Classics Commons^™

Ancient Aqueducts, Zachary Helm

Classics Ancient Science Fair

This presentation discusses the science behind the Roman Aqueducts. It discusses a wide variety of advances and updates they developed.

The Mechanical And Scientific Significance Of The Ships Of Nemi, Troy Frazier

Classics Ancient Science Fair

In 1929 the first of the two Nemi ships breached the waters of lake Nemi, seeing the surface of the lake for the first time in centuries. To recover the two ships, a pair of pleasure ships created under the rule of Caligula, an attempt was made to drain lake Nemi. This proceeded and in 1931 the second ship exceeded the water level as well. Over the course of this recovery of these sunken ships and prior attempts and findings a treasure trove of information was uncovered, expanding the understanding of the mechanical feats accomplished during the Roman Empire.

Roman Aqueducts, Rachel Caughey, Krista Long

Classics Ancient Science Fair

Access to safe, clean drinking water is essential for any city’s survival. This was especially difficult but still necessary for cities in antiquity. Rome was able to construct conduits that provided enough water to supply its citizens and clean the sewer systems. This was an engineering feat that was unsurpassed by other states in the ancient world.

Pharmaceuticals Of The Ancient World, Jennifer Swabb

Classics Ancient Science Fair

This presentation discusses the various aspects of pharmaceuticals within the ancient world. It begins with discussing the foundations in plants, and analyzes the changes over time. It also discusses some major contributors, and some major plants used in the past.

Equatorial Sundials In The Ancient World: Construction And Applications, Alyssa Stark

Classics Ancient Science Fair

Time is an easy concept on the surface. Most people comprehend the idea of a year, month, week, day, and second. This was not the case for the ancient populations who lived before us. One of the earliest methods for determining time throughout the day was utilizing shadows which were cast from objects. Tall trees, due to their sedentariness, were great tools in early time telling. Ancient people would have observed these shadows much earlier than we have record for. However, the idea of time telling using shadows continued long past the ancient world.

Sundials are the tool created to …

Comparison Of Euthytone And Palintone Capabilities, Gregory Ryherd

Classics Ancient Science Fair

This presentation is a comparison between two different long range siege weapons. The poster presentation compares their usage, practicality, and other various aspects of the weapons.

Pliny The Younger & Mt. Vesuvius, Taylor Huxlrey

Classics Ancient Science Fair

Pliny the Younger's letters painted a beautiful picture of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. His letters are thought to have allowed modern volcanoligists to discover information about the eruption and the destruction of Pompeii. This presentation discusses how impactful these letters truly were.

Preliminary Report On The 2017 Season Of The American Excavations At Morgantina: Contrada Agnese Project (Cap), Andrew Tharler, D. Alex Walthall, Elizabeth Wueste, Christy Schirmer, Ben Crowther, Jared Benton, Randall Souza, Katharine P.D. Huemoeller

Art Faculty Publications

In its fifth season, the American Excavations at Morgantina: Contrada Agnese Project (CAP) continued archaeological investigations inside the Southeast Building, a modestly-appointed house of Hellenistic date located near the western edge of the city. The 2016 CAP season had revealed the full extent of the property’s boundary walls and allowed us to propose a cohesive phasing scheme for the building’s construction, occupation, and abandonment. We suggested that the house was occupied for approximately 60-75 years, beginning in the second quarter of the third century BCE. The 2017 CAP excavations resolved a number of remaining questions, particularly those concerning the phasing …

Ancient Snakebite Literature: The Brooklyn Medical Papyrus And Nicander’S Theriaca, Montgomery Q. Stewart

Publications and Research

The Brooklyn Papyrus is an Egyptian medical treatise on the subject of snakebite cures. It is a part of the Brooklyn Museum’s Charles Edwin Wilbour collection (47.218.48 and 47.218.85). In the 1960s, the papyrus was translated into French by Egyptologist Serge Sauneron. This research paper includes the first full translation of the Brooklyn Papyrus, as well as an introductory essay, which analyzes the structural and religious elements of the work. It also compares the Brooklyn Papyrus to another notable work on snakebites, Nicander of Colophon’s Theriaca.

Homer’S Thebes: Epic Rivalries And The Appropriation Of Mythical Pasts, Elton T. E. Barker, Joel P. Christensen

Publications and Research

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are the only early Greek heroic epics to have survived the transition to writing, even though extant evidence indicates that they emerged from a thriving oral culture. Among the missing are the songs of Boeotian Thebes.

