Congratulations to Mac Classics Graduates!

Congratulations to all Mac Classics Graduates, ever shall your names, honours, and praises remain.

Mac Classics graduates were recognized by the Faculty of Humanities with numerous awards. Congratulations to Ms. Naomi Neufeld and Mr. Owen Phillips, who placed first and second for the Dean's Medal for Excellence in the Humanities. Ms. Neufeld and Mr. Phillips were also both awarded the A.G McKay Prize in Classical Studies. Ms. Neufeld is presently excavating at Cerveteri, Italy and Mr. Phillips recently co-curated the Antiquities exhibition at the McMaster Museum of Art :  http://www.mcmaster.ca/museum/exhibitions_schedule.html. Both students will return to Mac in the Fall to undertake graduate studies in the Department of Classics.

Studying Culture and Creating Culture, or Why Apotropaic Cupcakes Matter

Classics 735 Graduate Seminar in Winter 2013 examined the relationship between a city and its countryside (asty and chora); we examined the foundation of apoikiai in the eighth century BC and border conflicts across the Classical period, the installation and use of extramural and intramural sanctuaries, and discussed new foundations and developments with the city in the Archaic and Classical periods. Our investigations took us to the Argive Heraion; the Athenian Acropolis; Delphi and the poetics of Colonization; the Achaean apoikiai of southern Italy; intramural sanctuaries and the use of public space in Syracuse, Megara Hyblaia, Selinus and Akragas; the greek-indigenous border in Sicily; Aitna and the court of Hieron with Pindar and Aeschylus; and the frontier contested by Athens and Thebes. 

The beautiful thing about a seminar is that not only did we examine a culture, but also created one. 

To Kill a Mockingbird's Atticus Finch summarized cross examination by stating that you never ask a question that you don't already know the answer to. A seminar is different. we are all participants -- instructor and students (both roles exist in name and attendance-taking only) alike work together because there is something we don't fully understand and with it academic territory to convert from unknown to known. In this pursuit, there is strength in numbers; by dividing up the material into areas, each seminar member can make a contribution that builds to a greater understanding. To see seminar members feed off one another and collectively create an understanding is to see success take flight. It begins with providing a question, bibliography, and a foundation level of knowledge regarding how these questions are treated in scholarship today, but then develops in its own direction shaped by the investment and involvement of the members. When that collides with an ethos that binds everyone, the results move from satisfactory to sublime. To get a group of students to care about an angle or view or theory that they had not been familiar with before (territoriality, the significance of Pindar at Syracuse, the location of Xouthia) is good, when that expands into caring enough to create apotropaic-anti evil eye cupcakes, it is even better.

Award Winning Mac Classics Students

Congratulations to Mac Classics Major Mr. Brendan Palangio on being awarded 3rd place in the Classical Association of Canada's undergraduate essay competition. The essay, "'Books from the Ships' and Editors of Homer: The Library of Alexandria and Ptolemaic Cultural Hegemony," was written for Dr. Corner's 2LB3 History of Ancient Greece II. Mr. Palangio comments:

"In this paper, I explored the underlying political function of the Library of Alexandria, namely it's goal of achieving a Ptolemaic hegemony over Greek literary culture. I examined the Ptolemaic imperialist policy of zealously gathering, hoarding, and copying books as to house under one roof the entirety of Greek culture. I also analyzed the workings of library scholars, such as, Zenodotus of Ephesus, Callimachus of Cyrene, Apollonius of Rhodes and Aristophanes of Byzantium. I examined their efforts in cataloging, 'correcting', and commenting on works, and how these efforts created and perpetuated a Ptolemaic hegemony over literature in the Hellenistic age. Finally, I explored how the library acted as a connection to the Greek homeland, and a unifying force for Greeks in an alien world."

More information on the award can be found here: 

http://cac-scec.ca/wordpress/activities/competitions/eng_essay-contest/

The Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University also has an undergraduate essay award prize; information can be found here: http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/awards/essays.html

Congratulations also to Ms. Naomi Neufeld (Mac Classics `13), who recently presented the results of her Undergraduate Student Research Award at the USRA Poster Session. Ms. Neufeld (above, left, with 2011 USRA winner Owen Phillips and Classics Club Executive Emily Lemond) investigated the acculturative forces on Etruscan Culture in the Archaic period. Her research including participating in an archaeological excavation at Cerveteri (Italy) and visiting numerous archaeological sites and museums in Tuscany and Umbria. More information on the USRA can be found here: 

http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/awards/usra.html

Classics Coffee Hour 14 Nov.

Mac Classics Departmental Events in October

The Department of Classics will host two talks this October:

On Friday, 19 October we will welcome Prof. Fabio Colivicchi of the Dept. of Classics at Queen's University, who will present, "From Etruscan city to Roman praefectura. New excavations in the central area of Caere". 

Friday, 19 October in DSB 505 at 3:00 pm.

