Theater Marcellus

Our next problem is on the Theatre Marcellus. The problem is

The Public Broadcasting company (PBS_, creator of the popular series "History Detectives" has sponsored its four investigators on a month-long archaeological architectural and cultural history workshop in Rome.. PBS is considering expanding its scope from investigating the provenance of American artifacts to analyzing and investigating objects from other cultures. The investigators' areas of expertise range from architecture and construction, engineering, to history and the arts. The Rome Conference will provide the group with much needed background to enable them to apply their investigative skills to researching artifacts and reconstructing historical evident in other cultures.

While the group was completing its studies in Rome,they learn that sanitation crews sapazzini have unearthed a puzzling find in the subterranean depths under that Via Del Teatro Di Marcello. This find was so unusual that the news was splattered across the front page ofCorriere della Sera. Ancient artifacts are frequently found during the most common excavations in and around Rome. Even the most learned Italian archaeologists, however, could not explain the significance or the provenance of the strange box or its contents. Inside the stone sarcophagus was an unusual combination of artifacts—so unusual that no local experts could agree on any aspect of the find. For when the lid was pried from the top of the sarcophagus, they found the following: a large brass bowl-like object, some shreds of disintegrating cloth, several chunks of different types of stone-like material, some post-Roman era coins, and a decaying Latin scroll ending with Vi...vi…s.

The History Detectives could not help but be drawn into the puzzling story. Did they not unravel similar, though much simpler, mysteries in the United States? Then they realized that this inexplicable discovery might prove to be the validation for expanding the scope of their investigations beyond the United States. If they could break the mystery—it they could not only identify the objects, but trace their provenance, perhaps they could also sell PBS on the idea of a much-expanded television program.

But…What were these objects? Why were they buried as they were? Would they be able to trace where they came from? And finally…What would they have to do to convince PBS to produce a new version of their program?

We looked into this PBS show already and it's almost like an antique roadshow except they go out to find the antiques. I emailed the man who's on the show and works and lives in Cincinnati to see if we could interview him but I haven't heard back yet.

Since we realize that this objects are hypothetical it gave me more creative freedom to make up a story about the objects (while still considering their purposes) for instance they could be the burial remains of Marcellus - who was supposedly buried in a monument to him but perhaps his wife or someone stole his remains and put them back in the theater that was named after him. Or maybe their just stage props for a show on the murder of Julius Caesar. A poor slave could have escaped and lived in the basement of the theater. There he used the bronze bowl to kill rodents and bugs as his food. The cloth was his only form of clothing and the sarcophagus is what he was buried in when a stage hand found his cold dead body one night and decided to give him a respectful burial, however he never removed the slave because he would consider it disrespectful to take the man out of his freedom back to the those who enslaved him.

Those are all just random ideas but our group is going to do more research on the theater, who went to it, the plays that took place, the items used in the culture of the people at the time period, how they cooked, how they dressed. We'll be looking for the what, why and so what of things to create our story as historical investigators. Then we're going to create a spoof episode of the TV show to show to "PBS" on why they should start investigating internationally as well.

Ostia Rewind

Working in the Ostia group I realized I'm more conceptual and more theatrical when trying to plan a presentation. I like the idea of skits or movies instead of powerpoints. We each divided up an area that we were interested in (I took art). From there we researched our individual areas. I found that Ostia has tons of Mosaics in a lot of their baths and other dwellings. They also had frescoes which is a mixture of plaster and pigments (in same cases egg yoke) that they use to paint on the walls. It seemed like if the colors hadn't faded that Ostia would have a lot of reds, oranges and browns as their color palette. Logan researched the construction of the buildings and discovered a material called tufta that they used. Brian did the history of Ostia and how it went from being a predominate city that people had to travel through to being sacked and deserted. David researched the excavations of the city and just how far the city has come from being looted to being restored. Abby reported about the lives of the people in Ostia and how their schooling was similar to ours and their daily chores.

Abby suggested that we be a travel agency trying to convince people to travel to Ostia. So since my computer has illustrator I created the brochure and the all the postcards. I also complied a video of pictures of Ostia to play while we passed out our travel packets. I also burned everyone cd's of Italian language so they could get excited about going to Rome and Ostia to try and learn the language. I also had everyone send me their pictures that they wanted in the powerpoint and complied the powerpoint presentation. (For the next project I'm not going to be the only compiling everything together)

Everything went pretty smoothly for our presentation and I think most people got a good understanding for Ostia and are interested in visiting.

From other presentations I know I learned interesting things but at the time it's hard to recall everything because the presentations were packed with lots of information and there were so many back to back that it makes it hard to decipher which fact went with what group. I liked how a couple of groups created games for us to play (jeopardy and the board game) and the trivia questions at the end of the group on the roads helped to have to remember what they said. It would be nice to have 2 days of presentation if the groups are going to run over but since our class only meets once a week it'd be hard to do that. I agree with the professors to shorten the time. It's hard to try and present about all of our topics because there's so much information that it's hard to pull our the most important, relevant and interesting facts to present on. I think every group had that problem of editing and knowing what to edit. Because I may find something so fascinating but no one else could so they won't remember what I told them. I could through a lot of facts at them but they might not remember any of them because they'd been overloaded with information. So I think the hardest part in presenting is trying to know the audience and knowing how to edit one selves. That's something that I even have to deal with constantly in my studio classes. It's so easy to keep piling on design after design but it actually takes skill to know when to stop, stand back and take things away.

For our next presentation I think we'll be better at being able to edit ourselves. We'll still have all the knowledge of the problem but not maybe have to share it all unless asked a question that way we can portray the most important information in the time allotted.