This partial Roman head, dating to 50-31 BC, was excavated from Santa Cornelia in Rome.
It was embedded in the wall of a church which was later converted into a monastery. The head was probably from a Republic-era ancient Roman sarcophagus (coffin).
Half heads were often placed either side of the sarcophagus. These heads were made in bulk, and then altered to suit the features of the individual being buried.
This replica Harvester Vase is in our Classics Collection.
The Harvester Vase was found at Hagia Triada, a Minoan site on the island of Crete, and dates to between 1600 and 1400 BC. The engraving on this small vase (measuring about twelve centimetres) appears to show people celebrating a harvest festival. There are men marching with mouths open as if singing, and possibly carrying winnowing forks.
We have a replica Mycenaean dagger in our Classics Collection.
Many of these daggers were found in the tombs of the Bronze Age Mycenaeans. Their bronze daggers have become particularly well-known, with inlaid decoration of gold, silver and nickel, and painted depictions. The best known is the dagger from the Tomb IV, which represents a lion hunt.
On the original artefact, the hunters are carrying spears and bows, and tower-shaped and figure-of-eight shields. A lion has been hurt and a man lies on the ground, while two more lions escape. On the other side, a lion is hunting a deer. On our replica dagger, the lions are shown but not fighters.
We have a replica "Mask of Agamemnon" in our Classics Centre Collection.
The "Mask of Agamemnon" is a very famous gold artefacts from the Greek Bronze Age. It was discovered at Mycenae in Greece in 1876, and was one of several gold funeral masks. These burial masks were placed over the faces of leaders who had been buried. The mask was the most detailed and stylistically distinct and came to be known as the Mask of Agamemnon. It was named after the famous king of ancient Mycenae, the leader of the Greek army in Homer's poem set in the last year of the Trojan War, the Iliad.
We have this beautiful replica kylix in our Classics Centre Collection.
The kylix displays an image from the story of the Greek hero Odysseus passing the Sirens. The image appears on a stamnos (Greek vase) dating to the fifth century BC, which is currently in the British Museum. It was found in Italy. In the story Odysseus asks his sailors to tie him to the mast of the ship, while they plugged their ears with wax, so he can hear the Siren’s song.
A kylix is a type of Greek wine-drinking or wine-mixing cup. It was commonly used at a symposium (drinking party).
We are delighted to have a lekythos jar on loan to our Classics Collection.
This original ancient Greek jar dates to the fifth century BC. A lekythos is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has quite a narrow body with one handle attached to the neck of the vessel. It is narrow and has no pouring lip. Lekythoi were often used in funerary rites.
This one uses the white ground technique of vase painting, which was too fragile for most items in regular use. Because of the handle they were normally only decorated with one image, on the other side from the handle.
This 19th century souvenir plaster molding of an intaglio seal is part of our Classics Department Collection.
Victorian English aristocrats commonly bought these items on their holidays in Italy. It was a common practice for them to do this and they collected their plaster moldings in large collectors cabinets which usually held hundreds of similar items.
The seal we have depicts the Trojan hero Aeneas carrying his father. According to Roman mythology, he carried his father from the burning ruins of Troy, and went on to found the settlement that eventually become the city of Rome.
This bust of the Greek goddess Athena is part of our Classics Department Collection.
It is based on the famous sculpture known as "The Piraeus Athena", which is a bronze statue dated to the fourth century BC. It currently resides in the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus. Athena is wearing a Corinthian helmet, which in fourth century B.C became very popular, as opposed to an Attic helmet where she is shown wearing in other sculptures. The helmet in the Piraeus Athena has griffins on each side of the crest, and two owls on the visor.
We have two replica "pithoi" in our Classics Department Collection.
A pithos was a large Greek storage container, often for grains or fluids. Large numbers of these have been found on Bronze Age sites such as Minoan Crete. They were usually about as tall as a person, and had handles which would have been used to put ropes through in order for the containers to be lugged around.
Pithoi may also have been used for burial and rituals. A pithos was the type of vessel which Pandora is said to have carried in the myth of Pandora being created by Zeus and bringing evils to mankind by opening the lid of the jar.
This replica Roman Sundial is in our Classics Department Collection.
It was made by Year Nine students as part of a project exploring and making ancient sundials.
The Greeks used a sundial called the “pelekinon” where the gnomon or vertical rod was placed on a horizontal or half spherical face. These sundials are marked to predict time accurately throughout the year. They built a more accurate sundial based on their knowledge of geometry. The hemicycle is one of their inventions. It is a cubical block of wood or stone into which a hemisphere is cut with a stick or rod attached to one end. This created a circular arc with varied length, depending on the season. These arcs were further divided into twelve to indicate the length of each day. The famous Tower of Winds in Athens comprised of eight sun dials that faced cardinal points of the compass.
The Romans adopted the Greek sundials, and the first record of a sundial in Rome is 293 BC.
We have a large number of replica Roman wax tablets in our Classics Department Collection.
Paper was very expensive in the Roman world. Before the technique of making paper from pulp arrived from China into Europe, paper was made from papyrus reeds or parchment. Papyrus (from which the word paper is derived) was made by weaving reeds to form a sheet and then beating the sheet to create a flat surface.
The Romans used writing for things like making lists, leaving instructions and education, where wax tablets were used. These were made from pieces of wood tied together so that they could open and shut. Each piece of wood had a shallow recess that was filled with wax and formed the writing surface. A stylus was used to write on the wax surface. The stylus was usually made of iron but sometimes bronze or bone. One end was pointed for writing and the other end was flattened for erasing so that the wax could be used again.
A wax tablet was most commonly formed of two pieces of wood and was called a "diptych". Sometimes tablets were made of three pieces, called a "triptych", or more, called "polyptychon".
This Roman die dates to between the 2nd and 3rd century BC and is part of our Classics Department Collection.
Gambling took place in taverns, brothels, streets, and military camps. It became a social issue, and the Roman government restricted the use of gambling, imposing heavy fines and penalties. However, the large number of dice found in Roman sites suggests that gambling continued to take place despite the restrictions.