Ancient History Ramblings

Roma SPQR SL

Today I went to ROMA (SPQR) - The Ancient Roman Themed Sim which lists itself in the search engine as "Roman Market, Tavern, Gladiator Arena, Chariot Races, Baths, Freebies, & more!" It has a website at http://romacitizens.blogspot.com/. I hadn't visited this site since the first week I joined SL, so I was overdue to return. When I arrived, I was unhappy to find flying disabled, but they had a very nice litter system that teleported you to various destinations around the island, so I did not miss flying as much. The site was too big and too full of things to see to be able to visit it all tonite, so I confined

myself to just a few areas tonite. First, to have fun I visited a circus where I could race a chariot. This was interesting, but not exciting as if I had someone to race against. Next I visited the Theater of Dionysos. This was really cool in that you could sit down and activate a play to watch. There was a static figure that recited line while a screen changed scenes, similar to a PowerPoint presentation. I have to admit, when I first visited the site months ago I was more interested in seeing what was for sale, I was in the collecting mode that seems to strike people in SL soon after joining. (I noticed this at one of our workshops - everyone paid attention while they learned to navigate then when they discovered changing their avatar's appearance they lost interest in the demonstration and hunted out freebie sites to get stuff). Anyway, this site will take a few visits to get a better perspective on it.

Anyway, the PKAP poster is done. I printed 2 copies and shipped one to David to have him drive it up while another copy will take its chances in my checked luggage later this week. I will be leaving NC on Monday, so no blogging Monday, but I should be ok for the rest of the week.

RSM

Artifact Followup

As a followup to yesterday's post, in one of my emails was a link to the following BBC story - "Egypt 'to copyright antiquities.' This law will require individuals or companies to pay royalties whenever they make a copy of a museum artifact or monument. The article quotes Mr. Hawass (chair of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities) as saying that "Even if it is for private use, they must have permission from the Egyptian government." This law would be applied to all countries, and I would have to assume to the Internet and Second Life as well. A little looking around found several versions of the story - and some seem to imply that it applies to exact copies only. A version of this story in the New York Times also states that "However, UNESCO and Lufti's organization are trying to develop the idea -- which still has not won wide backing -- that a nation has the right to defend how its folklore and heritage are used internationally." This would certainly affect SL and the Internet. Once again I see both positives and negatives to this and how it could impact education. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

RSM

SL from NC

So, sorry for the break in posts but I took off some days for Christmas. In fact, at the moment I am in North Carolina visiting relatives. So, after dinner, I logged back into SL to see what is going on archaeologically. I continued my searching for Egyptian related SL sites and found the "Temple of

Ancient Egypt Pharaoh Neferneferu and Echnaton." One of the first things I noticed on arrival was that my flying button was unavailable. I am always unhappy to have my flying ability restricted. I feel that flying over the site is the best way to prevent me from missing things, and yes it is also because I can be impatient. After looking around for a few minutes, I noticed the site seemed to be confined to area with some Egyptian souvenirs for sale and the recreation of an Egyptian temple. It was an attractive site, visually. From an education standpoint, it did not provide enough information about what the site was and what it was for, but it did get me thinking about artifacts in SL. Who owns them? Is it ok to recreate "real" or authentic artifacts to sell or give away in SL? One argument that can be made is that since there can be multiple copies of an item, one person "owning" a copy in SL is similar to buying a replica at a souvenir shop. This collection in SL is also  helpful in sparking a person's interest (and SL by its very design promotes collecting things in your inventory). One argument against it is that it could promote bad habits in real life, as in the case of a person who starts collecting artifacts in SL and then transfers that interest into collecting artifacts in real life. As 3D worlds come closer to simulating real life, I firmly believe that we need to work harder to educate the public on ethics in archaeology. Since some people feel that virtual worlds like 3D allow them to simulate real world activities, this educational aspect needs to be emphasized. I intend to talk to our building crew on Archaeology Island and make sure that we find a way to provide an introduction to archaeology ethics in a fun, interactive way.

