This Year in Roman Technology: Catapults

I never really thought much about ancient Roman catapults, to be honest. Even with 7 years of college, two classics degrees, and archaeological study abroad in Italy and Greece. Catapults were never on my radar. That all changed when, on Friday, May 5, 2000 (I remember the exact date), I saw the Ridley Scott movie Gladiator. And if you've seen it too, you already know what I'm going to say. That first scene, right? OMG. If you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing and go watch it right now. It depicts the highly-organized, brute strength of the Roman legions attacking the "German horde" painted as an unsophisticated mass of dirty barbarians. A bit cliched, yes, but the weapons were unlike anything I had ever seen...or heard: the thump of the exploding pots of burning oil hurled by the giant onagers, the whiz of the huge ballista arrows, and the whoosh of the fiery arrows shot by the archers. The whole spectacle made me re-think the experience of war. Who considers the SOUND of war? Maybe I'm in the minority amongst Latin teachers, but I loved the movie, warts and all. 

Many years later, I read Vitruvius' description of a Roman scorpion in Book X of his De Architectura. I was fascinated, and cursory searches on the internet found numerous replicas based on his writing, the most descriptive being this one by Wade Hutchison and Steve Godfrey. As I was contemplating projects for the first iteration of my Roman Technology class, I very much wanted to work on catapults, but unlike Hutchison and Godfrey, I had none of the wood-working skills that are absolutely essential for such a project. I turned my attention elsewhere that year and forgot about catapults.

A year later, I was working in EBR Schools at the #BestMiddleSchoolInTheParish teaching Roman Technology, and I was selected for a STEM fellowship. Fellows got mentorship with a STEM teacher who helped us to develop projects for our programs. I was so fortunate to meet Heather Howle, a STEM teacher who had written her own curriculum and valued the idea of integrating history and engineering. Through her guidance as my STEM mentor, I learned that STEM teachers use catapults frequently to teach force and motion in physics. The aerospace industry uses them to launch and land fighter jets off aircraft carriers through a system called CATOBAR, an acronym for "catapult-assisted take-off barrier arrested recovery." (Watch here for an explanation of how this system works.) Thus, catapults are particularly relevant in today's real world, not just as a tool for learning.

As I learned more about catapults, I picked up some great ideas about how to teach them. One of the best catapult teaching units I've seen is by Vivify STEM, a two-woman team of Texas-based aerospace engineers turned educators. Here's a free one by Engineering with Paper (all you need is paper, scissors, and tape!) With these plans, I particularly liked that I didn't have to know wood-working to create devices that could be built by students and tested like ancient Roman ones. Unlike the real ones, these are safe to shoot with projectiles like q-tips, ping-pong balls, pencil erasers, and cotton balls. I always teach them in September because they teach students the basic concepts of the engineering design process. If kids have not taken a STEM class and/or were never encouraged to build with blocks as youngsters, they sometimes struggle with designing and building their own devices. Catapults are a low-stakes way to learn. 

This year's students are no exception. They have LOVED learning about catapults. We began the unit with an overview of the Roman war machine. Of course, I add lots of history and textual evidence. We read excerpts from Vitruvius and Josephus, for example. The students learned about different siege weapons of the Romans including onagers, ballistas, scorpions, siege towers, battering rams, naval rams, etc. This past month, I got stuck in a research rut learning about the Balearic slingers and the bullets of lead and clay that they used. Fascinating stuff, and of course, I'm trying to come up with a safe way to teach them about slinging!

During our STEM labs, we learned how to build two models (an ONAGER and a SCORPION) with my assistance, and then they tested them with different projectiles for accuracy and then for distance. The students practiced using tape measures, recorded data, and then reviewed how to figure averages. (Math teachers love me around this time of year.) Then, we took it to the next level, and they designed their own catapults to fire and test.

If you're interested in learning more, see my catapult lesson here. Let the fun and learning begin!

