- FROM LEPTIS TO PALMYRA – A JOURNEY THROUGH ANCIENT ROME’S SOUTHERN SHORES
Join us on a tour of the southern and eastern fringes of ancient Rome’s mighty Empire. With Leptis Magna and Cyrene, Cities of the Sands, we start in troubled Libya, with two great cities once lost to the sands but now rediscovered. Spiritual Cyrene founded by Greek colonists, clinging to its beautiful mountain-top site with its theatre, temples and tombs, and mighty Leptis Magna, first built by Phoenicians – ancestors of Hannibal – now a mini Rome with its imperial forum, basilica, stadium and arena.
Then to Egypt, where in Ancient Faces we gaze on the beautiful realistic portraits on linen, wood or gilded plaster, which appeared on Egyptian mummies when the Romans took control after the death of Cleopatra. In the 1880s the British archaeologist Sir William Flinders Petrie discovered dozens of portrait mummies about 100 miles south-west of Cairo, and recorded them carefully in his diaries. We examine their hair, and dress and even their origins and characters (or at least Petrie’s opinions on them!)
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Finally, to the Syrian desert and once-glorious Palmyra, Bride of the Desert. Palmyra was on a desert trade route bringing silk, spices and other luxuries from the east. We see Palmyra’s glory days, her beautiful monuments and wealthy, cosmopolitan people, with their haunting funeral portraits, then watch her dramatic fall under Queen Zenobia who dared to defy Rome. Last, we see its rediscovery by English lords and its recent desecration by Isis. But we finish with the hope that beautiful Palmyra will rise again.
- DAILY LIFE IN POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM
Today we go back in time to learn about the art, people and daily life of the amazing buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. In AD 79 an eruption of Mt Vesuvius destroyed two cities – Pompeii with its industry and urban grid, Herculaneum, smaller and more genteel. They are an archaeologist’s dream, a time capsule of artefacts, buildings and people.
In the first talk, Public Life and Private Life, we look at urban life – the bustling forum with its markets, temples and law courts, the noisy fun-filled (!) baths, the shops and bars theatres and the gladiatorial arena. We also look at the men and women who shaped and ran the cities, from the emperor and his local rulers to merchants, craftsmen, masters and slaves.
The second talk, Home and Family, explores the home. In Roman life wealth and status were all-important and your home reflected this. We explore living and dining rooms, gardens kitchens and even the toilets! We see beautiful sculptures, stunning mosaics and wall paintings, silverware, jewellery, glass and even wooden furniture miraculously preserved. Finally we come to the tragic end of the cities and their people – ordinary people just like us.
In the third talk, Last Supper in Pompeii, we focus on one particular aspect of Society – the Romans’ (very close) relationship to food and drink. For the Romans, life meant getting together to eat and drink, in a pub or at a banquet. Last supper in Pompeii celebrates the Roman love affair with food and wine – a journey, from fields and vineyards to markets and shops, from tables to toilets and the tomb. We visit the fertile vine-filled slopes of Vesuvius, then into the bustling city, past shops and bars, we enter the home, the gorgeous garden with flowers and fountains. We recline in the dining room, with exotic food and fine wine, surrounded by Greek-style luxury; fine silver, mosaics and frescoes. Then the kitchen. No fridge, no running water, no hygiene – but with a toilet, and cess pit below. Lastly, we look at how Roman ideas and customs on food caught on in Roman Britain. Along with Roman gods of fertility and wine come exotic imports like pepper, figs and finest fish sauce. We witness the birth of the British beer industry and even the British dead, feasting into the afterlife, like all good Romans. Seize the day – Carpe diem!!