Flying Buttresses, the Pantheon and Catching Up

It is the 9th and I have not written since the 6th. Wow! This Colloquium is busy. They are joking about it being like an army march and it is not far off. The blisters on my feet make me think they might be right. We spent two days with Karl Galinski in Rome that I told you about and then one day in Ostia with both Karl Galinski and another brilliant professor, L. Michael White who has an archaeological dig in Ostia. Ostia is the port city near Rome and there is lots of evidence there about the different trades that people had and ordinary life. Since the area was silted by the ocean, (modern Ostia is now on the ocean) many of the structures were preserved and so you can actually walk through what looks like houses and even go up to the second floor in some of them. I am going to go backwards now and try to catch up on a few really important things that I haven’t written about yet.

THE PANTHEON
Right in the middle of a piazza all of a sudden you see a huge building with the name AGRIPPA on the front. It is now a church with statues and pictures of saints and an altar, but it was built originally by Agrippa to honor gods. It was called the Pantheon because it honored many gods (pan=many, theo=god). The most interesting thing about this building is some of the architecture. It has a HUGE dome over the top of it with a circle at the top that is open to the sky. When it rains there is a puddle in the middle! Every day the sun comes in and shines on different parts of the building inside highlighting them. The Romans were known for making cement. That is why many of their buildings are bricks and cement mortar covered by plaster. It was a very strong way to build. The whole dome of the Pantheon is made of cement. You can imagine how heavy that is! In order to make it lighter they created a sort of honeycomb pattern of squares so that the center of each square was thinner than the outside. The outside structure made it strong enough to hold together, but the carved out centers made it light enough to be held up by the rest of the building. I have been told that we are going to talk to someone who is an expert on building structure when we are in Naples, so I may come back to this.

FLYING BUTTRESSES
I ACTUALLY saw buttresses, but it turns out that they were not flying buttresses. It is a word that I remember learning in elementary school, but didn’t have much understanding of until I actually saw one. A buttress is a structure added on to the outside of the building to hold up a wall. There are lots of them here and so I am including a picture. I looked up flying buttress in Wikipedia and it explained that a flying buttress is a buttress that actually connects one part of a building to another and so it is up in the air and looks like it is flying. There is a good picture of one in Wikipedia if you are interested.

ARS PACIS
This is a picture of Dill sitting by the model of Ars Pacis, which is a huge monument to peace that Augustus Caesar constructed as a sign that he had created peace in the Roman Empire. There really was relative peace, but it was based on imperialism (conquering and ruling other countries). Rome had conquered lots of other countries and since Rome was so strong the other countries could not fight back, so there was peace. What Rome often did was to conquer a country and then import some of the parts of it that they were most interested in (food, decorations, gods etc…) This obelisk held up by an elephant that Dill is pointing out from his motorcycle is a good example. There was a large temple to Isis who is an Egyptian God at this location and that is where the elephant came from. Egyptian things were very popular in Rome and many people decorated in that style. I know that Cleopatra fits into the story here somewhere, but I am not totally clear on it, so ask if you are curious and I will find out more.


Well, that is enough for this post except for this one more picture. I am sure you will e happy to know that almost no matter where you are you can find a McDonalds (I did not see one in either Selcuk or Bethlehem though). Today is a day off, so I am writing a few to catch up a bit. The next day we go on to Pompeii and Naples, so I may not write every day again. WIKIPEDIA
"A flying buttress, or arc-boutant, is a specific type of buttress usually found on a religious building such as a cathedral. They are used to transmit the horizontal thrust of a vaulted ceiling through the walls and across an intervening space (which might be used for an aisle, chapel or cloister), to a counterweight outside the building. As a result, the buttress seemingly flies through the air, and hence is known as a "flying" buttress."
"A buttress is an architectural structure built against (a counterfort) or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, especially in Germany, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (sideways) forces arising out of the roof structures that lack adequate bracing."
"The word buttress, in a more general sense, means to support; one might buttress another person's arguments, for instance. By visual analogy, that which looks like a buttress may be called so; a projecting tree root at the base of the trunk, for example, may be referred to as a buttress."

Finding things and Friends

On the right side of this blog is a section called Followers. I decided to put it in and see what it does. Here is one thing I have figured out. It helps you connect with other people who might be interested in the same types of things that you are. I saw that Kate was one of my followers, so I sent her a friend request. On her profile it showed the other blogs that she was following and one of them was about Tom the Turkey's trip to Turkey! You should really check it out! Also, check out the followers to see if there are any of them that you want to be friends with!

Learning Lots in Rome

I know that my loyal readers are wondering what happened to me the last few days. The last time I posted to this blog was on July 3rd and today is July 6th. So much has happened that it is hard for me to even explain it all and the pace seems like it will keep up this way, so I may just have to squeeze in a post now and then. I am sorry, but this will have to be a long one.