This Year in Roman Technology: How We Know about the Roman World

I hate to say this out loud, but this August has been the smoothest start to a new school year that I have ever had. (Run go knock on wood real quick - I just did!) Every year that I get to teach Roman technology is a great year though, and this year is going to be FANTASTIC! We just received a $2400 grant to help us with our big experimental archaeology project: building our own Roman leather sandals. And we got some grant money to take two big field trips to Poverty Point, Louisiana's only UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Getty Villa, one of the best places in the US to see classical antiquities. It's all part of my big plan to bring the National Geographic Explorer Mindset to my students.

So this year, I'd like to focus my blog on my monthly RoTech curriculum. It's what most everyone asks me about when I mention that I teach this class. "What exactly do you teach them?" In October, I'll be traveling to the Hopkins School in New Haven, CT, to offer a teacher workshop on my Roman technology curriculum. I can't wait to meet the teachers and help them envision a hands-on history approach to teaching the Roman world.

Every year, I focus the month of August on the big question of "How do we know what we know about classical antiquity?" (By the way, has anyone ever read the old plastic-bound booklet from the American Classical League called "How We Know About Antiquity" by William J. King? Sadly, it's no longer available from the ACL store or on Amazon.) It certainly was an inspiration to me in my early teaching. I often wondered the same question myself. The problem was that I didn't have much class time to truly explore some of the answers to that question: archaeology, epigraphy, pottery analysis, numismatics, paleography, ostraca, etc. When I started teaching Roman technology to students who didn't take Latin, I realized that most didn't have a strong foundation of understanding about the classical world. Thus, my unit on "How We Know" got started.

Our first lesson involved a Fact or Fiction game that asked students to pair up and answer FACT or FICTION on tiny whiteboards as I made statements about the ancient Roman world such as "These two items were used as toilet paper by the Romans: pottery sherds, sponges on sticks, or leaves." The hilarity and genuine surprise that ensued after the true answer was revealed...perfection! You can see the set here and use it if you want to!

Next, the students, grouped into sets of three, got an ancient mystery artifact to analyze. They had to weigh it, measure it (in centimeters to get into that archaeology frame of mind), and then interpret its context. I used replicas of a FIBULA (metal pin), parts of a key and lock, sherds of a broken oil lamp, a wax tablet, warp weights from a loom, a piece of tree bark with writing on it, etc. Most students are not familiar with these objects so they did find this activity challenging, but it teaches the mindset of archaeology and how to interpret an object through comparison and context. You can see some of that lesson here.

Investigating an artifact

 

The next lesson immersed the students in ancient pottery identification and analysis. The students watched a short presentation on pottery terminology (SHERDS not SHARDS), how it was made by ancient Romans (thanks Graham Taylor at Potted History), how it can be used to date archaeological sites, and then sketched a design inspired by ancient red or black-figure pottery. Each student then drew their design onto a small terracotta pot with a sharpie marker. They recorded an event of importance in their lives and wrote about that event very briefly in these notes. 

Before the big crack

I then took a moment to carefully explain that their pots would soon be broken by me and turned into analysis tools. After breaking each pot and carefully removing a piece or two from each to deposit in a sherd box, I returned the pots to different students. Their job was to reconstruct the pot using painter's tape and write an interpretation of the design. 

Putting it back together

The students visited the sherd box to help with reconstruction. Then, they met with their pot partners to discuss interpretations. This activity gets kids thinking about archaeological context and the detective work that comes with archaeology. They really, really enjoy this project that takes only two class periods to complete.

The sherd box

For another activity, I reached out to the Louisiana Division of Archaeology, inviting one of their archaeologists to visit with my students. This year, the archaeologist chose to talk about physical anthropology, and what archaeologists learn from human bones. Before she visited, I had the students watch Nova's In the Shadow of Vesuvius documentary, about the work of Dr. Sara Bisel, the anthropologist who analyzed the skeletons of Herculaneum's beachfront. The bit with her discussing the wear and tear on the bones of a young enslaved girl always touches my students.

