Hands-On History: My New Class

A few years ago, after my Roman Technology classes finished our Roman Road Project, I asked the students to reflect on their favorite aspects of the project. It should come as no surprise that this project, despite its difficulty, was wildly popular so I wanted to know what the kids liked about it for future replication. Lots of responses referenced actually DOING something, especially with friends, but the most common responses by far centered simply being OUTSIDE to work on this project. One student summed it up perfectly: "Just the whole breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively."

As a 2024-2026 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions, for the past year, I've focused on teaching with National Geographic's Explorer Mindset. And this mindset needs to get students outside. Indeed, in the past few years in which I've taught an outdoor activity (the Roman Road Project, the Penelope Project, oak gall foraging), students have commented again and again about how much more they learned when they do it outside. Everything seems more alive outside. The smells and sounds invigorate the mind. I like to call these lessons "Hands-On History" because we're learning about the ancient past using the senses. We're not just reading and writing about the past, but we are smelling it, hearing it, tasting it, and feeling it.

This past spring, with my principal's approval, I decided to offer a new class called "Hands-On History." This class tasks 8th graders with exploring the ancient archaeology of Rome, Greece, and...Louisiana. We are partnering with the Louisiana Division of Archaeology - their educational experts will be with us once per month for hands-on history activities such as atlatl-throwing, mound-building, and trips to local indigenous sites! I've got so many exciting activities planned. I spent many hours during this past summer researching and dreaming.

As I began teaching students about the ancient world from a hands-on perspective, I somehow came into the possession of a book called Hands On History: A Resource for Teaching Mathematics, edited by Amy Shell-Gellasch and published by the Mathematical Association of America. The wonderful York University (Toronto, Canada) math and art history teacher Hugh McCague wrote two chapters, one on medieval masons and the geometry of labyrinths and the other about Roman surveyors' use of a groma (an ancient sighting tool). I LOVE this book even though I don't teach math, but the lessons all integrate math and history! Maybe this book inspired my use of the term "hands-on history," but most likely, I heard about it by following the inspiring open-air museums found in the UK and all over Europe. Butser Ancient Farm in southern England is one of my favorites to watch. On certain days of the year, visitors enjoy history experts leading them through hands-on activities such as weaving,  grain-grinding, etc. Tim Betz writes about the particular form of engagement visitors experience at this type of museum in his book Making History: Makerspaces for Museums and Historic Sites. "The museum is an inherently colonial act. ...Today we are moving toward the telling of more truthful, more complex, and more critical narratives....Advocates of the post-museum are less interested in transferring knowledge and more interested in engaging the public with culture and inspiring discussion and reflection among the group, aiming for the generation of new knowledge."

We have already done so much so far that it's hard to put it all in one post! We expanded the garden that our Roman Technologists started last year as an ancient herb space, and we have begun composting our lunch leftovers to create soil for our growing garden. 

Most exciting, we have begun our bi-weekly walking field trips to the new branch of our public library. How lucky are we that our school is literally a safe sidewalk-lined half-mile walk to a public library!!? We have umbrellas and panchos for rainy/sunny days, and lots of excitement. Thanks to the Foundation for East Baton Rouge School System, we have all of our activities funded. It's going to be an AMAZING year!!

The Roman Road Project: A Shout Out in a New Book

On this past Thursday, I found myself laughing out loud on my way home from getting a root canal. Why would anyone be in a good mood after uncomfortable dental surgery, you might ask? I was giggling because I heard a voice actor portraying my imagined Southern accent in a new book about experimental archaeology.

Let me back up a couple of years to when my students built a small Roman road through our school campus. In case you missed it... In a project that they dreamed up, we got our local Department of Transportation and Development to partner with us to assist us in learning civil engineering concepts. We learned how to use the ancient Roman surveying tool, the groma, we hauled lots of rocks, and our road turned out great until a Mardi Gras reveler rolled a bike through the wet concrete of its top layer. It all turned out great in the end though, and if you're looking for resources on how to build your own Roman road, see this post about it.

One of the most interesting moments during the Roman Road Project was getting to host best-selling science author Sam Kean in my classroom. He had reached out to me via email a few months before we began the project. He was working on a book about experimental archaeology and had found my name on a database of experimental archaeology projects hosted by EXARC, an international organization dedicated to the field. About halfway through the project, Sam came to visit and actually helped the kids haul rocks. It was fun meeting him and showing him a few other items in my classroom, like a sponge stick, most likely used by the Romans as toilet paper.

Sam's book came out in July, and it's such a huge project! Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Recreating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations takes the reader on a journey to many ancient civilizations, including California, Mexico, China, Egypt, and a few others. In the Rome chapter, the Roman Road Project is talked about alongside the amazing work of Roman food expert Sally Grainger and hair archaeologist Janet Stephens. What an honor to be talked about in the same chapter! But back to my giggles...

