Cressida Ryan was on the BBC this a.m. talking about what Classical Outreach Officers do and all sorts of things about Julius Caesar. Available for the next seven days on iPlayer … scroll up to the 36 minute spot or thereabouts:
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ante diem iv idus quintilias
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Back when we first mentioned the threat to Classics at Royal Holloway, we noted that no one had set up an online petition yet. We now note that there is one … please sign it (it has 345 signatures as of this writing; usually we can get more than a thousand for this sort of thing):
… perhaps the motto from their arms should be a rallying cry …
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This one’s interesting … from a University of Gutenberg press release:
Olympia, site of the famous Temple of Zeus and original venue of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, was presumably destroyed by repeated tsunamis that travelled considerable distances inland, and not by earthquake and river floods as has been assumed to date. Evidence in support of this new theory on the virtual disappearance of the ancient cult site on the Peloponnesian peninsula comes from Professor Dr Andreas Vött of the Institute of Geography of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. Vött investigated the site as part of a project in which he and his team are studying the paleotsunamis that occurred along the coastlines of the eastern Mediterranean over the last 11,000 years. According to his account, the geomorphological and sedimentological findings in the area document that Olympia and its environs were destroyed by tsunami impact. The site of Olympia, rediscovered only some 250 years ago, was buried under a massive layer of sand and other deposits that is up to 8 meters deep.
“Both the composition and thickness of the sediments we find in Olympia do not go with the hydraulic potential of the Kladeos River and the geomorphological inventory of the valley. It is highly unlikely that this could have been the work of this creek,” states Vött. To date, it has been assumed that the cult site was finally destroyed by an earthquake in 551 AD and later covered by flood deposits of the Kladeos River. In this scenario, however, it remains mysterious how the tiny Kladeos that passes by could first have buried Olympia under several meters of sediment, only to subsequently get incised by 10 to 12 meters down to the flow level used in ancient times. Working in collaboration with the local Ephorate for Classical Antiquities, the German Archaeological Institute, and colleagues from the universities of Aachen, Darmstadt, Freiburg, Hamburg, and Cologne, Vött and his team examined the location using geomorphological and geoarcheological methods and techniques.
The results indicate that Olympia was repeatedly hit by catastrophic floods during its history resulting in the site being buried under huge masses of sediment. The presence of mollusc and gastropod shells and the remains of abundant micro-organisms such as foraminifera are clear evidence of a marine origin of the sediment. The sediments were obviously transported inland at high velocity and high energy, reaching Olympia although the site lies some 33 meters above sea level. The most probable explanation is that tsunami waters overflowed the narrow range of hills between Olympia and the sea through low-lying saddles.
“In earlier times, Olympia was not 22 kilometers away from the sea as it is today. Back then, the coastline was located eight or perhaps even more kilometers further inland,” explains Vött. In his scenario, tsunamis came in from the sea and rushed into the narrow Alpheios River valley, into which the Kladeos River flows, forcing their way over the saddles behind which Olympia is located. The cult site was thus flooded. Vött assumes that the flooding decreased only slowly because the outflow of the Kladeos through the Alpheios valley was blocked by incoming tsunami waters and corresponding deposits. The analysis of the various layers of sediments in the Olympia area suggests that this scenario came true on several occasions during the last 7,000 years. It was during one of the more recent of these events in the 6th century AD that Olympia was finally destroyed and buried.
The Olympia tsunami hypothesis is further supported by the fact that high-energy sediments of undoubtedly tsunamigenic origin were found on the seaward side of the hill range and these deposits are identical to those in Olympia itself. Vött points out that “the sediments around Olmypia have the same signature as the tsunamite in the lower Alpheios valley.” Vött says that the cause of Olympia’s destruction could not have been an earthquake because in this case the fallen fragments of the columns of the Temple of Zeus would directly lie on top of each other, but in fact they are “floating” in sediment. All the sedimentological, geochemical, geomorphological, and geoarcheological findings obtained by the study support the new and sensational hypothesis that Olympia was destroyed by tsunamis. Detailed analyses of associations, origin, and age of microfauna as well as geochronological studies are currently in progress. Results are expected soon.
Tsunamis are well known from the eastern Mediterranean and are mainly the result of extensive seismic activities along the Hellenic Arc. Here, the African plate is being subducted by the Eurasian plate, repeatedly triggering major earthquakes that are followed by tsunamis. The most recent mega-tsunami in the Mediterranean occurred in 1908 related to an earthquake in the Straits of Messina in southern Italy, devastating the neighboring coastal region, more than 100,000 people were killed. A 30 meter-high tsunami wave was recorded in the southern Aegean in 1956. “The evaluation of historical accounts has shown that in western Greece there is one tsunami every eight to eleven years on average,” specifies Vött.