Trying to determine gender

The archaeologist, Josetta Leboeuf, presented "Written in Bone: What Archaeologists Can Discover from Human Remains." She brought replica skulls, femurs, and pelvises for the students to examine, and then she guided them in using an archaeological calculator to determine their height. Anthropologists frequently use the femur and humerus to calculate a person's height. The students LOVED this activity.

Measuring a femur

As the month was ending, I wanted my students to explore numismatics so I took out my ancient coins for them to analyze. I had acquired these from Ancient Coins for Education, a group of volunteers who got old coins in the hands of classics teachers. (I can't find evidence that this group is still functioning. I hope someone can prove me wrong.) After learning some coin terminology: OBVERSE, REVERSE, FIELD, LEGEND, BUST, etc., the students got to handle real coins. After talking about the proper handling of coins, each pair of students picked up some archival gloves, a magnifying glass, and these notes. They are nearly always unsuccessful at deciphering anything on the coins. These things are SO hard to read, but the activity gives them a real sense of awe at holding something so old in their hands. They also think that ancient coins are TINY compared with our modern quarters and nickels.

A real, ancient Roman coin

Today, we finished up this unit by recycling our reconstructed pots. We used them to plant seeds from Roman herbs like parsley, coriander, and sage. We'll grow these to coincide with a later unit on Roman food.

We move on to catapults today and spend the month of September building two models that we'll test for distance, accuracy, and force before designing and building our own models. I'll be back to talk about that unit later this month!

NEH Olympics: Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter

Happy Opening Day of the 2024 Summer Olympics!!

When the Olympics got started up again in 1894 by the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, he adopted as a motto a phrase he'd heard from his friend Henri Didon, the headmaster at Arcueil College in Paris: CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS, a string of Latin comparative adverbs meaning "Faster, higher, stronger." In 2021, the International Olympic Committee decided to add to it: CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS - COMMUNITER.

"Faster, higher, stronger - together...recognizes the unifying power of sport and the importance of solidarity," they said. I just saw these things in action, but not at the actual Olympics. I spent the last few weeks of July co-teaching a K-12 Institute sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities: the Ancient Olympics and Daily Life in Ancient Olympia: A Hands-on History.

Before I get into the great fun and learning we had, let me back up a couple of years to when my colleague Robert Holschuh Simmons of Monmouth College and I conceived of the project. Bob and I had met at the 2020 summer conference of the American Classical League in New York City. After attending my session on STEM in classics, he approached me to chat. I mentioned that I had read his article discussing his classics day activities. Thus, we forged a professional friendship based on shared interests of approaching classics from a hands-on history perspective. Later, Bob invited me to Monmouth to deliver the 2022 annual Bernice L. Fox classics lecture. Shortly afterward, Bob asked if I had ever thought about sharing my knowledge with teachers in a more substantial way: a summer institute of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

I was very familiar with NEH institutes having done a couple of these intense summer workshops myself. I had indeed thought that my Roman technology lessons would make a good summer institute, but I knew I didn't really have a local university to partner with. Bob too had thought about how he could expand the activities he did at his classics day Since the summer Olympics would be starting right before our proposed workshop would happen, we decided that it would be an apt frame for our combined work: Bob would teach participants how to recreate the original Olympic contests, and I would focus on the goings-on around the small religious sanctuary town of Olympia.

As we started looking into the grant process, we realized that we had a MASSIVE project on our hands. We downloaded the application and got started! We had to answer a long series of questions, write a budget, develop a plan of work, and collect letters of support from speakers, all the while as we planned our two-week residential program - the process took about 8 months to complete. Some days, we worked via Zoom or Google Meet, other days we worked alone. By February of 2023, it was all due. We were asking for $175,000!! Then, we waited...for nearly 6 months to see if we got the grant. Our odds were not good. We had heard that fewer than 50% of applications get approved. But when August 15 came around, we learned via email that we had won! Then, the real work started.

First, we needed to promote our institute to teachers whom we thought would want to come. One of my first jobs was to create a Website for the program. Then, Bob and I had a series of meetings with the NEH administrators and other grantees to talk about what we needed to do for the next 8 months to prepare for the arrival of our participants to Bob's school, Monmouth College.

