Replicas - to
buy and to make
1. Buy them.
Many museums sell replicas of their best items. The British Museum caters
for most pockets, with replicas of items from the Elgin Marbles down to tiny
bronze mice.
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The 'face'
pot is from Cologne museum; the Corinthian pot on the right is from a Greek
tourist shop. Know your genuine pots before you go shopping! The other pots
are from the UK. |
The statues
are from Hadrian's Wall and the British Museum - rather pricey, but I have
got lots of use and pleasure from them. If you buy, get the best you can.
You'll regret it if you buy rubbish.
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Replica coins are easy to pick up at
any popular Roman site. Not nearly as impressive to hand round in class as
the real things, but at least pupils can see what Julius Caesar looked like
on his coins.
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Garden centres sometimes sell amphorae. I bought mine in Cyprus, but have
seen them since in the UK.
2. Make your own replicas. Here are some ideas:
Roman
gaming board. Scratch the pattern on an old tile. That's what Roman soldiers
did.
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For
guidance on board design and how to play, consult this Roman
board games site.
Click on latrunculi
or tabula.
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Abacus:
a flat board marked out with paint, flat beads as counters. Good for illustrating
Catullus. I'm sure that when he writes 'Give me 1000 kisses, then 100',
he was laying a bead in the appropriate column. Then when he writes 'conturbabimus
illa ... ' - we'll mix them up - he gave the board a shake. Try it when you
teach the poem!
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Sistrum:
ask the DT department to bend and drill a ribbon of metal; fix wire and
jingles.
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Or buy a cheap shaker in an ethnic
shop
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Tabulae:
those wax writing tablets are easy to make. Just get a flat piece of wood
about VI unciae by IV unciae (15 x 10 cm) and gouge out a few millimetres,
leaving a rim of wood. Then drip candle wax (ideally beeswax) into the trough
you have made. A nail will do as a stylus.
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When visiting museums or reading illustrated books, pick out artefacts
you could replicate. Some of my ideas came from the Saalburg museum
in Germany - an excellent museum to visit if you get the chance, with
an excellent web site.
See also the Minimus Blog here for a Roman-type comb, and here for glass and pottery.
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