Saturday was the 4th of July! I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day. Here in Rome it was like any other Saturday I guess since it is an American Holiday. We did not even see fireworks! On Saturday COMCAR 2009 (Colloquium on Material Culture and Ancient Religion) began. For me it started with friends of ours coming from the United States and joining us in the apartment where we are staying. One of the friends is Betsy Robinson (aka Dr. Robinson) who is a professor at Vanderbilt University. She knows a lot about ancient art and archaeology and she was really excited to be in Rome. There were so many museums that she wanted to see. I was lucky to be able to visit the Muzeo Nazionale Romano with her. She knew what was there and could explain why different pieces were so important. In the museum they have taken wall paintings that were found and created actual rooms so that you can get a feel for what it was like to be in them. The one in this picture is a room from Lyvia’s house. She is the wife of Augustus Caesar and a very powerful woman. This room is painted to make it feel like you are outside in a garden. I highly recommend renting and watching the PBS series called I, Claudius that was made many years ago. It has really helped me to make sense of so much of what I am seeing here. I have a concept of Lyvia and what she was like and how important she was.

In the evening COMCAR started with a banquet for everyone. Here is a picture of the beautiful location. For dinner I had calzone which is a folded over pizza. My friends in Whitefish bay wanted to know about pizza and I am glad to be able to tell you that I have eaten pizza a few times. There is lots of pizza here. The pizza here has pretty thin crust and maybe fewer toppings than American pizza. Usually people order it for their own meal, sort of like a “personal-pan pizza”. The word for mushrooms is fungi, so you can order pizza with fungi, which sounds bad to me even though I am OK with mushrooms. I have not seen any pepperoni. Maybe that is in a different part of Italy. One other different thing about eating here is that they tend to eat several courses when they go out for a restaurant meal. First they have antipasti, which is appetizers and my favorite one is bruchetta, which is sort of fried bread with tomatos and basil on it. Then they eat a pasta course, like spagetti or lasagna. Then they have the main course, which is some sort of meat. Then there is dessert, which you are usually too full for, but after a walk you think you can maybe eat some gelato and so you do. There are two ways to prove that you are an American here; ask for decaf coffee, ask for a doggie bag.

Since the opening dinner I don’t feel like there has been much time to stop and think at all. All day Sunday we walked ALL over Rome seeing things and learning. Both on Sunday and today (Monday) the expert who led the group was Carl Galinski who is a Professor at the University of Texas and is a world-renowned scholar. His specialty is the Greco-Roman world and especially Augustus. He is AMAZING! It seems that he knows so much about everything here. I think he could talk to us for DAYS and still have things to show us that are interesting. I am participating in these days with a group of professors from all over. There is even one from Australia. They are all so excited about all of the things that they are learning and seeing. They don’t seem to get tired, but I am exhausted!


Here are the few things that have made an impression on me in the last two days:

1. Because Rome has been important for so long most buildings here have had multiple purposes. They were often built first as temples and then converted into churches and even as churches have gone through many different stages. In some places there are many layers of plaster and painting like I saw in Ephesus. In other places archaeologists have discovered one layer under another that are difficult to sort out.
2. Archaeologists are careful scientists. Dr. Galinsky told us that we should’t take stories like Romulus and Remus too seriously. There is no archaeological evidence for that story. The first actual building archaeologists found that show Rome as a city is from about 325 BC. They have found other much earlier evidence of people living in the area, but not of an organized city. Archaeologists document EVERYTHING that they do. Now they take pictures of things they find and write descriptions with extremely correct measurements of everything. When archaeologists today look back at something found 50 years ago they can often read the documentation from the original archaeologists and then they can tell how much something has fallen apart since it was first found.
3. Statues and columns in ancient Rome and Greece were painted and colorful! We often think of Greek and Roman sculpture and columns as looking like they are now: all white, but they were actually painted. It is hard to imagine and only now scientists are figuring out ways to find out what colors were used.
4. Roman temples were not used like churches are used today. There was no congregation and people did not go to the temple once a week. They had statues in them of Gods and were usually built by someone to show how important they were in the city. People mainly went into them for certain festivals.
   

Well, that tells you the large outline of things that I am learning. We spent all morning today at the Forum and I will tell a bit about that later. I have taken the afternoon off to have time to rest, do some laundry and write this blog. It is hot outside and most of what we are looking at has been outside.

Now for a few other questions: Linda wrote that the La Pieta statue had been attacked by someone with a hammer several years ago and she wondered whether I could see the damage. I am including a bit closer up picture of the statue (without Dill, sorry). You can click on the image to see a larger size. I did not see any damage, but maybe I would have if I had looked more carefully. As Linda mentioned that is probably why it is behind glass now.