Everyone at Monmouth College, nay the entire town, is a nice human being! Maybe that's part of the town's legacy. Founded by Presbyterians in the 1800s, the school twice focused on women's education when the male students went off to wars. In the early 1870s, two young female students decided that they wanted to have their own fraternity so they founded it. The original Kappa Kappa Gamma House sits right near campus, proving that they succeeded. I had a fantastic time exploring the history of the town and campus.

Bob and I were excited and nervous to welcome our teachers to the school! Bowers Dormitory served as our home away from home - like going back to college. The campus is so, so beautiful. My favorite time of day was 6 PM because that's when the bell tower played a song for us. I spent many an early morning walking around the campus taking pictures of lovely things like stag beetles hanging onto brick walls, the meditative labyrinth, the front columns of Wallace Hall, and the bronze motto plate near the fountain commemorating the school's motto: LUX (Latin for "light"). Participants enjoyed walking all over town the size of which made that practice possible. In addition to being famous for its college, the town also hosted speeches of both 1858 Illinois senate seat candidates, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

As promised, Bob taught the Olympic contests, and it was so fun to watch our adventurous teachers try them out. Using images from ancient Greek pottery and careful readings of ancient Greek writers, they recreated the methodology of discus and javelin throws, foot positions for running, rein ties for chariot racing, and even pankration-style wrestling. One of the most interesting contests to watch was the long jump. Done in ancient times with special hand weights called halteres, the long jump seemed impossible! The ancient record was 55 feet, an absolute impossibility especially using these hand weights, but that didn't keep our participants from trying. Near the end of our time, Bob led our teachers in recreating the Olympic Games on a large soccer field near Monmouth. (We had to share the Monmouth sports fields with a practicing football team who looked askance at me while playing my home-made AULOS, or double pipes.)

Mornings were for competing in Olympic contests, but afternoons were spent working on hands-on history activities such as weaving, foraging for and using oak galls to mix ink, making and decorating pottery, and talking about how to bring the ancient world to life for students. My favorite activity was an old one from Project Archaeology that has students reflect on how pottery sherds are used to reconstruct the context of an archaeological site. After learning some basics of ancient Greek and Roman pottery identification, our teachers decorated their own tiny terracotta pots with iconography that was meaningful to them. After they turned them in to us, my trusty assistants Megan Dailey and Olivia Matlock (both current classics students) helped me to crack them and remove a couple of sherds. The pots were given back to different participants to reconstruct and make sense of. 

All the while during the two weeks, our teachers were researching and developing their own lessons about the content they were learning. Our K-12 liaison and project specialist Micheal Posey was instrumental in helping them forge these amazing ideas into full-fledged units of study for their students. The culminating projects of our participants were FANTASTIC - Olympic recreations, classics day activities, original Latin stories, and all kinds of wonderful things. You can see all the projects here. By the end of our time together, the COMMUNITER part of the Olympic motto was the most important. Together, we spent two weeks learning about an ancient world with such important influence on our modern world.  As I watch the Olympics during these next two weeks, I'll be thinking about a special group of NEH Olympians that took learning CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS!

#NathGeo - The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship - Day 3

Today, Deb Holcomb-Freitag and I left no bus, train, subway, or taxi unridden. 

First stop...the University of Glasgow!! I knew next to nothing about the University so I was pleasantly surprised to see this 1451-founded campus with its green grass and sandstone-colored buildings. Deb and I walked around just taking pictures in awe. 

We also budgeted time to peruse the gift shop. Since my own school is named Glasgow Middle, I couldn't resist the urge to get some merch to show my students and colleagues. It was super hard to make a decision too. Deb, in her infinite wisdom, encouraged me to get this one particular sweatshirt. The "Changing the World" was perfect, but the fact that it had the Latin motto on it too ("the way, the truth, the life")!!! I think I did the right thing. I can't wait to show my students.  

