A Full Day in Oxford

Today I am off out as soon as the rush hour has finished to meet my chum in Cafe Loco, Oxford.  One of my favourite coffee bars, which I have written about before.  We sit and look over Christchurch Gardens while planning the 'Oxford Medical Tour'.  More later!  

All sorted and the route covered, we have lunch at the Mathmatical Institute.  Fascinating modern building, all based on equations somehow and a cheap and cheerful baguette. 

So now for the treat.  It is off to the new exhibition at the Ashmolean, first musuem in Britain. 

Storms, War & Shipwrecks

This exhibiton is about Sicily's history interpreted through the finds from ship wrecks deep beneath the sea.  For 2500 years, Sicily was the place where the great powers of the ancient and medieval eras met and fought. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Normans battled for control, with many of their ships sinking off the island’s rocky shores. Sicily’s azure waters have since become a focus for underwater exploration and dozens of shipwrecks have been recovered.

We immerse ourselves in the world of the underwater archaeologist and explore the multicultural history of Sicily revealed through stunning and unusual artefacts brought up from the depths of the sea.

We also explore the roots of this multicultural heritage with over 200 spectacular and unusual objects rescued from the bottom of the sea.  The Arab and Norman eras seem to be enlightened and tolerant, with multiculturalism working well.  They could teach today's post Brexit Britain a thing or two.  We see the marble pieces of a Byzantine ‘flat-pack’ church and learn about intrepid prehistoric traders and  enlightened rule of the Norman kings.  This exhibition illuminates the movement of peoples, goods and ideas. 

The treasures on show in Storms, War and Shipwrecks have been uncovered over the last 60 years since the advent of SCUBA diving equipment which made possible sustained underwater exploration. While some of the objects are chance finds pulled up by local fishermen, most are from shipwrecks excavated by archaeological divers.   One of the earliest pioneers of underwater archaeology, whose legacy is explored in the exhibition, was the remarkable British woman, Honor Frost (1917–2010). Frost trained as an artist in London and at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford.   But her enduring passion was for diving. In her book Under the Mediterranean (1963), she describes how she started out as a young woman by submerging herself in a well at a home in Wimbledon using a garden hose. Her mentor was the French archaeologist, Frédéric Dumas, who took Frost on her first dive to the wreck of a Roman ship at Anthéor on the south coast of France. 

Finds from several shipwrecks are dispalyed.  Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean and lying at the heart of historic maritime routes, is a leading centre for underwater archaeology. Eleven Roman and Carthaginian warship rams have been recovered near Levanzo, in the Egadi Islands off the northwestern coast.  These are one of the most important discoveries to date. These powerful weapons, mounted on the fronts of ships, were designed to plough into enemy vessels with great force. 

Together with helmets and other debris, the rams are proof of the exact location of the Battle of the Egadi Islands fought between the Romans and the Carthaginians on 10 March 241 BC. In the exhibition we display several rams, with a digital reconstruction of the battle, bringing to life the victory of Rome over Carthage, an event that changed history and ensured Rome’s ultimate domination of the Mediterranean.

Another spectacular discovery on display is an example of a Byzantine ‘flat-pack’ church. The Emperor Justinian (c. 482-565), in his efforts to fortify and regulate Christianity across his empire, was a prolific builder of churches. Under his rule, based at Constantinople, large stone-carrying ships, laden with prefabricated marble church interiors were sent out from quarries around the Sea of Marmara (the ‘marble sea’) to sites in Italy and north Africa. Some of these ships never made it to their intended destination. Heavy and slow, they became unbalanced and sank during stormy weather. 

A Greek merchant ship was ship wrecked near Gela in about 500BC.  This jug shows the godess Athena. 

Plate for seafood with central depression for dipping, cerca 300BC Greek.  

Arch with Godess Roma AD 100, found off coast of Camarina

After buying a couple of gifts we treat ourselves to tea and lemon drizzle in the Ashmolean Restaurant.

 

Then back to earth and a non functioning clip card, followed by a busy A34.  Home to an Oakham Citra!