I drive back and forth to work daily, which means usually about 45 minutes in the car every day. Lucky for me, my local public library has LOTS of audio-books of which I take FULL advantage so I was so thrilled to see that Sam's new book was one of those. They hired a voice actor to read the book, and every time he does the voice of someone, whether man or woman, he attempts a regional accent. When I heard myself depicted like Scarlet O'Hara, I nearly had to pull over from laughing, even with a numbed-up mouth and traumatic drill sounds ringing in my ears.

In the book, Sam introduces me with the famous story of my mom telling me that paleontologists had dug up all the dinosaur bones, thus killing my archaeological aspirations. He talks about some of our Roman Technology projects and then tells about his experience helping with the road. His interactions with the kids really stand out - I'm so proud of them! It's a great little segment! He also posted some pics and extra notes from his time with us on his Website in the "Bonus Section" for the book. In all seriousness, I'm so honored that Sam found my and my students' work valuable (and entertaining) enough to include in this fascinating book. Go check it out!

The Roman Road Project - A Happy Update on an Unhappy Anniversary

Tonight is the anniversary of our Roman road getting ruined by a Mardi Gras reveler.

The Southdowns neighborhood Mardi Gras parade is set to roll this evening, and as I sit here in my classroom working on a professional development day, I look out my window to our beautiful little project and reminisce.

Over two months last school year, my Roman Technology students built a 160-foot-long sidewalk in the building style of a Roman road. The space needed an upgrade, nearly unusable due to flooding during rainy seasons. During January and February of last year, we learned how ancient Roman engineers and soldiers measured, surveyed, and constructed roads. We worked our hearts out with the help of our local Department of Transportation and Development and their stellar research director, Dr. Tyson Rupnow. We put the finishing touches on the concrete and walked away for Mardi Gras break.

When we returned the next week, someone had ridden a bike through the wet concrete leaving deep and unfixable ruts, and everyone was angry. I wrote about it on this blog post which got almost 400 views. We fixed the ruts using bronze-colored resin and moved on.

And now a year later, I look back on this project with great affection. Our little road is used daily by many students traversing our long campus, just getting from the front of the school to the back. But far more than its pedestrian use, our little road has become an event location on campus. During our school's Diwali celebration in November, the activities happened along the Roman Road - face painting, calligraphy, Indian food, and dancing! The art teacher asked if her students might decorate the stepping stones that line the road with colorful mandalas. Absolutely!! Our little road has achieved its purpose...and at least one of the purposes of an ancient Roman road: to bring people together. 

The Roman Road Project - Paving the Way

If you're anything like me, when I'm working on a project, I'm so into the research, that I can quote numerous authors down to the paragraph and page number. But after the project is over, I tend to forget details. This blog post is an attempt to document what I did to prepare for the Roman Road Project, not only as a means of sharing with others that want to do similar work but also for my own benefit. I'm including experts I reached out to, texts I read, articles I found, and books I bought or borrowed. I hope it helps you "pave the way" to your own Roman road project.

People:

Dr. Eric Poehler is a classics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Having read his Traffic Systems of Pompeii, I emailed him for general information on Roman roads. He kindly sent me several of his articles, including my favorite one on the Romans' use of molten iron to repair streets. And by the way, if you're ever hesitating to reach out to a perfect stranger in the professional world, don't! Every expert I've ever contacted has been utterly thrilled to have someone ask about their work. Dr. Poehler was especially delighted that we were using his work in an ancient road project.

Dr. Tyson Rupnow, P.E., Ph.D., is the associate director of research at the Louisiana Transportation Research Center (the research arm of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development) and an adjunct professor in construction management at Louisiana State University. Reaching out to him early was the best decision I made for this project. Tyson became our guide and civil engineering expert for the project. I learned an incredible amount of information from him as did my students. He taught the students famous engineering expressions like "We aren't buildin' a watch!" But please don't call this man - find your own local DOD or DOTD person in your state or area. They will have more specialized knowledge about YOUR specific location. All of these departments have education outreach programs too.

Dr. Courtney Roby is a classics professor at Cornell University. I met her when we presented on a STEM in Classics panel at CANE's annual conference. She talked about how she taught her students to use a groma in a surveying exercise, and I was hooked reading her work. Without her expert advice and generosity of time, I would not have seen some crucial texts about Roman surveying tools.

Books:

Jean-Pierre Adam's Roman Building: Materials and Techniques, 1994. I bought this one late in the game, and when it arrived, I wished immediately that I had gotten it sooner. The pictures and diagrams in this book are unmatched! I still haven't had a chance to read it completely, but I'm confident that I'll develop many future Roman Technology class lessons from the information in this book.

Hugh Davies' Roman Roads in Britain, 2008. More so about the legacy of Roman roads and their influence of modern roadways, this book was a nice read.