Professor Dr Andreas Vött is specialized in paleotsunami and geoarcheological research in the Mediterranean. In September 2011, he will be presenting the Olympia tsunami hypothesis at an international academic conference in Corinth in Greece. Before coming to Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in October 2010, Vött was professor of Physical Geography with a focus on Quaternary Research and Geoarcheology at the Institute for Geography at the University of Cologne. As professor of Physical Geography/Geomorphology at Mainz University, Vött also heads the Natural Hazard Research and Geoarcheology teaching and research section. His research also comprises aspects of coastal geomorphology such as sea level fluctuations during the Holocene, but also the spatial effects of human-environment interactions over the past millennia. Vött’s work is coordinated with that of the JGU research center “Geocycles” and the Cluster of Excellence “Earth and the Anthropocene” (ERA), which has been invited to submit a full proposal for funding in the second phase of the German Excellence Initiative.
Sounds plausible to me; I wonder if we have any records of this sort of thing happening in Classical times … perhaps to be interpreted as Poseidon coming to visit his brother? Tsunamis do, of course, happen in the Mediterranean – Adrian Murdoch told us about a 4th century tsunami just a few months ago: Tsunami in late antiquity
More coverage:
Adrian Murdoch’s podcasts have continued while I was on my ‘grand tour’ … the one I missed last week were on all those guys doing the “I’m the emperor” thing in 238:
… and today we have the youth they actually settled on, Gordian III:
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ante diem v idus iulias
… I think I’d better announce a bit of a hiatus for the next few days … too much going on/too much running around and I’m not sure when I’ll get time to do a decent update … things should be back to normal (or better) by the weekend …
I don’t know about others who have done Classics on this side of the pond, but while I was formally pursuing degrees in Classics, there always seemed to be a perception that Classics in the UK was safe and stable, and sort of a model for what Classics programs would like to be. In the past couple of years, however, it has become clear that departments in the UK are as increasingly fighting for their survival as their counterparts on this side of the pond are. In the past, we’ve mentioned the potential loss of paleography at King’s College, for example (although we note that KCL is advertising for someone to fill the post) and somehow missed mentioning (apologies to friends at Leeds!) the travails Leeds Classics was going through (they now appear to be in some sort of bureaucratic wait-and-see holding pattern). The latest, however, is possibly most surprising — Royal Holloway has just heard the dire news … here’s one version from the Orbital:
Less than one year after its formation, the Department of Classics and Philosophy faces dissolution.
College Council has proposed changes to discontinue the Classics BA degree and to cut over half of Classics staff. Under the plans, Classics degrees are expected to be phased out over three years, starting with a reduction in student numbers as of September 2012.There will be a 90 day consultation period before any changes go ahead.
Affected staff were briefed on the proposals prior to their discussion at College Council. They have also been offered counselling in ‘managing change.’
Remaining Classics staff would move to the History Department and Philosophy posts would be relocated in the Department of Politics and International Relations. Classics is expected to have a presence on Modern History courses. Those students presently enrolled will not be affected.
Head of Department, Anne Sheppard, earlier this year denied rumours that the Department may close. “I do not think there is any risk,” she said.
Mary Beard, professor in classics at Cambridge, believes the plans signal a ‘slow death’ for the department. “There will be no language teaching, which – in my view – always take the stuffing out of any classical enterprise,” she said.
“Royal Holloway is a good Classics department; and if you excise it from Royal Holloway, you impoverish and devalue all the humanities there.”
Academic Affairs Officer and Classics student, Carl Welch, believes the Students’ Union needs to campaign around the proposals. “The Classics department at RHUL is well respected, with pre-eminent scholars,” he said.“I find this decision to be vastly at odds with [Principal] Layzell’s plans as a whole.”
Anne Sheppard, the head of department, circulated a letter which appeared on the Classicists list which boils things down a bit more clearly:
Proposals for cuts affecting the Department of Classics and Philosophy at Royal Holloway
The College Council are setting up a formal consultation process over proposals for the following cuts affecting the Department of Classics and Philosophy:
1. From September 2012 student numbers will be reduced to 40 per year, for BAs in Classical Studies and Ancient History as well as Joint Honours. The Classics degree will be discontinued.
2. The Philosophy staff, including one Ancient Philosophy post, will move to the Department of Politics and International Relations.
3. A Research Professor, currently shared with English, will move into the English Department.
4. Of the remaining 11 posts, 6 will disappear by 2014, leaving 5 staff who will then move, as a unit, to the History Department.
