DAY SIX

Agora at the end of the 5th century BC

Today we spent the day as Athenians of the golden age in the agora (marketplace).  We began by doing some inquiry research about the agora.  In pairs we read some fact sheets, compared maps of the Athenian agora in the 5^th and 4^th centuries BC, and looked at some artists’ illustrations of what the agora might have looked like in the golden age.

We answered the following questions:

1. what sorts of things might you buy and sell in the agora?

2. what kinds of people might spend time in the agora?

3. what activities might go on in the agora?

We also created two sentences of conversation that might be overheard in the agora.

We then gathered all our ideas together onto large sheets of newsprint, synthesising our information.  We had to note what each other had discovered and recorded to make sure we didn’t double up on information.

Organising ideas.

We then used these sheets of newsprint to plan how we could transform the classroom into an ancient Athenian agora.  I had no pre-plan of how this part was going to go, it was to be the children's creation - I would be there to guide and help if needed.  Abigail suggested we start with a plan of where everything would go in the classroom so labels were made for the different types of stalls and areas in the agora and these labels were placed around the classroom.  Once we had a rough layout for our agora everyone chose what kinds of people they were going to be.  Everyone then went off to the different areas to create their stalls/areas.  The classroom quickly became a buzz of imagination and creativity.  We had:

-slave traders and slaves

-a blacksmith making weapons

-food stalls selling bread, meat, fruit, and vegetables

-a flower stall

-a pizzeria stall owner

-a pottery stall selling amphoras

-a clothes and shoemaker stall selling chitons and sandals

-a water fountain

-the Pnyx area for speeches

-a sign for the Port of Piraeus and a trireme in the port

-the Athenian mint where silver was being made into coins.

Stalls were filled with produce, conversations written, speeches to be delivered at the Pnyx were written, statues put up, a trireme in port drawn, and a water fountain was created.

Amphoras, coins, and weapons were drawn in amazing detail using images we had come across in our work as archaeologists, items of clothes were correctly labelled as chitons (tunics), sandals and himations (cloaks), likely pizza toppings had to be looked up (Hawaiian probably unlikely!). Someone asked about the kinds of money that would have been used and so we did some research and learnt about tetradrachms (equivalent to a handful of silver) and obols (a sixth of a tetradrachm). 

Athenian coins with the symbol of the owl.

Finlay's trireme in the Port of Piraeus.

A lot of new inquiry work arose out of our play today and it was fun being able to apply so much of our new knowledge from the last few weeks – we have all learned a lot!  Conversations between housewives picked up on the limited rights of women in ancient Athens.  There were speeches delivered at the Pnyx about how to spend the new found silver at Laurion drawing on new learning about triremes/war strategy, and Pericles’ ideas for the beautification of Athens.  There was even a speech written about the system of ostracisizing citizens with ostracons and another about increasing the rights of slaves.  A water clock was made to time the speeches too (Leon was our water clock and he poured water from one container to the other to time each speech!).

READY!  THE AGORA IS OPEN – LET THE TRADING BEGIN!

First we used the convention of a Circular Drama where we watched parts of our market come alive.  We listened to some speeches in the Pnyx, watched a slave trade, and overheard some conversations between a couple of housewives collecting water from the fountain.

Two housewives collecting water at the fountain - carrying amphoras on their head that they purchased from the pottery vendor.

Slave Market.

Pericles speaking at the Pnyx (Leon is the water clock!)

“Hello citizens of Athens, my name is Pericles and I love to speak to you!  I think we should have a lot less violence to make our city very beautiful.  We should make statues and new buildings for our beautiful city because a beautiful city equals a popular city.  (clapping for audience) Thank you! Thank you!"

Themistocles speaking at the Pnyx (Leon is the water clock!)

 “Hello, my name is Themistocles and I speak for you people.  I think we should spend money on good things.  Things to protect us from war.  Now that we have found silver from the mines at Laurion I think we should build 200 more triremes for protection in wars  (clapping from audience) Thank you!  Thank you!”

Ancient Athenian Ostrakon.

“We should get rid of Leonardo because he robbed us!  Please vote now!  He deserves to be sent away!  We need to ostrasize him.  We need to write his name on 6,000 pieces of pottery to send him away for ten years.  (clapping from audience).  Thank you!  Thank you!” (Another speech at the Pnyx).