O. A. W. Dilke's The Roman Land Surveyors: an Introduction to the Agrimensores, 1971. Shoulda bought it, may still (stay tuned LOL) even though it's $90. He writes so clearly, and his conversion table of Roman measurement - chef's kiss! Thanks to Courtney Roby for introducing me to this work.

M. J. T. Lewis' Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome, 2001. At first, I tried to get by with borrowing this book from the library, but I ended up just buying it because his explanations of groma surveying and road construction were so specific and helpful. Even better was his list of classical sources for all the instruments he discussed - I can't stress this enough! I like to show kids the literary evidence for all the technology we discuss, and sometimes, that's hard to find. So, this source list was a dream come true.

John Peter Oleson's (editor) The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World, 2008. I use this text as my go-to for anything STEM related in classics, but the article on roads quoted Vitruvius (see Poehler below) and was not focused on the building process.

John Peter Oleson's (editor and author) Building for Eternity: The History and Technology of Roman Concrete Engineering in the Sea, 2014. I've been drooling over this book for a while, and I finally bought it...only to give it as a thank-you gift to Tyson. I liked reading about how the team used concrete core samples to identify the sources of volcanic ash. The process reminded me of how LaDOTD tests asphalt and cement cores in their lab. One day...maybe I'll have my own copy. It's a very niche book from which I doubt I'll develop lessons, but some books are just good foundations for knowledge. There's always a kid asking some crazy question about Roman concrete.

Eric Poehler's The Traffic Systems of Pompeii, 2017. On page 12, he clears up issues with Vitruvius' supposed explanation of how Roman roads were built: the ancient architect wasn't describing a road, but a building foundation. This point was critical for me because nearly every article I read about the building of Roman roads referenced it as fact. In addition, I enjoyed reading Poehler's work on digital cataloging and data analysis in archaeology. His team has made some interesting discoveries using these techniques including the fact that Romans drove on the right side of the road.

Articles:

Hugh McCague's "Learning from the Roman Land Surveyors: A Mathematical Field Exercise," in Hands-on History: A Resource for Teaching Mathematics (editor, Amy Shell Gellasch), 2007. The author explains how to construct and use Roman surveying equipment, a groma (ancient transit) and decempeda (measuring rod), to lay out the two main roads of a Roman town. Very precise instructions and great exercise if you have a small class. Otherwise, you'll have to divide into smaller teams and lay out different towns. I didn't use this lesson, but I plan to in the future.

Poehler, Van Roggen, and Crowther's "The Iron Streets of Pompeii" (2019) in the American Journal of Archaeology gave us ideas on how to repair busted streets. The Romans used molten iron. We decided that might be too dangerous with 11-year-olds so we approximated - metal-colored resin. Here's a synopsis of the article.

I wish there were an article about the remains of a groma found in the shop of the blacksmith in Pompeii. Courtney Roby sent me this link to a picture of it. Also of interest are two gravestones featuring the surveying equipment: the one in Boscoreale and the one in Bologna.

Videos:

Fantastic video on how the Romans built straight roads in ancient Britain using a groma. It's a snippet of a longer series uploaded to YouTube by a fan so I've been unable to locate it the name of the series. If you know, please email me!

A Roman surveyor re-enactor shows in this video how they set up a military camp with a groma. He demonstrates perfectly the use of an oil pot to dampen the swing of the plum bob caused by the wind.

Rami Tamimi is a civil engineer with a fantastic YouTube channel all about how to survey land using modern tools. His pacing tutorials - perfection!! One of our first lessons on the Roman Road Project was pacing, and he offered great suggestions on the basics of this process.

Vitruvius' hodometer is bound to come up when talking about measuring distance. His description is in De Architectura, IX, and this video of Da Vinci's version was helpful for students to visualize how the device worked.

Archaeologist Darius Arya recently completed a YouTube video series on the Via Appia - helpful for background knowledge about this particular Roman road.

Websites:

Whenever I'm searching for images of Roman soldiers doing just about anything, I look to Trajan's column. Dr. Roger Ulrich's Website, Trajan's Column in Rome is a comprehensive collection of high-resolution images of the monument as well as research on it. I found great images of road-building here.

Orbis: the Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World offered my students some fun imagining travel through the Roman world. I incorporated this fantastic tool into a lesson about milestones.

We really wanted our road to have milestones, but for a variety of reasons, it didn't happen. However, I sure loved learning about the Tabula Peutingeriana - I didn't know that its original version was dated to the first century BCE due to the inclusion of Pompeii on the map. I also introduced the students to the Forma Urbis - can I just mention how awesome this thing was?! And this Website by the Stanford folks was super helpful. In all this searching about how the Romans mapped their world, I was hoping to find a comprehensive list of milestones from the Roman world, but I found no such thing. Many in the British countryside have been repurposed as stones in later-built castles.

