In preparation for our staging of a Roman funeral at the Ashmolean Museum’s DEADFriday event on 30th October, we’ve been trying our hand at making imagines – the ancestor portraits of elite Roman families which they displayed in their homes…
Category: Archaeology
The building bricks of an empire – Podcast 6
Professor Alison Cooley and Dr Jane Masséglia, from the Ashmolean Latin Inscriptions Project, take a closer look at some of the brickstamps in the museum’s collection, including the snazzy personal logo of a man named Lupus:
She Built Rome: A Different Kind of Imperial Woman
‘When Agrippina reviled him [the emperor Tiberius], he had her flogged by a centurion, causing her to lose an eye. When she resolved to starve herself to death, he had her forcibly fed, and when through pure determination she succeeded…
A Bullet with Your Name On – podcast 4
In 41/40 BC, the Romans were at war – with one another. At the town of Perusia, forces loyal to Mark Antony found themselves besieged by the troops of Octavian, the young man who went on to become the Emperor…
(Re)visiting an old friend from Hadrian’s Wall – Podcast 2
Back in early September, AshLI challenged Twitter followers of @AshmoleanLatin to read a tiny bronze plaque in the Ashmolean Collection. By the end of the day, we were really getting somewhere: After some clever sleuthing from classics-lovers and amateur epigraphers,…
What year are we in? How did the Romans talk about years before BC/AD was invented?
It’s the year AD 2015. Happy New Year everyone! For those of us who’ve grown up describing years as BC and AD, it can be hard to imagine doing it any other way. But describing a date as Before Christ…
On the Feast of Saturnalia, my master gave to me…
A Roman Slave’s Carol As the shortest day of the year drew near, the Romans crossed their fingers for a kind winter and people from all walks of life made a break in their usual routine to honour the harvest…
Classics Teachers get special access to Ashmolean on “Teaching with Ancient Artefacts” Day
On 22nd November 2014, 38 teachers from around the UK came to Oxford for a one-day course on how to use ancient artefacts in their teaching. The day was organised by the Ashmolean Latin Inscription Project (AshLI), and delivered by…
Getting rid of Geta – a scruffy inscription concealing a dark deed
How Roman Britons kept on the good side of a bad emperor In 1672, a Roman altar was found on the south bank of the River Tyne at South Shields. Measuring over a meter in height, it had images of…
‘He lived 5 years, 2 months, 6 days, 6 hours’ – The Roman child-slave and the woman who loved him
In 1667, Henry Howard, grandson of Thomas Howard 2nd Earl of Arundel, presented Oxford University with a collection of inscriptions which today belong to the Ashmolean Museum. Among the collection is ANChandler.3.90, a badly worn marble tombstone from Rome. While…