was
relatively easy to set up.
Lawrence brought all
the materials, and
clearing up was
relatively easy.
Good value for money.
Popular with students.
None in particular.
(Run as
additional
seminar for
students on the
Domestic Space
in the Roman
World module,
2014-15
Videos of the sessions will be posted on the page: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/students/modules/artarchi/iatl/
Conclusions:
The BM trip works well and is well integrated into the structure of the module. I will certainly run this again.
The Butser trip was interesting, but less obviously relevant to this particular module. I will suggest to a colleague who runs a module on Principles and
Methods of Classical Archaeology that she directs students to visit the village if they can as part of their summer preparation for the module.
The field trip to Turkey was very popular with those who attended – I will keep this as an optional trip in future years.
The two practical sessions on stone carving and (last year) mosaics were both very useful introductions to the techniques of ancient art, and equally useful
for students. The mosaic workshop is much cheaper and easier to organise, therefore more practical to run again in future years, and students may be
prepared to pay a contribution towards this. While I would also like to run the Sculpture Workshop again, the costs involved may make that unfeasible
without additional financial support. The mosaic workshop is more relevant to the module Domestic Space in the Roman World, and will be run as part of
that module.
The guest lectures were also very informative, particularly for adding to my own knowledge of the subject. In future years I will be able to use the
understanding gained, as well as Will Wootton’s very helpful website, to teach these sessions, though I may still bring in colleagues with expertise on coins
and inscriptions to teach those sessions.
Further initiatives: If possible, in future years I would also like to arrange a trip to a bronze foundry to show students the techniques of lost-wax casting. This
year the large numbers involved made it unfeasible, and only art foundry I had identified was out of operation (The Bullpen Studio-Foundry, Oxfordshire;
contact: helen@wezjacobs.com). I need to do further research to identify potential foundries to visit.
Zahra Newby; Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick. July 2015