I'm sure there's more that I've already forgotten. Putting together a huge project like this is time-consuming but fun. I hope this little bit of background saves someone (and me) some time later on. Maybe I "paved the way" for someone!

The Roman Road Project - Front Page Story!

Yesterday, I attended a lecture at Tulane University about Roman army re-enacting by Dr. Jonathan Zarecki. Focused on the lorica segmentata that visually marked soldiers as Roman, his talk detailed how his experience as a re-enactor gave him insight into the daily life of ancient soldiers. When I raised my hand to ask a question, I introduced myself as an instructor who teaches a class called Roman Technology in Baton Rouge, LA. He interrupted my question to ask if we "were the ones who built the Roman road."  LOL In addition, three more people approached me at the lecture reception to ask about the Roman Road Project. We're famous, y'all!!

On Monday of this past week, we showed up on the FRONT PAGE of the Baton Rouge Advocate! Huzzah!!!

Here's the online article that has live links to blog posts.

Here's a link to a PDF version of the article as it appears in this picture.
















Back to the excellent lecture...Dr. Zarecki went into great detail about the Roman army cuirass - the body armor worn by nearly every Roman soldier (pictured here on Trajan's Column in Rome).

He stated that most re-enactors don't make their own because metalworking is difficult and expensive. As I looked at pictures of it with its segmented pieces, I realized that it could easily be made with cardboard in the style of Raphael Urbain's Epic Cardboard Props. (If you haven't heard of Raphael, I urge you to run over to his YouTube Channel to check out his masks and other props.) It's hard to believe they are made of cardboard!

After my own experience making a Demogorgon mask out of cardboard this past Halloween, I think this armor would be pretty simple. New Roman Technology challenge loading...the students will LOVE this!!

Me wearing the Demogorgon mask I made from cardboard. (Stranger Things: Season 1)

The Roman Road Project - All Journeys Come to an End

On Thursday of last week, we held the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Roman Road Project. Sadly, this project has come to an end, but not without some reflection before I say goodbye. 

In no particular order, here are a few thoughts I don't want to forget about this experience.

Being outside is a balm for souls. As our project came to an end, I asked the students to write some thoughts about the project, and so many of them mentioned how much they loved working outside on a project, even in cold weather. I have to concur. I craved being outside, and many times, it seemed as though the outdoor world was calling us. Nearly every day on the project, we were joined by a feathered friend in a nearby tree. He sang the same tune to us that I listened for every time we worked outside. I recently found out he is a Carolina Chickadee. The Romans paid close attention to the flight of birds and attached great meaning to it. I like to think that this little bird was telling us to keep going with our project and offering his special blessing to it. On the last day of our project, I got this recording of him.

Listen to kids. They have the best ideas, and they really are capable of big things. You could not have paid me to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for anything. I normally find these affairs to be performative and pretentious, but when my students said they wanted to have one, I took them seriously. My DOTD expert on the project encouraged me to plan it, and with the kids' help, we did. And OH. MY. GOODNESS. Am I glad I submitted to this idea! The event was incredibly joyful. We honored donors, got interviewed by the newspaper, celebrated our achievement, and best of all, ate cake. Here's a video of the actual cut - the clouds look so fluffy. It was a perfect day!

Find your nerds. Initially, I was reluctant to reach out to DOTD for this project for so many reasons, but mainly, because requesting significant help from a working adult is a big ask. Fortunately, I found the exact right person in Dr. Tyson Rupnow. As a civil engineer, he not only works to better the lives of others, but he's committed to passing on that passion to young students. His extensive knowledge of ancient Roman and modern roads was the perfect mix of nerdiness that was needed for this project. He spent nearly every day of the project with us, lecturing about different aspects of civil engineering, calling contacts to get supplies donated, and guiding us in the road building itself. He was so patient with all the students and just a true trooper. We could NOT have done it without him! And I already miss having him as an education partner in my classroom.

Show kids how to struggle with grace. This project tested the limits of my knowledge and patience. It was chaotic at times, physically challenging, and disappointing - I nearly cried when I found out about the bike ruts that a Mardi Gras parade goer made in the wet concrete we had just poured on the last day of our build. The students were incensed, but I tried my best to model dealing with a setback in a constructive way. In fact, a civil engineer who came to our ribbon-cutting ceremony stated that he loved the ruts because it taught students about real-life on-site issues that come up frequently in engineering and construction. We have since poured bronze-colored resin into the ruts. It's not the most beautiful fix, but it will have to do. And we are not going to let this setback ruin our overall experience.

All journeys must come to an end. When the Roman poet Catullus traveled to his brother's grave in a faraway land, he said his hello and goodbye in one short phrase: "Ave atque vale." Hello because he hadn't seen him in a long time; goodbye because he would never see him again. Even though I'll see our little road every day, my time with this project is over. I'll say my hello every morning when I get to school, but my official goodbye right now. 