But back to my original plan - we traveled to Glasgow to visit the Hunterian Museum's Roman collection, purportedly, the best in Scotland. The museum itself has that old antiquarium feel to it, and the Roman gallery was indeed awesome. The collection contains the distance slabs that celebrate the soldier builders of the Antonine Wall. These stone plaques are unique in the Roman world!

Next up was the Falkirk Wheel, a massive boat switcher near the Roman Antonine Wall. I had DREAMED of getting here so that I could sneak off the Roman fort located nearby. The modern Wheel was an added bonus, and I have to say, one of the best things I've seen on this trip. Used to lift and lower boats between canals at different levels, it replaced a complicated and slow system of locks. What a joyful thing to see in action! You can watch my video of it here.

I had tried to come up with a way for us to get to Rough Castle Roman Fort via public transportation, but it was tricky. A train, a bus, a long walk, but we made it! This fort is one of very few in existence (another along Hadrian's Wall) that shows the usage of LILIA pits to sabotage enemy attacks. I was surprised to see the depth of the ditch in front of the wall. Somehow, pictures just don't do size justice.

We finished the day with the Kelpies, giant metal sculptures of horse heads that celebrate the historical contribution of horses in Scotland as well as nod toward their mythological significance. I did not expect to like them so much. The metal work, by artist Andy Scott, is superb, and the effect is one of creepy awe. They light up at night for different occasions and events. I'm so glad I got to see these icons of Scotland!

#NathGeo: The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship - Day 2

Day 2 of #NathGeo - due to a plane malfunction and four-hour repair in Atlanta, I got to Edinburgh much later than I had intended. But hey, I’m always in favor of fixing the plane!

This post is all about the fantastic public transportation in the UK. I took the bus into the city from the airport - easy to find, easy to pay (and cheap), and so fun to ride. And even better - the bus driver used my favorite UK greeting, “hiya.” This bus was a double-decker so I could have climbed the stairs too. Plenty of spots for luggage, and from there, I just enjoyed the views. Then I walked for 30 minutes to our AirBnB to meet Deb Holcomb-Freitag, my shipmate and travel partner.

It's interesting to me to hear my UK friends complain about the cost of public transport, strikes, breakdowns, etc. To me, public transport is AMAZING because we don't have it in Baton Rouge. Well, we do, but it's so underfunded and thus, underused, and thus unreliable. I always feel bad for those sitting at bus stops in the Louisiana heat. It must be very hard for working people to us. This comparison has reminded me that comparisons across cultures don't always work. Sometimes, there's just too much difference.

To wrap up the day, we spent the late afternoon walking around the touristy area called the Royal Mile, near the famous Edinburgh Castle. Lots of Americans and many other nationalities present. (Taylor Swift starts a three-night run tomorrow).

Our AirBnB near Warrender Park

Harry Potter street

#NathGeo: The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship - Day 1

Today is a travel day. I was not expecting it to be fun, and so far, it’s worrisome. After watching a storm system rolling in all morning, I thought we’d beat it. So after already boarding my flight in Baton Rouge around 2, I was surprised to hear an announcement that they were deboarding us. The storm is coming through now - lots of wind, lightning, and rain. Typical summer storm here in Louisiana. 

The thunder reminds me of my mjölnir, or Thor’s hammer. I got interested in the symbol after watching the popular Netflix series THE LAST KINGDOM, about the 9th-century Danish invasion of what would one day become the unified kingdoms of England. The main character, born a Christian Saxon, gets captured and held as a slave by a Dane (or Viking). Loved by his captors, the Saxon boy, named Osbert, lives his teen and adult years as the Dane Uhtred. Throughout the series, Uhtred wears a mjölnir as a symbol of his belief in the Norse gods. He is known as a man who gets things done no matter what. Now, those things are not always good and righteous things - he serves as a mercenary for King Alfred the Great, but when something needs doing, they call Uhtred, his mjölnir hanging from his neck to protect him. The Norse mythological figure of Thor, god of thunder, uses his mjolnir to strike others down but also to offer blessings. Thus, the symbol seems particularly appropriate for such a conflicted character as Uhtred.

