Classics Taster Day – Virtual activity salve! Welcome to the Classics Department, where you have the opportunity to learn about the Romans and Greeks and study their languages, Latin and Ancient Greek. In the first year of Latin our textbook is set in the Roman town of Pompeii, and for your virtual taster activity we would like you to use your imagination and take the role of an archaeologist – looking at artefacts to discover what life was like in an ordinary town 2000 years ago. You may already know that Pompeii, and neighbouring towns like Herculaneum, were completely destroyed by the eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. This tragic event has meant that the towns have become hugely important to historians and archaeologists, as the buildings and many everyday objects were covered and preserved by solid ash and mud. We can now study the towns to see how people might have lived.
First have a look at the interactive content under the tile ‘archaeology’ on this page to get more information on this idea: h"ps://hands-up-educa.on.org/plc/chapter1/index.html (Of course you can look at more if you want, but the archaeology sec.on is all you need)
Now for the ac,vity! Below are a range of artefacts that were discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Can you work out what they are? (answers on next page) We would like you to pick one of these and imagine how they might have been used and what their owners were like. Perhaps you could even build this into a story? Do one of the following tasks and send us your results! •
Write a museum informa.on card for your object(s) – template a"ached.
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Write or perform a play or story that uses your artefact for inspira.on.
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Create a presenta.on or poster about your artefact that explains what it is and who might have used it.
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Create a mini-documentary video as an archaeologist, telling us about your artefact.
If you would like to make your work more factual, you can find out more about daily life in Pompeii on this interac.ve site, where you can Follow Caius, an 8-year-old Pompeian, and discover how a Roman boy lived, ate, played, and studied.: h"p://web1.netribe.it/pompei/uk/home.htm