The Roman Road Project - Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Since our Roman road was completed at the end of February, we've been working on some details to finish it up. At the request of our principal, we planted wildflower seeds along the sides of the road and then placed stepping stones nearby to protect them. The students decorated the stones with inspiring quotes about journeys and roads. My favorite: "Every journey of a thousand miles starts with one step." What a great description of our project! I decorated one with that famous line from Book I of the Aeneid: "forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit." And perhaps, one day, it WILL be pleasing to have remembered these things: foot-deep mud, heavy buckets of limestone, smelly rubber boots, and dirt-covered classroom floors.

Sometime during a lecture on milestones, one of my students asked if we could have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Roman road. Dr. Tyson Rupnow, our DOTD expert, was sitting in the back of the classroom at the moment, and he later told me enthusiastically that we should do that. He wanted to invite the state secretary of the DOTD, Dr. Shawn Wilson. Interestingly, Dr. Wilson just resigned his position as secretary and announced his run for governor of our state! Tyson thought that Dr. Wilson would really enjoy seeing our little road. Stay tuned -  we may be meeting a gubernatorial candidate!

Needless to say, since the day I agreed to have the ceremony, we've been busily planning - a road-themed cake, large scissors, and tiny gold laurel crowns. We made these out of gold-leaf ribbon, cheap metal headbands, and gold twist ties. We also have some special ones for Tyson and our principal, Erin Howard. 

We've also been thinking about speeches. The students want me to speak, and I think I've almost agreed to it. I'm not someone who likes the spotlight - I prefer to shine it on my students, and we've planned for them to serve as master/mistress of ceremonies, guest director, ribbon cutter, etc. But if I do speak, I would like to tell everyone how wonderful my students are and how hard they worked to make this project happen. They DESERVE victory crowns of real gold!

Here's our invitation - they will be going out soon!

The Roman Road Project - The Ruts That Ruined It

On Friday, February 17, my students worked alongside DOTD to complete the concrete layer on our Roman Road Project. It was an arduous, day-long process that exhausted all of us, but we were so thrilled to be done with the construction phase of our little road/sidewalk.

 

We diligently placed signs and netting on the entry points. Our principal made an announcement to all our students to not walk on the wet concrete, and we had no issues getting everyone off campus for our three-day Mardi Gras break without damage to the road. I left campus that day feeling the glow of accomplishment. We had almost completed a service project that the kids had dreamed up nearly three years ago.

Just in case, we left orange netting and signs on all areas of the concrete.

Unfortunately, we didn't account for what might happen on an open campus during the Friday night neighborhood Mardi Gras parade. I returned after Mardi Gras break to this scene. Someone had ridden a bike down the whole length of the road leaving a high ridge on either side of the rut and effectively ruining our work. Many deep sighs were breathed. My students and I were devastated. We gave ourselves a whole day to be mad and grieve our lost work before we started brainstorming how to fix it.

We started by recalling how many ruts ancient Roman roads had. And then I reminded them of one of the most interesting articles I've read about Roman roads: "The Iron Streets of Pompeii" by Poehler, Van Roggen, and Crowther, which explored the Romans' use of molten metal to fill in cracks and strengthen damaged streets. (You can read a condensed version of the article here.) After many discussions about what to do, a few options emerged.

Option 1: Use Quikrete to fill in the ruts and then a sanding tool to flatten out the ridges. Not super Roman, but probably effective.

Option 2: Although I'm not going near molten metal of any kind with 12-year-old students assisting, I really love the idea of filling it in with epoxy resin. Maybe we could stain it the color of iron or put some glitter in it (alright, I might be watching too much TikTok). The contrast between the gray of the concrete and the shiny glitter would be striking.

Option 3: Leave it alone as a testament to vandals everywhere. The Romans dealt with vandalism all the time in their public spaces. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that we didn't end up with some other kind of symbol on our road:

(Yep, the Romans sometimes used phallic symbols like this one carved into their roads to advertise their brothels...so not really vandalism, but...pretty funny nonetheless.)

What do YOU think we should do?

The Roman Road Project - The Mud That Was out for Blood

Does this man's marching boot from the Roman fort at Vindolanda in northern England look like it could sustain use in wet, muddy areas? I'm skeptical. And I've been thinking about this issue a lot lately due to the weather in Louisiana.

I often wonder how much easier it would have been to build our little road back in October when it didn't rain for almost 6 weeks. I wonder about that a lot because right around the time we started building in mid-January, it rained nearly every day. Like clockwork, it rained, and rained, and then rained some more. It was nice to work in cooler weather, but the rain caused a massive amount of mud. So. Much. Mud. To add insult to injury, the area our road passes through is basically a swamp. After all, that's the reason we're building the road - to give our students and teachers another route through the school that wasn't possible before.