My favorite Greco-Roman god is Hephaestus, the maker, the craftsman, the metal forger, and hammer user. His mallet looks different from the mjolnir, and its purpose is different too. He hammers out beautiful and useful things for the other gods: thrones for the Olympians, jewelry for his wife Aphrodite, armor for the famous warrior Achilles, and even his own robots to assist him. His hammer is a creative tool. Years ago, when I first started teaching Roman Technology, I had to pull a nail out of a wooden form that I had for setting ancient concrete. One of my students saw me turn a hammer around and use its claw to pull out the nail. She was amazed at what she saw, "You're such a badass, Mrs. Roy!" I laughed at her ignorance of how a hammer works and at my newly-bestowed label. Shortly after this incident, I went to visit a dear old friend of mine who had just taken on a new job as the maker space coordinator at her local library. When I jokingly told her this story, she promptly walked across the room and pulled out a tiny purple 3-D printed hammer. Shortly after I received my special little hammer, I lost a job that I had had for 24 years. I connected these things in my mind and decided that the hammer was my new way of thinking through life. Just be creative and get things done. I moved onto a new job that allowed me to be creative and get things done.

Years later, I still love my hammer and wear it all the time. Whenever I have a special task to do, I wear my hammer. Whenever I have a presentation to give that I'm nervous about, I wear my hammer. Whenever I have a paper, article, or grant to write, I wear my hammer. With my new interest in the Danish world, I figured it made sense to get a mjolnir. This one is based on a famous one found in Denmark from the 9th century. It makes me think of all the cool things I'll be studying on this trip. I think of Uhtred getting it done. Here's my last picture waiting to board a flight in Atlanta to Edinburgh getting things done.

#NathGeo: The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship, Part 3 - The Countdown Begins

You read that right. My circumnavigation of the British Isles with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions departs in 6 days. I'm almost ready, but let's back up a bit in the story.

When I returned from the DC training at the National Geographic Society's headquarters, my students were very curious about my upcoming journey. I'm rarely out of school so when I take three days off in the middle of a school week, they need to know where I was and what I was doing. Simply telling them about it was not enough. They needed pictures, videos, and lots of details. I decided that I needed to get organized with how I shared my journey so I made a presentation (click the link to learn more) explaining everything about the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship.

The students listened with rapt attention especially when I talked about my expedition ship, The National Geographic Explorer and the smaller zodiac boats that launch from it. This presentation came in very handy when I spoke to journalists about the fellowship. My local newspaper, The Baton Rouge Advocate, covered my story with a large article.
To maximize my students' interest, I decided to have them each do a small research project about a topic that would assist me on my expedition. I got this idea from one of the GTF alums, Karina New, whom I met at our DC training.

As I near the departure date for my expedition, I've been doing all kinds of preparation. I had to rent water-proof wellies (boots) for zodiac landings. I had to visit a doctor to talk about scopolamine patches and Dramamine for seasickness. I've never been seasick (even after an overnight ride on a commercial car ferry across the Mediterranean from Athens to Crete), but I've also never been on the North Sea. According to TikTok, the North Sea is trying to kill you. I've also bought some special gear like a phone lanyard so I don't accidentally drop my phone (camera) in the North Sea.

In addition, I've had to plan pre and post-expedition travel with my shipmate, Deb Frietag. We decided early that we would spend a few days traveling in Scotland before embarking on our expedition. We'll go to Glasgow to see the stunning Roman collection at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. My principal, Erin Howard, has already tasked me with getting "merch" with Glasgow on it since our school is named after the famous Scottish city. We'll spend one day taking a tour of the Highlands. After the expedition, I plan to spend another day in London visiting the British Museum to see Legion: Life in the Roman Army. This exhibition will end a few days after I see it so I feel so incredibly fortunate - it contains some of the most interesting Roman artefacts out there, borrowed from all over Europe. Most thrilling is the Vettweiss-Froitzheim dice tower that I've written entire Roman Technology class lessons on. I don't want to jinx it, but I truly can't wait to see this object with my own eyes.

I'll be sharing as much of my journey as I can. I hope you'll follow along!