Then we played in our market, all getting into role and visiting each others stalls to buy and sell things.  There were handbags of tetradrachms and obols which were used to purchase food, flowers, weapons, clothes, pottery, and pizzas!  Lots of fun!

Ready to shop!

A housewife with her new slave.

Blacksmith - Weapon Shop

Flower Stall

Pottery Stall

Food Shopping

Taking pizza orders

Shopping

DAY FIVE

TRIREMES AND TRADING SHIPS

Today we started with some inquiry work on:

• the Athenian naval fleet of warships called ‘triremes’ (boats that had 3 tiers of oarsmen), 
• the Port of Piraeus, and 
• Athenian trading ships. 

We learnt about Themistocles and how he was an excellent strategist and leader of the Athenian naval fleet during the Golden Age.  Themistocles was responsible for establishing the Port of Piraeus as a successful navy base.  He was responsible for having 200 more triremes built when Athens discovered silver at Laurion.  He was also responsible for building major fortifications at the Port of Piraeus.  There were defensive walls all around the port and long walls running all the way from the port of Piraeus to Athens!

We also looked at maps showing the trade routes of ships from Athens around the Mediterranean during the Golden Age.  We discovered that the Athenians during the Golden Age traded things such as pottery, silver and gold vessels, olive oil, wine (carried in amphoras), and textiles.  

Click on the link 'Athenian Navy' under the heading 'Websites for our Mantle' on the right hand sidebar to see a you tube with images and words about the Athenian naval fleet of triremes.

Following our inquiry work we then created representations of the two different types of ships using ourselves, chairs, and newsprint (and some bamboo sticks that were found in the corner of the classroom!).  This was a great creative exercise with the teams working together to generate ideas, use their imaginations, and problem solve to best create a representation of the boat, (finding the best way to represent 3 tiers of oars was a good challenge!)

Representation of an Ancient Greek trading ship with a cargo of amphoras in the centre.   Evie is the mast and sail.

Representation of trireme with the prow for ramming out the front and the three tiers of oars.  The other Evie is the mast and sail and Olivia is the pipe blower keeping everyone rowing in time.

CONTINUING WITH THE STORY OF THE ODYSSEY

Next we continued listening to the story of Odysseus and making our story maps.  We listened to how:

• Odysseus’s men were punished for eating the sacred cattle of the sun on the island of Thrinacia, 
• Odysseus then lived with Calyspo on the island of Ogygia for 7 years, 
• The gods then decided to let Odysseus return home and sent Hermes to tell Calyso she must release Odysseus.  
• Poseidon then got angry, when he saw Odysseus on the sea once again trying for home, and sent a storm to destroy his ship and
• Odysseus was saved by the nymph Ino, who in the likeness of a gull, lent him her immortal scarf.

Below are some of the illustrations that were drawn on our story maps today.

The sacred cattle of the sun on the island of Thrinacia

Zeus sends a thunderbolt to destroy Odysseus's ship after the men hunt one of the sacred cattle of the sun, despite  Odysseus's warnings.

Hermes the messenger god.

Hermes the messenger god.

Hermes arrives on Ogygia to tell Calypso to release Odysseus and let him return home.

Poseidon (still angry with Odysseus for blinding is son the Cyclops) wrecks Odysseus's boat as he tries to sail home.

The nymph Ino comes in the form of a gull to help Odysseus get to land safely by giving him a scarf of immortality.

AN INTERESTING NEW LINK

‘In Search of the Goddess Athena’.  

I have just added a link to a digital application that allows you to ‘walk’ through the Acropolis museum in search of representations of the goddess Athena.  We have been learning a lot about this goddess who was the goddess of wisdom in war and patron goddess of Athens.  Click on the link 'Acropolis Museum - search for Athena' under the heading 'Websites for our Mantle' on the right hand sidebar.  If the site comes up in Greek you can change it to English by clicking ‘English’ at the bottom of the screen.  

DAY FOUR

ARCHAEOLOGICAL LOG BOOKS: RECORDING THE DETAILS OF OUR FINDS

Today we began with looking at how archaeologists record their findings.  Everyone was given their own ‘Archaeologist Log Book’ and we had a go at recording a find.  We had to make sure we recorded exactly where the thing was found (i.e. what square it was found in), we drew a picture of the find, classified it as either artifact/feature/midden/skeleton, and then wrote a detailed description of the find.

Here is an entry that we share wrote for a Panathenaic Amphora. 

Part of an entry from one of the archaeological log books for the Panathenaic Amphora.