It is interesting the Whitefish Bay kids are so interested in what I am eating and more modern things! I was expecting to have more questions about Rome and Gods and that sort of thing. I am sorry to say that I did not eat gelato yesterday. I think as soon as I am finished writing I am going to head out to eat some gelato. I think I will try hazelnut or maybe peanut if they have it. Wouldn’t peanut and chocolate taste good together? I really can’t tell you about sports in Italy.

I know that they like what they call football, but we call soccer, but I have not seen any soccer or talked to anyone about it, so I am not very helpful with that question. There are posters around about the World Swimming Championships.

It is pretty funny that people do not say anything about me taking pictures with Dill in them. The Bulgarian girls that I asked to hold him thought it was cute and laughed about it. I have enjoyed telling the professors that I am following around about Dill, but strangers just look at me and don’t say anything.

Next time I write I will try to include the Pantheon, obelisks, flying buttresses, and a few other things I may have missed this time! Looking forward to hearing from you!

The Vatican and Spanish Steps

The Vatican is actually a different country with the Pope as its head. Even when you are in Rome, Italy you must cross a border to go into the Vatican. It has its own currency (money), stamps and guards (whose costumes were designed by Michaelangelo). Since it is so important I decided to make that my first big stop in Rome and I spent the day exploring there yesterday. This was challenging because first of all I was kicked out when I tried to go into St. Peter’s Basillica. It is a huge church with hundreds of years of history. Many of the Popes are entombed there and there are also many important relics built right into the church. A relic is an important piece of something religious, like wood from the cross of Christ or the manger.

I was kicked out because I was not dressed properly. It is very hot here and I was planning to walk back to the place where we are staying after visiting the Vatican, so I had put on shorts and a sleeveless shirt. I guess the shorts showed my knees and my shoulders were a problem, so I could not go in. I was determined to go in, so I purchased two scarves and used one to cover my shoulders and the other to tie around my waist like a skirt. It worked! There is just WAY too much to see here and WAY too much history to describe in this blog post, so I am going to choose just a few things. A timeline is very helpful to me. I created one to put here, but I am not happy with it. I will keep trying to find a better way. If you have a suggestion I would really appreciate it. I am going to be adding to this timeline as I see things because I think it illustrates how everything I see here was built at a different time in history. The timeline starts with the Founding of Rome in 753, which I talked about yesterday and goes to the present with Dill and I visiting Rome. In between I have added the things that I saw yesterday and I will keep adding to it.

The first important thing I want to share about is called La Pieta and it is a statue done by Michelangelo that can be found in St. Peter’s Basilica. Here is a picture of Dill admiring it. It was so beautiful and well done that people at the time did not think that Michelangelo who was only 25 could have done it. In order to prove he was the sculptor he put his name on it on a sash. There are TONS of other very beautiful and important things in the Basilica, but you will just have to visit to see them.

After visiting the Basilica (which is free, but you must dress correctly), I went on to the Vatican Museums where the famous painting of God touching (creating) Man is painted on the ceiling. We had to walk through gallery after gallery of really fantastic art, paintings, sculpture, etc... to get to the chapel. When I got there I was totally amazed. There was SO much to see! the painting of God creating Man was only one of the panels of paintings all across the roof and the walls of the chapel. Michelangelo painted the ceiling and the scene of the Last Judgment in the front of the chapel. Many other painters did the other panels. I was disappointed that I could not take any photographs in the chapel, but I did buy a book and so here is Dill looking at the fold out of the ceiling. Amazing!

From here I walked back to the apartment I am staying in, but I wanted to see one more thing on the way. One thing that many people want to see when they come to Rome is the Spanish Steps. They are majestic and at the top there is a terrific view of Rome, so many tourists spend time sitting on the steps and walking up to see the view. One of the teachers from my school suggested that Dill have his picture taken at the steps and I was glad because by the time I read the note I had already taken that picture!

FOOD REPORT
Last night I had a cone with gelato-lemon, cream and chocolate. I really do like the fruit flavors. Lemon was good. I am not sure that chocolate was the best combination with it though! I will put up a new poll soon. I have also been eating wonderful Italian food every night. I am not sure how they do it, but it is all soooo good. Two nights ago I had bruchetta (bread with tomato and basil roasted with olive oil) and linguini with pesto. Last night was tortollini in white sauce. Like the things I am seeing there is so much richness it is hard to explain it all.

Overview of Rome

Rome has been an important city for thousands of years. For the next few days I am planning to give you an overview of Rome with stories. Maybe some of you know some stories about Roman Gods that you could share. Send them to me at janicef@jfriesen.net and I will try to use them! Since many of the things that I am seeing are from different centuries, I am working on a timeline that I can include to give you an idea of all of the different times.

