On the 9th November, Year 8 girls visited the British Museum. The focus of the trip was to visit the museum’s Greek and Roman galleries.
The whole of Year 8 attended the trip; half study Classical Civilisation and half study Latin.
In groups, the girls explored the Parthenon sculptures in detail. Girls examined the frieze of the procession through ancient Athens, up to the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis for Athene’s birthday. The girls saw her present, a new robe being presented to her priestess. They also saw the galloping horses, the citizens and the animals being led to sacrifice. The girls had great fun imagining all of the sights, sounds and speech bubbles!
We made a human ‘pediment’ (see photo above.) This demonstrated the triangular-shapea area on a Greek temple, and how the figures must stand in the centre and lie down in the corners in order to fill the space.
The group also looked closely at Greek pots. They examined the different styles and myths depicted.
The girls that study Latin went upstairs to the Roman galleries to look at items from daily life. These included a gladiator helmet and some letters written by soldiers at Vindolanda, a fort on Hadrian’s Wall.
After the girls had their lunch, they received an informative talk from one of the museum’s educators. The talk focused on Ancient Greek architecture and the history of the Elgin Marbles.
Following an obligatory stop at the gift shop, some of the girls were awarded prizes for their excellent completion of worksheets.