‘This artifact is a pottery Panathenaic amphora.  It was given as a prize at the Panathenaic Games, which was held every four years in Athens in the Golden Age (479-431BC).  The lady on the vase is the goddess Athena.  She was the goddess of wisdom in war and she was the goddess of Athens.  They put olive oil in these to give to the winners.’              

                                  Shared writing.

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG!

Next we headed out on an 'excavation'!  We used string to set up our dig site and we labelled each square so we would be able to record where we found things.  We 'excavated' (by agreeing to believe that when we turned over an image we had 'dug it up') a stone sculpture that we then had to do some research about.  Read some of the entries that were made in our Archaeologists log books below.

Our Archaeological Dig Site!

Part of an entry from one of the archaeological log books for the sculpture of the Contest of Athens.

‘This is a sculpture on the West Pediment of the Parthenon.  It represents the contest, Athena versus Poseidon.  Cecrops was the first king of Athens and the judge.  Poseidon gave a salt water spring.  Athena gave an olive tree.  Athena won.’ By Professor Finlay: Archaeological Scientific Illustrator.

‘This is a stone sculpture of the goddess Athena and Poseidon competing in a competition for Athens.  Their sculptures are on top of the Parthenon in Athens.  The sculptures have been made and carved out of stone.  For Athens Poseidon gave a sea but sadly it was salty.  Athena gave olive trees and won and that’s how it ended.’ By Auriel: Arhaeological Zoologist.

‘Poseidon gave a sea water lake but that was a useless gift.  Then Athena gave the town an olive tree, which gave oil, olives, and wood.  So Athena won.’  By Dr Kai: Underwater Archaeologist.

“This is a stone sculpture of Athena and Poseidon having a context for who will be the ruler of Athens.  Athena said she would gift a big olive tree and Poseidon said he would make a stream.  The people lived the idea of the stream but they drank some water and it was salty!  So they chose Athena.  Poseidon was so mad he flooded the area around Athens.’  By Professor Parker: Archaeological Scientific Illustrator.

‘This is a human made feature on the West Pediment of the Parthenon.  It is a stone statue of the goddess Athena competing in a challenge against Poseidon for the city of Athens.  If you didn’t already know the Parthenon has a twelve metre high statue of Athena because she won the contest with her gift of an olive tree.  Poseidon gave them a salt water stream.’  By Cella: Archaeological Scientific Illustrator.

You can click on the link on the right hand sidebar ‘Contest for Athens’ to hear a telling of this myth.  This link is under the heading ‘Websites for our Mantle’.

CONTINUING WITH THE ODYSSEY

In the afternoon we continued listening to the story of Odysseus and making our story maps.  We listened to how Odysseus faced the bewitching enchantress Circe, successfully got his ship and men past the mesmerising songs of the sirens, and then how they faced the six headed monster Scylla and the water gulping Charybdis.  Here are some illustrations from our story maps.

Circe the Enchantress - turning Odysseus's men into swine.

Circe the Enchantress - Odysseus asks Circe to turn the swine back into his men.

Odysseus is tied to the mast and his men's ears are blocked with softened beeswax so as not to be lured by the songs of the sirens.

Odysseus and his men have to sail between the rocks of the six headed monster Scylla and the sea gulping Charybdis.

DAY THREE

A MYSTERY PERSON

When we arrived in class today there was an outline of a head on the board with a question mark on it.  “Who is that?” “Is it a God?” “Is it Odysseus?” “Is it a Greek hero?.  There was a buzz of suggestions and ideas put forward from the group.

I presented the group with some images and objects from a bag that all had something to do with our mystery person on the board.  The group looked carefully at the images and gathered their ideas.

“he looks like a war leader”

“he is an orator (makes speeches)”

“he is from Athens – the Acropolis is behind him in the picture”

“those letters look like they might be his name”

“he must have been rich and famous to have statues of him made”

Gathering our Ideas about Pericles

Next we split into small groups to read some information about this person, whose name we learnt was Pericles.  Each group shared back some key information about Pericles:

• Athens was a powerful and rich city in the Golden Age and Pericles was the leader of the city.

• Pericles was well educated, intelligent, and a good speaker.

• Pericles led the city not as a dictator but used democracy (voting – letting the citizens have their say in how the city was run).

• Pericles led a big building project on the Acropolis, he wanted to make Athens beautiful and repair all the damage done in the Persian Wars.

• Pericles led the building of the Parthenon with its 12 metre high statue of Athena made of gold and ivory.