Today I am just going to tell you about the founding of Rome. Rome was founded about 750 BC. That is a LONG time ago. The story of the founding is well known, but no one knows how true it is, but it is a great story. There is a story that Romulus and Remus were brothers. The god Mars and a human woman gave birth to twins. She did not want to have children, so she tried to eliminate them by abandoning them on the Tiber River. The river was in a flood and the twins came to rest at the bottom of a hill called the Palatine where they were nursed by a wolf and brought up by a couple of shepherds. When they grew up they established a city on the Palatine, which became Rome (named after Romulus who killed his brother in an dispute over boundaries. The Palatine was one of seven surrounding hills: the Palatine, the Coelian, the Esquiline, the Velia, the Viminal, the Quirinal and the Capatoline. Rome is known as the city on seven hills. So, if you remember Romulus and Remus; a wolf; and seven hills you know the origins of Rome!

Dill took a bus trip with me yesterday to see an overview of Rome. On the bus we met these two nice Bulgarian Women and Dill wanted his picture taken with them (the guy holding the umbrella is a street umbrella salesman hoping for a sale). We looked all over and decided that today we should go to the Vatican and see the Sistine chapel where Michelangelo painted.

I am closing with a picture of Dill helping James with his research. James is here along with The Professor and a few others presenting at the International Society of Biblical Literature Conference.

Oh…. and speaking of The Professor…. for the 32 years I have been married to him he has been boasting that Italian Gelato is the best ice cream in the world. Finally I have a chance to test it out and see. WOW, he is right! I have now tasted pistacio, peach, melon, cream, After Five (like mint chip), chocolate, and coffee. I am putting up a short poll about which ice cream flavor I should try next. Let me know what you think!

The Winning Name Announced

The winning name for the Armadillo is ..... DILL. Sorry to all of you Sheriff Bob fans.

More Questions from Whitefish Bay

To the Whitefish Bay class: Thanks so much for your comments and questions. It really makes my day when I hear from you and others. Here are my responses to the questions you asked:

Why are the streets there [in Bethlehem] so skinny?
In Bethlehem for hundreds of years there were no cars and the city is built on hillsides. I think that as the city grew people didn’t plan for wide streets and since the streets have to go up and down the hillsides they go back and forth like switchbacks on a walking trail. Some of the oldest streets are the narrowest and I don’t think we would allow cars to go on these streets.

One other thing that we were told is that there has been some political confusion in the last few years, which has resulted in no one enforcing laws about where you can build a house and that sort of thing. People have taken advantage of this and built homes RIGHT next to the side of the road. Usually cities have laws about leaving some space between your house and the road. So that is another thing that has contributed to the tight roads.

Do boys and girls go to school together?
Boys and girls do go to school together. The expectations for men and women are very different and so it is rare to see a boy and a girl (or a man and a woman) walking together and women tend to sit together and then men together. There are Christians and Muslims in the city. The Christian women do not wear head coverings, but many of the Muslim women do.

In recent years more and more of the Muslim women are wearing conservative clothing and head covering. They say that it helps them feel more comfortable and modest. The men tend to stare at women, especially those who wear less clothes. Grace (she just graduated from college), who was pictured earlier said that she does not go out without either her father or brother accompanying her. I think that things are changing in Bethlehem, like they are everywhere, but in the past women did not work outside of the home. They stay at home and spend lots of time cooking and taking care of large families. In a society like this education is not as important for women. What do you think about that?

Are the laws there the same as in the US? Like speed limits?
I am not sure, but I do know that speed limits are not posted and there did not seem to be any:-)

It is funny…. I am writing this from Rome and a few evenings ago we took a Taxi ride from a restaurant to our apartment. Even though the streets were wider I found this ride scarier than in Bethlehem! In Bethlehem it seemed that there was a very orderly way of driving that everyone understood even though it was not posted and there were few streetlights. In Rome drivers seem to make up their own rules and go as fast as they can. I always tell myself that the driver depends upon this car for his livelihood and so he doesn’t want to have an accident any more than I do. He knows what he is doing. Then I close my eyes and hold on.

What kinds of cars do people there drive?
What I was surprised about in Bethelehm is that they drive mostly what we would call mid-sized cars. The car that we rode around the most in was a Nissan, but there were BMWs, old Hondas, citroens, and I even saw an old VW bug! “The Professor” says that they have to have cars that they can work on since there are not a lot of auto shops around to fix cars. Also, when I asked Osama, who drove us around he said that people need big cars because they have big families. In Rome there are lots of much smaller cars and motorcycles. I am putting in a picture of a Smart Car. Have you seen these cars? There are lots of them here.

I am hoping that you have voted in the final run off for the Armadillo name (Sheriff Bob or Dill) and in the next post you should hear a bit about Rome and also the results of the poll!