On Monday, 29 October, Prof. Susanna Braund from the University of British Columbia will visit as the CAC Central Tour Speaker. She will present, "Women Ventriloquizing Women: Explorations and Extensions of Classical Myth"
KTH B124, 4:30 pm

All are welcome.

Mac Classics Student Excavates in Italy

Ms. Naomi Neufeld (Classics '13) recently returned from the field and reports:

This June, I had the privilege of accompanying Dr. Fabio Colivicchi and the Queen’s Classics department (http://www.queensu.ca/classics/matera.html) on an archaeological excavation in Cerveteri, Italy. The excavation explored the Etruscan site of ancient Caere, which was a major southern Etruscan coastal city. Caere was one of the closest Etruscan cities to Rome, and was renowned for its religious significance and customs (the word “ceremony” even comes from the Latin word caeremonia, which means “pertaining to Caere”). We were working in the civic and spiritual centre of the city, excavating an exceptional Etruscan religious structure, called the Hypogeum of Clepsina. It is a subterranean ritual chamber which is constructed and oriented according to Etruscan cosmology, and which contains Hellenistic Etruscan frescoes, inscriptions, and a network of tunnels and staircases. In a nearby trench, we also excavated a late Etruscan and Roman urban area, in which we uncovered a Roman road, a possible domestic structure, and an underground shrine. This was my first archaeological excavation, and I was thrilled to learn more about archaeological theories, techniques, and practices.

On the weekends, we visited many important Etruscan sites, such as the Villa Giulia in Rome, the Banditaccia necropolis of Caere, and the painted tombs of Tarquinia. We also visited many of the important Classical sights in Rome, such as the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon. One of the highlights of the trip was an excursion to Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, which had some of the most fascinating and beautiful Roman ruins I have visited. I had such an amazing experience on this excavation that I hope to return and continue digging next year.

For the rest of the summer I am continuing to work on my USRA project, in which I relate what I learnt about the Etruscans during my trip, to further research about their culture and art. My research focuses on the vibrant funerary frescoes which adorn many Etruscan tombs, examining their thematic content and iconography to reveal evidence of Greek influence. Through this research I hope to understand better about the formative influences and cultural stimuli, both foreign and local, that created and contributed to the colourful and unique society of the Etruscan peoples.

L'Arte Rinnova I Popoli e Ne Rivela La Vita

After presenting at the EAHN conference in Brussels, I had a moment to walk around the city and enjoy something new to me. My reaction reminded me of something I had seen in Sicily (as is often the custom): The Teatro Massimo in Palermo and its pedimental inscription “L’Arte Rinnovo il Popolo e Ne Rivela la Vita…Art renews the population and reveals life.” Seeing a new city is invigorating and approaching it as a Classicist is a type of exam, but also a type of payoff from many previous exams. I admired the triglyphs on the Neoclassical (but still exuberant) Bourse. I marveled at the neoclassical Triumphal Arch at the Parc du Cinquantenaire, and was reassured that the forms, architectural orders, and symbolic weight of Classical monuments we often discuss in 1A03 and elsewhere resonate far and wide across time and space.

What really captivated me about the city, however, was Art Nouveau. I got the chance to see the Maison Cauchie, and marveled at the engraved composition of the five senses. Even in the Art Nouveau style, the severity of the Classical and the decadence, drama, and tantalizingly charged style of the Hellenistic are echoed so that they partially betray the term “nouveau.” Glass, often stained glass, windows and dramatic flourishes of narrow iron made me feel as thought the Maison Horta (Horta Museum) were Pompeian fresco styles designed in full.

A quick tour around the city instantly demonstrated that this experience is the reward for a Classical education. The city unveiled itself as a playground of styles that either directly embraced the Classical world and deliberately evoked their venerability, or meaningfully turned away from the Classical tradition to create a clashing visual and functional contrast (I think this is why I love the Brutalist style so much – it is an expression of freedom from Classical tradition and a complete reinterpretation of public, visual, spatial and architectural objectives of a building). As the great poet wrote, “we buy with contrast.”

Small moments such as these made Classical Architecture, and Classics in general, immediate and relevant. It becomes clear to any observer that the Classical portion is just a few pieces of the puzzle and there many more that follow in place after them. The experience is the reward for studying this material: the jumble of names, dates, locations, sponsors, architects and artists that get lobbed out in 1A03, 2B03 and 2C03 were suddenly contextualized; it was then possible to see them not as a chore to master, but as the object of intellectual curiosity to chase back following the immediate visual input. In short, connecting the Triumphal Arch in Brussels with those of Septimus Severus and Constantine in Rome, and especially the entranceway to the Forum of Trajan (among others) scratched an intellectual itch.

This experience is not limited to European capitals; the same fascination and wonder can be developed in downtown Hamilton and Toronto or nearly wherever the Summer has taken you: turn on your sense of exploration and wonder the next time you go out: there will be a payoff to it, and to the investment you have already made in Classics.