• Pericles wanted the building work to provide jobs for many citizens in Athens.

• Pericles lead changes in government included a law that said all Athenian citizens must have two Athenian born parents.  This gave more people rights as many of the wealthy people of Athens had married out of Athens.

• Pericles was a big supporter of the arts, theatre, and music.

• Pericles believed that all people should be well educated and have military training.

COLLECTIVE CHARACTER OF PERICLES

Next we made a collective character of Pericles.  Leon stood in the centre to represent Pericles and the rest of the group took turns to stand behind him and speak aloud possible ideas and thoughts of Pericles.  When someone had read their idea out they sat down and someone else stood up to take their place.  This was quite effective!

“I want people to be more happy and to give me more ideas”

“I want Athens to be the most beautiful polis (city)”

“I think it’s about what we do, not who we are that is important”

 “I think everybody should have the opportunity to have a good job and good money”

“I love plays and art”

“I really want my city to be the most beautiful in the world”

“ I want all the people of Athens to be well educated”

“I love being a politician”

“Athens is a beautiful city of art and theatre and music.  It is a thinking house”

“I think Athens is the best city”

“I think everyone should be able to vote”

“I think we should live in harmony with other cities”

A SMALL COMMISSION

After morning tea I shared a letter with the group.  The letter was from Sophie the archaeologist (a character from a book we read in our first session ‘Archaeologists Dig for Clues’).  Sophie was writing to us for some help.

Dear Team,

I am writing to you in the hope that you might be able to help me and my team of archaeologists understand some artifacts we recently excavated.

Last month we finished a big dig in the Mediterranean near Athens in Greece.  We found a number of artefacts that we believe date back to about 460BC.  We need to present our findings from the excavation at a conference at the end of August but our team does not have much knowledge or expertise about artifacts from this time. We have heard that your team specialises in artefacts from the Golden Age of Athens so we hope you can help us!  We have five artifacts and questions that we need help with (see pictures and questions enclosed).

We look forward to hearing from you soon,

From Sophie (From ‘Archaeologists Dig For Clues’).

We divided into groups to work on the different questions and to write letters back to Sophie with the information she might need.  This required gathering the knowledge we had learnt already and  then looking up other references for more information/detail.

Groups are looking at Panathenaic Amphoras, Athenian coins, sculptures of Athena, Athenian armour, and a piece of pottery with the name of Pericles inscribed on it.  As the groups set to work to analyse their artifact it was impressive how much everyone has already learnt about the Golden Age, it was great to hear so many “aha/I know!” moments.

We will finish these letters next week.

FREEZE FRAMES

Our last activity of the day was to settle down and listen to the next part of the story of the Odyssey.

We listened to the story of King Aeolus and his sack of winds and added this part of the story to our story maps.

Because Samantha had been away last week we decided to make some Freeze Frames with narrators, to tell the story of Odysseus that we had listened to so far.  Each person in the freeze frame was allowed to speak aloud one sentence as well as having one group narrator.  Each group then performed their small freeze frame.  The performances were very fun and entertaining – there are some budding actors and keen performers amongst us!

1. Paris comes across the three goddesses, Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera, arguing about who is the most beautiful.

2. Two men hide inside the wooden horse.  King Menelaus wants his wife back!  Helen and Paris inside Troy.

3. The Cyclops is given wine by Odysseus and then blinded.  The other Cyclops come to his aid but leave again when they hear that “no man” has blinded him!

4. One of Odysseus’s men letting the wind out of the sack while Odysseus sleeps.

DAY TWO

GATHERING IDEAS AND MAPPING

Collective World Mapping

Today we started with a discussion about the country Greece.  A couple of the group have visited Greece but no one was really sure about where one would put it on a World Map.  I challenged the group to draw a world map so that we could put Greece on it and the challenge was met enthusiastically.  With no references the children set to work to collectively draw a map of the world, guiding each other with their personal knowledge.  It was very impressive how the children ALL worked together on this task, sharing the pens with each other as they all added different places.  No individual felt confident to draw the whole map on their own but together the group did it!  While it wasn’t to scale they got every continent and as many countries as I, the teacher, could have put on a world map – well done team!  We then placed Greece on the map and looked at some books on Greece and the Greek Islands.  We gathered our ideas about what we knew as a group about this country already and added some things we noticed in the books and maps.