Here's one of the large puddles:

It got so bad sometimes, that we actually got stuck in it. "That mud is out for blood" was our joke. My little 6th graders often complained about getting stuck, and I didn't really believe them until I myself got my boot almost pulled off my foot by the mud. Luckily, a nearby 8th-grade boy pulled me out. We all wore rubber boots to keep our feet clean (thanks to a grant, I was able to purchase shared boots), but our pants nearly always ended up with splatters. There was very little chance of not getting dirty on this project.

At the end of each class, I apologized profusely to our custodian, Mr. Shawn, who had to sweep up all the dirt and mud we dragged into the building after each building session. My classroom had all the makings of a disaster. Muddy boots came in, and then dried out and flaked off large chunks of dirt which the evening custodian, Mrs. Geraldine, swept up. When I told my students about how bad I felt about dirtying up the floors that others had to clean up, they suggested buying special gift cards for our custodians. What a magnificent idea! This project has forced my students and I to think through so many details.

If we're having trouble dealing with mud with modern rubber boots to help us, what did the Romans do? Archaeologists have found many leather boots and shoes at the Roman fort at Vindolanda along Hadrian's Wall in England. None of them look even remotely similar to boots that we wear to trudge through the mud. And there MUST have been mud in ancient Britain. Even if Roman soldiers had boots high enough to protect them from mud puddles, how would the leather have performed in such wet conditions? And where would they clean off the leather boots they wore for these projects? The whole prospect of it gives me fits to consider. It must have been a big old mess.

And that leads me to think about our next big project in Roman Technology class. Shoes - studying them, exploring leather tools used to make them, designing them, and actually building our own Roman sandals. I hope to visit Vindolanda's shoe collection this summer to get inspiration. Sometimes, the technology we study may seem mundane, but imagine living your life without shoes as an ancient Roman soldier. Impossible without Roman technology!

Here's my own shoe in the mud:

The Roman Road Project - The Answer Is Blowing in the Wind

As much as I enjoy carrying large rocks far distances through the mud (that's a joke), building the actual road was not nearly the most interesting part of the Roman Road Project. By far, the most exciting thing was learning to use a GROMA, the ancient Roman surveying tool. Dr. Courtney Roby had explained how to use one as she does in her Roman technology class at Cornell University (I talked about how integral my conversation with her was in another post). I remember her telling me that one of the issues she had was steadying the swinging lines used to sight the rods in a straight line. I had read that the Romans used little pots of oil to steady the sway of the plum bobs attached to the ends of the lines. Despite the fact that neither Tyson, my DOTD expert, nor I thought this method would work, we decided to give it a try.

It was a sunny, clear day when we set out on our first day of surveying. Tyson had brought some old transits to show the students how things were done in the olden days. He also talked about new laser transits in use today. Looking through the scope on the transit, the students were amazed at how far they could see with such great detail.

 

We used the groma to mark the outlines of the road from one point to another. We didn't have to do the more complicated procedure of setting up right angles for the corners of towns, forts, or buildings as the Romans did. In the picture below, 6th-grade Roman technologist Warren is sighting the green lines of the groma with the rod that Tyson is holding in the distance.

So, here's what was going on near the ground to make these lines work. 8th grader Skylar is performing this same procedure from the other direction. You can see the oil pots set up below the groma.

We tried using the groma without the oil first, and we quickly discovered that it was nearly impossible to get the lines to quit swinging even with little to no wind blowing. This realization prompted our decision to try the oil.

We set up small bowls of oil on top of blocks of wood that I normally use for stone cutting. We stacked as many as needed to get just the right height for the plumbs to hang into the oil ever so slightly. Sometimes this required stacking smaller pieces of wood we were using as our rods to align the road. I imagine the Romans needing a set of wood pieces to carry around with their groma setup for this very purpose.

After all these machinations, Tyson and I laughing at the absurdity of this method, we finally got the plumbs hanging in the oil, and...something amazing happened. The lines stopped swinging immediately, the motion of the plumb bobs being stopped by the density of the oil. Tyson and I were stunned. I'm sure the Romans would have used olive oil. I had brought some cooking oil because I hate to waste good-quality olive oil. I wasn't expecting this experiment to work at all. I was so sorry I didn't have olive oil to try out and compare. Just for fun, we also tried water which did not work. The students jumped to explain the difference between oil and water - they are so smart!

To me, this day was the best on the project. We used actual experimental archaeology to figure something out. 

The Roman Road Project - The Famous Nerd Author Visit

I don't really remember when science/history writer Sam Kean reached out to me, but it was at least a year ago. I got an email from him randomly. Since I was familiar with his books, I kinda thought it might be a joke. But, for real, the New York Times best-selling author of The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements and Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us was really contacting me. Terri Gross interviewed him for Fresh Air (you can listen here.)