RSM

Temple of the Gods

Since I seem to be running out of Greek and Roman sites to visit, I searched for Egyptian sites tonite. I found one called Temple of the Gods (traffic 947). My initial reaction was that this was not going to be a site that I would need to be at for very long, since the sign mentioned mall and recreation center. I first wandered into a store, which did have some nice Egyptian themed items, but since I was looking for history/archaeology sites I was about to leave when I stumbled across a museum. - "The Museum of Ancient Egypt." When I went in, I was pretty impressed - the museum was crammed  full of images 

artifacts and quite a bit of information. This is one of the better SL museums, in terms of quantity, that I have had the chance to visit so far. This seems to be one of the sites that it would be good to send a class to visit. There was even an entrance to a tomb and when I went down the stairs into it, I have to admit it gave me the feeling of descending into a real tomb. There is also a section that is called the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which I will visit tomorrow.

RSM

3rd time is the charm

Sorry for missing yesterday but I have been preoccupied with finishing up our AIA poster. I can say that it is finally done and ready to go. So, as a treat for finishing up the poster, I went back to the Roman Empire SL site and watched some gladiatorial combat. It seemed to be more training than combat, and I was there a bit early. One of my colleagues mentioned that I seemed a bit "obsessed" with gladiators. Which of course made me think of the famous gladiator line from the movie Airplane. I have to admit a type of fascination with gladiatorial combat. I saw a very nice exhibit on gladiators at the Ephesus museum this summer and that got me thinking about SL. That is why I have been dropping by this site in the hopes of catching a fight. I was very interested to see how the gladiatorial combat in SL would be handled. On the surface it seemed to be a series of choreographed movements that were probably animations. I managed to speak to one of the gladiators after she left the arena and learned each fighter's actions was controlled by a HUD they purchased. The weapons you chose controlled the types of movements. I was pleased that everyone I asked questions of was very polite and patient with me - a trait I noticed that is common in SL - the ability to walk up or fly up to a total stranger and ask them a question and have them answer it both politely and helpfully. I spent some more time watching gladiators arriving and being amazed at the range of outfits, some historical - some not. All in all, a pleasant time, and that is the key difference between this and a Roman gladiatorial match - there was nothing at stake and the possibility of injury or death was present. While ancient gladiators did not die in the arena at the rates portrayed in the movies, there was always that risk. Anyway, I will move on to a different site tomorrow.

RSM

Roman Empire in SL Revisited

I took the opportunity to revisit the SL site Roman Empire in an effort to catch a gladiator battle. When I arrived, I was excited, there were 12 other avatars at the site, a good sign for catching a gladiator fight. I also noticed that flying was disabled, unlike my prior visits. So I went into the arena and took a seat with about 8 other avatars and waited. I spent my time practicing looking around the arena with my camera. While I waited, I worked on our AIA poster, (third incarnation after getting upset and deleting two prior versions). After a few minutes, a Roman legionnaire in authentic looking garb walked into the arena on the upper level and I have to admit I was eager to see what happened. But, nothing happened right away. Then a female gladiator in a matrix-like outfit came in to stand next to the legionnaire. But still no action. So, to kill a few minutes, and having given up on the poster for the night, I watched some of the Mythbusters holiday special while periodically checking in on the arena. When I came back, both the legionnaire and the female gladiator were gone. I finally got up and went for a walk and found a sign saying that gladiator fights were at 6:00 PM SL time (9:00 PM EST) on weekdays, which meant I was an hour too late. Determined to find a gladiator battle, I visited ROMA (SPQR), but no luck there either. So, I will have to come back on another night, sorry for the lack of substance to this entry. But I will be back, I am determined to see what a gladiator battle looks like.

RSM

Virtual Shul

I have often heard people say that historians fall into one of two categories: 1) those who know a little about a lot; and 2) those who know a lot about a little (post hole knowledge). Well, in my department we have a retired faculty member, Dr. Irwin Marcus who fits into a third category - historians who know a lot about a lot. He is always passing on articles and bibliography to other members of the department (even though he is retired, Dr. Marcus is in the department offices more than any other faculty member). Today when I walked by, he handed me a newspaper article entitled "Virtual Shul." The ironic thing is that Dr. Marcus really uses very, very little technology - yet he knows that I have an interest in it and grabbed the article for me when he ran across it. Since I visited a Greek Orthodox Church in SL yesterday, it seems appropriate to check out the Virtual Shul and in very short order, I found a copy of the article on-line.

In 1994, a group of architecture professors and their students at Darmstadt University of Technology began using CAD programs to virtually recreate synagogues destroyed by the Nazis. An exhibit of 14 of these recreations was recently shown at the Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. To view some of the reconstructions visit the exhibitions page I located. The on-line exhibit is quite informative and well-done and emphasizes how technology can be used to preserve the past.