Homer’s Thebes examines moments in the Iliad and Odyssey where Theban characters and thematic engagements come to the fore. Rather than sifting through these appearances to reconstruct lost poems, Elton Barker and Joel Christensen argue that the Homeric poems borrow heroes from Thebes to address key ideas—about politics, time, and genre—that set out the unique superiority of these texts in …

The Dual Origin Of The Duty To Disclose In Roman Law, Barbara Abatino, Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci

Faculty Scholarship

The Roman law remedies for failure to disclose in sales contracts were developed by two different institutions: that of the aediles, with jurisdiction on market transactions effected through auctions, and that of the praetor, with general jurisdiction including private transactions. The aedilician remedies — the actiones redhibitoria and quanti minoris — allowed for rapid transactions and inexpensive litigation but generated some allocative losses ex post, as they did not incentivize the parties to exchange information about idiosyncratic characteristics of the goods for sale. In contrast, the remedy developed by the praetor — the actio ex empto — implied …

Lost In Translation, Presumption, And Interpretation: Adam, Noah, And The Ancient Mesopotamian Mythology Of The Creation And The Flood, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

The common, biblical believes in an initial, single human creation, and a subsequent survival of a punishing, catastrophic flood were among the key forming pillars of the Near East monotheist religions. The other key pillar was, arguably, the belief in the existence of a one, supreme god and creator. However, neither the two stories of human creation and catastrophic flood, nor the belief in one supreme god, were originally introduced by these monotheist religions. Key inscriptions from ancient Mesopotamia have clearly indicated that various versions of these beliefs were commonplace for thousands of years before. Despite the differences in details, …

Roman Medical Instruments, Mickayla Hite, Kendall Westmor

Classics Ancient Science Fair

This poster presents information about a variety of Roman Medical Instruments. It includes Scalpels, Cauteries, Forceps, Gynecological Instruments, Probes, Bleeding Cups, and Materials.

The Ancient Greek Trireme: A Staple Of Ancient Maritime Tradition, Joseph York

Classics Ancient Science Fair

This poster presented information on the Greek Trireme. The Ancient Greek Trireme was a staple ship of Greek naval warfare, and played a key role in the Persian Wars, the creation of the Athenian maritime empire, and the Peloponnesian wars.

Archimedes Catapult, Dominick West

Classics Ancient Science Fair

This presentation discusses various weapons used in the past. It starts with discussions of the belly bow, torsion springs, and catapults that use the spring.

A Philological Examination Of Eratosthenes’ Calculation Of Earth’S Circumference, Kelly Staver

Classics Ancient Science Fair

A Greek mathematician named Eratosthenes calculated an accurate measurementofthe Earth’s circumference, that being 250,000 stades orclose to Earth’s actualcircumference of40,120 km,¹ in Hellenistic Alexandria, Egyptcirca 240 B.C.E. To do this, Eratosthenes’utilized the distance between Alexandria and Syeneandgnomon measurements taken in Syeneand Alexandria at noon on the summersolstice.

The Cosmos According To Ptolemy, Benjamin Smith

Classics Ancient Science Fair

In the second century AD, Claudius Ptolemaeus, the astronomer from Alexandria, would provide a geometric conception of the cosmos with the ability to predict planetary motion, in what would be known as the Ptolemaic, or Geocentric, Model of the Universe. Prior to Ptolemy, the notion in ancient astronomy was that the cosmos was ”perfect”; the heavenly bodies must move along the perfect curve (a circle) as the perfect shape (a sphere). Yet, irregularities occur in observing the planets in concentric circles alone. Ptolemy’s answer, building upon Hipparchus and Aristotle, would present an eccentric system in which the heavenly bodies move …

Finding Pythagoras In The Pythagoreans, Brandon Barnes

Classics Ancient Science Fair

This presentation for the Ancient Science Fair deals with the Pythagorean Theorem. Since Pythagoras himself did not write down his work, early scholars had to work to find the knowledge and unify it among differing sources.

The Antikythera Mechanism, Aladsair Turnbull

Classics Ancient Science Fair

The mechanism was retrieved from a shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera in 1901. The structure of the mechanism was the subject of debate among scholars for many years after the initial discovery. Little is known about the maker of the device and there is still disagreement regarding certain pieces of the mechanism. Close study of the fragments allowed many models to be designed.

Gynecology In Antiquity, Kristen Cross

Classics Ancient Science Fair

The field of Gynecology has had major shifts through its history. It began with the expansion of duties for Midwives and a wide variety of schools of thought continued to advise its growth. This presentation discusses the ancient thoughts, their origins, and its many outdated beliefs.