"The first Olympics were held in Greece"

"It is a hot country"

"There are lots of islands"

"It is in the Mediterranean"

"Greece has lots of mountains"

"It is near the ‘boot’ (Italy) and the soccer ball (Sicily)"

"It is near Egypt"

"There are temples in Greece"(there were a range of ideas about what temples were including where people are buried, palaces where princesses live, and places where gods are worshipped – we are going to learn more about these places later!).

ENTERING THE SPACE OF OUR FICTIONAL COMPANY

Next I invited the group to explore the walls, which had some clues about a fictional company we were going to spend time in.  The group looked at details including books, notices, newspaper articles, company awards, historical timelines, and some photos.  As the children found clues about the company they wrote them up on the board.  This is what they found out:

-"This is a company of archaeologists"

-"They are good at the work they do – they have won awards, the newspaper article talks about how good they are."

-"The company was started in 2000, it is 12 years old."

-"They study Greek things"

-"They are specialists in Greek artifcats from the Golden Age, 479-431BC" (We talked about BC – this was new learning for all).

-"They dig to find old Greek things"

-"They dive to find old shipwrecks"

-"They study ancient Greek gods and goddesses, and mythical creatures"

Next we talked about how we were going to be spending some time in our drama as archaeologists who work in this company.  As a way of getting into this role we next added our own signs to the space, so the group could start to take some ownership of their ‘workplace’.  Signs that were added included:

-pictures on the staff board with details of when they joined the company

-coffee machines and food

-a tool cupboard with tools including clipboards, paper, and pens

-many computers and other electronic equipment

-vases and artefacts

Our Staffboard

Tool Cupboard

Chocolate Dispenser!

Coffee Machine

Adding a Computer to our Computer Suite

There were also some large reference books that were in the space but the pages were empty.  The children spent some time making some pages for the company’s ‘Guide to Mythical Creatures’.  Information pages were written on minotaurs, centaurs, mermaids, unicorns, dragons, and Cerberus.  As we learn more we will be able to add more pages to these books and sort the creatures into different categories.  It was a great way to see what knowledge of mythical creatures the group already has, it was great to see some knowledge of Ancient Greek creatures too.

Reference Books

A PROBLEM

Next we went into role as archaeologists in a Monday morning meeting.  I, as team leader, had a problem for the team to solve.

‘Over the weekend we had a new cleaner come in to clean our offices as our normal cleaner was off sick.  Unfortunately this new cleaner did not know not to move our collection of artifacts we have on display in our foyer.  Luckily nothing has been damaged but the display is all mixed up.  All the artifacts, labels, and descriptions are out of order.  We are going to have to set the display collection up again…’

The team set to work straight away examining ten different artifacts and matching them up to the right captions and descriptions.  This was a fun task and got everyone talking about, and looking closely at, a range of artifacts from the Golden Age of Greece including: vases, marble relief, amphoras, bronze and marble sculptures, old coins, and armour.

Soon the display was put together in the right order – excellent teamwork again.

Sorting our Artifacts and Descriptions

ODYSSEUS – A LEGENDARY GREEK HERO

There was excitement from a couple in the group when I told them that in the afternoon we would listen to some stories about Odysseus.  We are lucky to have a couple of experts on some of the stories of Odysseus and some of the ancient Greek Gods, and they are keen to learn more too! 

As well as being archaeologists in our Mantle work this term, we are also going to spend some time as Ancient Athenians living in about 450BC.  This afternoon we stepped into a typical Athenian house from this time.  We saw rooms with women weaving, rooms where slaves slept, dining rooms where men ate on low long couches, storage areas filled with amphoras (storage jars for food), a courtyard, and bedrooms.  We stopped in the dining room to listen to a bard tell some stories.  Bards were travelling entertainers who told/sang stories about Greek heroes and the gods and goddesses.   Today the bard was telling the story of the Judgement of Paris and the Wooden Horse of Troy.  He then went on to tell the story of Odysseus, one of the Greek generals who fought in the Trojan War and who masterminded the cunning plan of the Wooden Horse.  The bard told the story of Odysseus and his men leaving Troy and being blown off course from home and on to the land of the Cyclops.  We made story maps of the stories we heard today and we look forward to hearing more about the adventures of Odysseus and how Poseidon, the sea god, makes trouble for him!

Story Map: The Judgement of Paris

Story Map: Odysseus and his men hiding inside the Wooden Horse

Story Map: The Cyclops after he is blinded by 'No-Man' (Odysseus)