Sam writes my favorite type of book, non-fiction stories about technical science, but because they are stories, you want to read them; in fact, you can't put them down. You can tell he was a journalist at some point in his career. Authors like Jon Krakauer, Erik Larson, Daniel James Brown fall into this category too, and I love them! Sam also has his own podcast (also called "The Disappearing Spoon") about nerdy science stuff, exactly the kind of thing I like to listen to on my daily walks. By the time of his visit, he had been writing for a podcast called "Against the Odds," one of my favorites. The series he wrote was about a New Orleans Navy captain named Oliver Naquin whose submarine sank on a training mission in 1939 and was rescued by a diving bell, the first of its kind.

According to his first email to me, Sam was writing a book about experimental archaeology. He had found my name and Website because I'm a member of ExArc, an international organization and community dedicated to sharing work about archaeological open-air museums, research on material culture, and all things related to the field. Sam and I chatted on the phone for a long time about all the projects I incorporate into my Roman Technology curriculum, and he asked if he might visit my class at some point. We played email tag for a long time after that until he could finally nail down a time to visit. He wanted to see our Roman road project in action.

During his visit in February, Sam tried out writing with squid ink on papyrus. I also showed him how to make ink from oak galls. In this picture, he's writing "Fourscore and seven years ago..." (the first line of the Gettysburg Address). I wondered if he wrote that phrase a lot for testing out pens and other writing tools. Every time I test out ancient writing tools, I always use "Arma virumque cano..." (the first line of the Aeneid), or "Odi et amo" (from Catullus 85). Everyone has their line, I guess.

During his three-day visit, Sam was a trooper. He never complained about the mud at our build site, or my loud but charming students, or the absolute chaos of my classroom, every wall of which was lined with muddy rubber boots. And despite being stuck in my classroom for over an hour in a school-wide lockdown (a kid was having a medical emergency and needed to be loaded onto an ambulance none of which we knew at the time of the actual experience), he never panicked and even agreed to talk to my students about his craft during the lockdown. The kids thoroughly enjoyed asking him questions about his books and travels. He told them about his visit with Janet Stephens, the "hair archaeologist" who reproduces ancient Roman hairstyles using authentic tools and methods. When they asked him whether he would be writing about our Roman road, and he responded with an enthusiastic yes, you could hear the hushed excitement. 

It was so gratifying to have a writer I admire for his nerdiness (and I mean that as a total compliment) want to talk to ME about MY nerdy work. And I fully expect him to feature his visit to my Roman Technology classroom in another episode of "Against the Odds: School Lockdown."

The Roman Road Project - What will we name it?

I began our unit on Roman roads with an overview of the famous roads of ancient Italy. When my students found out that all the roads had names, they immediately seized on the idea of naming our own little road. "Can we name OUR road? What are we gonna call it?"

Some suggestions:

1. Via Caledonia: Caledonia is the ancient Roman name for Scotland. Since our school is Glasgow Middle named after the street it's on, this name would make sense!

2. Via Principalis: The lower east/west road in a Roman military camp or fort was called the principalis because it led to the principia or headquarters of the camp. Not only does our road run east/west, but it also leads to our school's office, the headquarters of sorts.

3. Something else??

Want to help us name it? Check out this survey to vote or offer your own suggestion.

Meanwhile, we finished installing the sand so kids are already trying to walk on the jagged surface of our little road. We are excited to finish!

The Roman Road Project - The Hard Work We All Need

I recently attended an excellent online lecture about the work of ancient Roman potters. The Archaeological Institute of America hosted Dr. Elizabeth Murphy as she spoke about the lives of these workers. She started with a quote from Herbert Appelbaum's book The Concept of Work: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, "Work is the spine that structures the way people live, how they make contact with material and social reality, and how they achieve status and self-esteem. As anthropologists, we are interested in work because of what it tells us about the rest of society, based on the viewpoint that basic institutions touch all institutions." And it got me thinking about our project.

In the short time that we've been building our road little road, the work of building has changed our lives in small ways. We're all getting more exercise and enjoying the outdoors immensely even when it's chilly. In a recent informal survey about the Roman road project, every single student (nearly 80) said they were having fun building the road even though it was hard and the stones were heavy. They got to "hang out with friends" as they worked. I've noticed friendships forming that had not been there before. These new friends carry their buckets together as they walk back and forth from the rock pile, chatting as they go. They help each other with the unwieldy wheelbarrow.

Did the Roman soldiers have the same feelings we are now when they worked on a project? Many students also mentioned that they were proud to be building something that would be used by their classmates and help the school with a problem. Did the Romans feel that pride? I think they must have even though they went to bed tired and sore every night.

Appelbaum's quote highlights an aspect of experimental archaeology that resonates with me. The voices of the marginalized of Roman history are rarely heard in literature. Reproducing their work environments using tools and methods they did can help to bring those voices to life. I wrote a piece about this a few months ago for Edutopia. (You can read it here.)