I am encouraged to see projects like this one since I often feel that some historians frown on technology other than word-processing and email. This short-sided view always ticks me off since I feel that this outlook helps reinforce the stereotype that academics are ensconced in an ivory tower writing articles for other other academics, ignoring the public. Or, that reaching the public is the job of public historians who are not real academics. Aren't all historians "public historians?" Or, shouldn't we be? Technology, certainly makes it easier for historians to be public historians and in its many forms, offers historians and archaeologists the opportunity to reach many different audiences that they never reached before.

Back into SL

It dawned on me today that it had been 2 days since I rambled through SL, so I immediately stopped what I was doing (staring at an Adobe Illustrator screen) and logged on. After wondering around Crimson Island for a while, I started searching for archaeology, Greece, and Rome to see what turned up in SL's new search. I eventually decided on St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church.

St. Spyridon was a shepherd on Cyprus who entered a monastery and eventually became a well-known bishop. Interestingly enough (at least to me) his feast day is December 14th, which also happens to be my birthday. This site is small and tucked away among several modern houses. Outside the church it had a rope that you could pull  to make the bell ring and a priest's cassock for sale. The inside was well-decorated and contained several attractive icons. Once again, from an educational standpoint, I wish that there was more information available about the site. I have been thinking of using SL in my Western Civ class. I currently have a list of images and readings that the students have to read/see each week and comment on in a threaded WebCT discussion. I was thinking of adding a SL component to each week's topic and this might be one, but I have to wonder how much background information I would need to give them for them to benefit from visiting the site.

RSM

The Poster, at last....maybe

So, I started working on the PKAP poster for the AIA in Chicago today. Well, I have started it several times before, but today it was a serious attempt to get going. You can usually find information on the web about everything, but I have not been happy with my searches for help with creating academic posters. I really haven't found anything that has helped me this time. The first time I did a poster of this size, back in 2005, there were quite a few sites that gave me lots of good info and since I was starting from absolutely no knowledge to build on - they were very helpful. This time, I was looking for.....I guess some intermediate level guides - does that make sense? Anyway, no luck. I found basically the same sites I found before, with nothing that helps me out this time. My problem is that I have absolutely no artistic ability - my kids (ages 7 and 4) already draw better than I do. Someone suggested that I hire a professional artist to take care of this for me, but that would cost me more money than I am willing to pay (or more than my wife is willing for me to pay). So, what I did today was...spend time thinking about my layout - this was actually easy to do. I did it while watching TV, answering email, grading papers, and watching a local minor league hockey game with my son. Anyway, for some reason I did not have any brilliant ideas, so about an hour ago I opened up Adobe Illustrator and went to work. First, I picked a font and created a title then..........changed the font of the tile.......realigned it.....and changed the font back. I am off to a roaring start and exhausted from all that work, so I will pick it up tomorrow.

RSM

SL Demo Followup

Since it is Friday, and my birthday, and I have a stack of papers to grade, and a poster to design - this will be a bit short. Since we (Dr. Al Partridge, Dr. Bev Chiarulli, and myself) gave a SL demo to the IUP Council of Trustees yesterday, we were invited to a very nice lunch today. In addition to the food (with an excellent dessert) we had the opportunity to mingle and talk to lots of people. I was quite pleased that many people complimented us on the presentation and 2 people actually said that we "blew their mind" which made me laugh since that is one of the phrases tossed around at PKAP, especially by Bill Caraher. Anyway, it got me thinking about the range of abilities (computer-wise) in the various populations of people I run into. On one hand, my son at age 4 could boot the computer and start navigating the web and even send email, while on the other hand I know academics who can't attach or download e-mail attachments. Since I associate with colleagues who have similar interests, we tend to have similar abilities and I mistakenly take for granted that everyone views technology the same way I do -- and this is a huge mistake that I need to try to avoid. This will be especially true when I teach my Digital History class this spring and have 24 students who will probably have a very diverse range of abilities and knowledge. This realization also makes me better appreciate having two co-directors working with me on PKAP since they have come up with ideas that would not have occurred to me, such as David creating a Facebook page for the project, and Bill with his work on our documentary and a blog for the project. So I went for a free lunch, but got more than I bargained for.

RSM