The consultation, which has not yet started, will run for 90 days. The Department will be responding fully to the planning documents that are to be circulated. [...]
Elimination of a pure Classics degree, of course, means no more Classical languages at Royal Holloway; along with that would go the only Classical versification course in the UK (according to a mention in the Facebook group … more on that later). Mary Beard’s initial reaction is bang on (inter alia):
Well I am hugely relieved for the people whose jobs were on the line. But dont cheer too soon; this looks to me like the slow death, rather than the quick death, model. There will be no language teaching, which — in my view — always take the stuffing out of any classical enterprise. What keen classics student would opt for this? And bet you anything, as soon as one of those classicists in history leaves or retires, they will be replaced by some one in British 19th century, or South East Asian post-colonial.
Mary Beard also made a followup post, digging for the real reasons for this attack … the whole thing should be read, but here’s her (again, bang on) conclusion:
So the proposal is to cut all study of Classics in the original language, and invest entirely in History and Classical Studies (‘where demand is still strong’…this is a demand economy obviously, not an EDUCATIONAL university). And the remaining ‘classicists’ will move to History, ‘to enable the shared teaching of ancient history, leverage of research leadership and shared administrative support’. (‘leverage of research leadership…’? what does that mean — especially when you are cutting the whole linguistic side of this operation.)
Now, I know that outsiders like me can never really understand what is going on inside another institution. I have no idea what the student questionnaires are like, or the potential research submissions to the next Assessment Exercise. There will be all kinds of things going on that I know nothing off.
All the same, it doesnt take much to smell a commercial argument for academic change here.
That said, I’ve mentioned the existence of a facebook group for all this (I’ll give a link at the end), which already boasts over 3000 members and has generated about 30 pages of discussion/debate. Interestingly, the principal of RHUL felt a need to comment on the existence of the Facebook group in a post relayed via Sophia Haque:
This is a message from Royal Holloway’s Principal, Professor Paul Layzell:
“I am concerned to see this debate on Facebook and would like to add my contribution.
Classics has a strong tradition at Royal Holloway, and I believe it plays an important part in the academic portfolio of our institution. It is for this reason that we are currently exploring options to ensure that we can continue to include Classics in our programme of teaching and research. It is not our intention to ‘close Classics’ as some have interpreted our proposals, but to retain it in a form that is sustainable in the long-term.
‘Do nothing’ is not an option. As things stand, the department runs at a considerable deficit which we cannot address through growing student numbers because of the cap government places on our total student numbers. This situation will be made worse if proposals in the HE White Paper remove around 7% home/EU undergraduate numbers from institutions.
As a relatively small institution, we cannot afford heavy cross subsidies that might undermine the financial sustainability of our institution as a whole. Instead, we must find ways to ensure that each of our subject areas delivers research and teaching of a sufficient quality, that is popular with students, and affordable to us and them. We have put forward proposals to enable Classics to do just this, and we have invited our staff to put forward their own ideas. Our intention is protect a discipline that we value, and secure its long term future within our College.
I had hoped that we would be able to have those discussions within our community, rather than in the public domain. I am concerned that public debate will only worsen the situation; prospective students could easily misunderstand our proposals to sustain Classics with the incorrect impression that ‘closure’ was imminent. Such an impression would almost certainly result in the failure to attract students, with dire consequences.
I invite staff, students and alumni to engage with us in the debate within College. By Monday, we will have a site within our intranet, that will allow us to debate these issues amongst ourselves, and work out the best solution together. We are at the stage where we have identified a problem, and I would urge you to work with us to solve it, rather than challenge us publicly and exacerbate the situation beyond remedy”.
You can read some reactions to this in RHUL’s student newspaper: Principal asserts public debate over Classics proposals ‘will only worsen situation’. FWIW, I always get suspicious when powerful folks ‘don’t want to argue in front of the children’ …
Subsequent inquiries about this ‘discussion’ to take place on Monday (for how long?) suggests ‘outsiders’ won’t be allowed to voice their concerns thereon. Until then, the head of department has requested (in the same letter mentioned above):
Letters of support will be very welcome. These should be addressed to the Principal, Prof. Paul Layzell, but should be sent in the first instance NOT directly to him but to the Department, so that we can collect them to use as we see fit.
… they seem to be thinking primarily of actual paper-based letters, but Anne Sheppard’s email address is available here. The folks on facebook seem to be adamant that Mr. Layzell should not be mailed directly at this point.
An online petition has not been started near as I can tell, but other channels to voice support and/or monitor the situation would include the aforementioned facebook group:
… and on Twitter:
… not sure how the #SOSRHUL hashtag is working out …
We’ll keep monitoring events as they unfold …