My students have been through a LOT in the past three years with Covid shutdowns, online and hybrid classes, disjointed friendships, and the stress of getting back into the routines of in-person school. This project has been the perfect opportunity for us to come together for a common goal. Students from our last Roman Technology class, the ones who missed out on a big collaborative project due to online learning, regularly stop by the help us. The work keeps us busy, no time to argue, look at our phones, or worry about much of anything. Bucket after bucket. Stone after stone. Our road will soon be done, but its impact will be forever.

The Roman Road Project - All Roads Lead to...Glasgow

Road construction has officially begun! Mud was splashed, rocks were moved, students were inspired, and teachers are sore.

Normally, I don't post pictures of my students in public spaces, but my phone camera is so bad, I don't think you can see their faces. They built this part of the road in just 45 minutes. I expected my students to complain, but half of my first-period class asked to return for second period! I had to say no due to a lack of supplies. I've since ordered more boots and gloves to accommodate extra students. 

When we started moving rocks, we quickly realized that we would need to demarcate the borders of the road which we had previously measured and marked with our gromas. It worked great! But it was hard to keep the lines straight even with the assistance of the wooden rods we had set up for this purpose. We had to realign frequently.

I've had people ask about excavation and why we aren't doing it. Answer: time and resources. It must have taken the Romans a LONG time to excavate. According to Dr. Tyson Rupnow (my DOTD road expert), the Romans would have built right onto a surface especially if it were swampy just like ours. No need to dig down when the ground you're laying the road on is already low.

Here's a time-lapse video of that first-period class.

Look how great we did in only one day!

These students from another local school visited us for their Career Day. They wanted to know how they might use their interest in classics in the real world. One wants to be a teacher and the other a civil engineer. They had a great time helping us build the road too.

The Roman Road Project - We Will, We Will ROCK You!

"Tons" is a strong word. When I heard that we would need 42 TONS of rock for our Roman Road Project, I gasped in disbelief. Today, those rocks were delivered, all 42 tons of them. My 6th grade students, with me at the time, were a tad excited. I immediately began to question all my life choices.

When two giant dump trucks of rocks show up to your school, it's a different kind of school day, and it wasn't exactly smooth sailing...if I'm allowed to mix metaphors.

Our project has been funded in large part by a local STEM granting organization, but these rocks were actually donated by a local stone supplier who is fascinated by our project. I met Chris Abadie, Technical Advisor for Pine Bluff and Gravel Co. when he showed up ahead of the rock trucks so he could see the future road site. He came out of pure curiosity - he has never seen a Roman road being built. His stone company supplies many local projects, such as the Comite River Diversion Canal, with rocks from around the country. Ours came from Kentucky. No doubt the Romans would have sourced their rocks and stone locally wherever they were building the next road.

Our big problem today involved soggy ground. The trucks which already weigh a LOT would surely get stuck as they delivered their loads in the grassy spot we had picked out. We had to make the difficult decision to dump the rocks closer to our school's basketball courts and further from our building site. Even with the trucks just beyond the concrete, the first one got stuck in the soggy ground and had to get pulled out by the other truck. Those truck drivers know what they're doing!

The dump was amazing! And honestly, it's not really that much. Stones just weigh a LOT. One of my classes got to enjoy the scene with me. After we reveled in the height of the piles and the gigantic stones they contain, we pondered how in the world we're gonna move them! We'll address that challenge on Thursday. We don't want to do everything the modern way - after all, we are building a Roman road the Roman way. Stay tuned...

Watch dump #1 here, and dump #2 here.

The Roman Road Project - Funding

Money
It's a crime
Share it fairly, but don't take a slice of my pie
Money
So they say
Is the root of all evil today
               -Pink Floyd

Whenever I tell someone about our Roman Technology class projects, I usually hear, "Wow! That sounds amazing. Where was this class when I was a teenager?" After talking about some of the details of the work, the inevitable next question is always, "How do you fund your projects?"

My answer - STEM grants. The available funding for large projects is one of the best aspects of teaching a STEM subject. Industry has the funding and has every reason to give it. They want future engineers, doctors, pipe-fitters, road builders, etc. And I am happy that my students receive this funding. They are 75% students of color. People of color are underrepresented in STEM fields as they are in classics.

This year, our program received two grants:
$500 from the National Lieutenant Governors Association. During the summer of 2022, this organization announced its new STEM Scholarship Program, and we received one of its first awards.
$2500 from the Neighbors Bank Capital Area Foundation. Our Roman Technologists received a Project Grant for Public Schools for "projects that exhibit a lasting impact on the school and community." Since our Roman road will offer another pathway through our outdated campus, it was a strong contender for this award.

Applications for STEM grants can be complicated and time-consuming, but they are worth the effort. We have gotten funding from Lowe's Toolbox for Education, Exxon Mobil, local water conservation companies, and the International Association of Material Science (for our Roman concrete project).

Thanks to NEIGHBORS and the NLGA for their generosity and support!