Classical Studies Support

I’ll start this week’s post by apologising for missing last week! As you’ll know if you receive regular updates from this blog, last week was International Lego Classicism Day, so preparing for that kept me pretty busy (and of course I’ve been standing on rogue Lego bricks ever since!).

Quite apart from the building, photographing and graphic design (oh, and writing the whole story in verse – I have no idea how that happened!), it was fascinating to research. The more I read about the early excavations of Arbeia Roman Fort, the more fascinated I became with the life and work of Robert Blair, who was behind the campaign to rescue the site from building work, and whose collection of Roman antiquities went to the Hancock (now the Great North Museum) on his death.

Blair became well-known in local archaeological circles in the late nineteenth century; he worked with the famous antiquarian John Collingwood Bruce on his Handbook to the Roman Wall, and was Secretary to the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries for forty years. But most interesting to me was the fact that he was born just down the street from my house, in 1844. Back in those days, my hill was occupied by a community of pilots who worked on the river; it was a highly respected profession, and it seems to have been a very tight-knit community. Blair came from a long line of pilots – but somehow he ended up training as a solicitor and setting up an office in the town centre on King Street, about 10 minutes’ walk away. I can’t help wondering how well that went down with his family! But he did well for himself (I think his marriage to the daughter of a ship-owner might have helped!), and moved away from the town centre to a big house in Harton, where he lived for the rest of his life. He’s buried (with his first wife AND his second wife!) in the churchyard directly opposite where his house once stood. My great-grandmother is buried in the same churchyard.

So learning about Robert Blair involved finding out all about my own neighbourhood in the mid-1800s, and finding lots of places where his life intersected with my own family history. It was fascinating – and there’s a lot more still to investigate! In particular, I would like to take a look at his scrapbook, in which his drawings and notes were collected. It was left to the town on his death, and is still held at the local library. If I can get into the library to take a look, you’ll probably be hearing a lot more about Robert Blair over the coming months!

This week, you may also have noticed that my Comfort Classics interviews have been covering a wider variety of sources than usual. That’s because I’ve been making an effort to see beyond Greece and Rome, and think about the ancient world more broadly. It’s difficult, to be honest, because I’m very entrenched in quite a narrow world of traditional ‘Classics’ teaching! But I can’t help thinking that I’m missing a lot. When I interviewed Peter Frankopan last week, he said, ‘I don’t really know what Classics means. I don’t really have a concept of the past that divides into periods or into regions’, and that struck me as something to aspire to. So from now on I’m going to try to present a more open view of the ancient world, where I can, by reaching out to people from related disciplines as well as people who specialise in Greece and Rome. Hopefully it’ll be fun!

This week from around the Classical Internet

News

Pompeii’s controversial new director – The Guardian

Comfort Classics

Caroline K. Mackenzie: Lullingstone Roman Villa

Peter Frankopan: the Alexiad

Alexandra Sills: the Sondheim/Shevelove Frogs

Louise O’Brien: Bes jars

Shana Zaia: The Epic of Gilgamesh

Carl Graves: the stela of Seped-Hor

Comment and opinion

A new document on the accession of Tiberius – Georgy Kantor’s blog

Classics and schools – Society for Classical Studies

Going underground in Rome – Classicalstudiesman

January issue of ‘New Classicists’ – New Classicists

The Greeks and fake news [not sure about this one!] – The Conversation

An interview with Suzanne Lye – Society for Classical Studies

‘Discourse’ updates

Classics in crisis? – Rogue Classicism

Changing “Classics”: a clarification – Classics at the Intersections

Lego Classics

The Ballad of Robert Blair – Classical Studies Support

Cleopatra and literacy – from Pippa Steele at the CREWS Project

Why Lego is good for archaeologists – Abigail Graham

Behind the scenes of the Alphabet animation (see below!) – Philip Boyes at the CREWS Project

New website – The Lego Classicists Family

Podcasts, video and other media

Homeric heroism and Achilles’ heel – Ancient Geek

Agrippina the Younger – The Ancients

Ovid’s Artists – Myth Dynamite

Marcus Aurelius – In Our Time

The Odyssey Escape Room Challenge – Actors of Dionysus

Upcoming Events

Culture and Society at Lullingstone Roman Villa (11 March, free), with Caroline K. Mackenzie – Archaeopress

Virtual Course for Schoolteachers (15-26 April, free) – British School at Athens

Difficult Conversations in Classics (20 March, free) – Res Difficiles 2.0