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Canva: A Fun Way to Assess Student Achievement

Projects and presentations ultimately assess student learning. There are many good resources out there for presentations in history. As I mentioned in 10 Elements for Teaching History, resources like Prezi and Youtube are fun and stimulating for students.

The free design tool Canva provides another great resource for a classroom, not only for history projects, but for all your classes.

What is Canva?

Simple answer: It is a FREE (!) point-and-click graphic design program. Easy to use and intuitive for the new user. Kids 8 and above can figure this out.

Probably one of the hardest things for someone who has not studied design is making something look beautiful: balanced in color, shape and picture.

This program has the design aspect already taken care of. You provide the content. That content demonstrates mastery of the material.

How it works:

After selecting the type of project, kids (and adults) scroll down to select the layout style they like. Then they choose from drop down elements.

Even though the free account “slightly” limits the images they can use, there is an upload feature (see bottom left of picture below). Students can search online for free-use pictures and graphics and simply upload them into the project. (This makes for a good lesson on copyright and royalties.)

–>Take a look at Pixabay for free-use photographs and Vecteezy for free-use graphics.

Long and short, Canva is simple and quick to learn.

 

If you feel you need to walk students through using Canva, here is a good introduction.

In my opinion, the best part of Canva is that students who use the program are learning elements of graphic design.

As they swap out this for that word, or this for that picture, they are sticking with a design that already works. And they are functioning as graphic artists as they do it!

Their final projects have a professionalism to them, which prepares them in a special way for the business world they will soon be a part of.

I have used Canva in my (homeschool) classroom and have been very pleased with the resulting projects. My students have also been happy with their projects.

Last year, my daughter used Canva to make a book cover for her serial novel. And my son is currently using Canva to experiment with logos and graphics for his Youtube channel, which is a part of his curriculum. It’s a great resource for large or small projects!

What kinds of school projects can be done on Canva?

English: 

Book reports: Make a new book cover for Tom Sawyer. Create a logo Katniss Everdeen could use to promote and explain her side of the rebellion. Design a Story board about the Giver, but change the story halfway through to create a different ending.

Blogging: Create an instructive 5-part blog series on common grammar mistakes 5th grade students make.

Newsletter: With your group, create a newsletter with articles summarizing the novels we have studied. Include sections with puns (plays on words), language-based riddles, memes, vocabulary puzzles or crossword puzzles.

Social Studies/History:

Compare/contrast: Create a menu for a restaurant in ancient Pompeii. Show foods they ate that are the same or are different from foods we eat.

Different perspectives: Create two certificates to be awarded to President Abraham Lincoln: one from a Union supporter of his policies and one from a Confederate opponent to his policies.

Cause and Effect: Make an infographic showing three main causes for the American revolution. Then show the effects the American Revolution had on both the American Colonies and on England.

(See this list of ways to analyze history)

Science:

Resume: Create a resume (C.V.) for Marie Curie, showing her education, accomplishments, and other vital aspects of her scientific career.

Comic Strip: Research how Louis Pasteur discovered pasturization. Design a comic strip illustrating a significant moment of his discovery.

Math:

Photo Collage: Gather photos of things with angles, intersecting, and parallel lines, then illustrate each the photo an angle rule we have studied in this chapter.

Teacher projects: Seating charts, lesson plans, worksheets, slides

Executive Skills: Calendar, Scheduler, graphic organizer

As you see, the sky’s the limit.

Wise men know that DOING proves comprehension much more than mindless worksheets and bookwork:

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
– Confucius

“Not hearing is not as good as hearing, hearing is not as good as seeing,
seeing is not as good as knowing, knowing is not as good as acting;
true learning continues until it is put into action.”
– Xunzi

 Other Ideas

Below is a list of Canva’s pre-design categories you can choose from.

Survey the list below to be inspired for more ways your students can apply what they have learned.

Blogging & ebooks album covers, banners, book covers, comic strips, infographics, magazine covers, photo collages, wallpapers

Documents: certificates, letterheads, newsletters, presentations, resumes

Education: graphic organizers, lesson plans, yearbook maker

Events: cards, event programs, ID cards, invitation cards

Inspirations: mood boards, scrapbooks, storyboards, postcards, seating charts, tickets wedding invitations

Marketing materials: brochures, business cards, flyers, gift certificates, labels, logos, posters, restaurant menus

Planners and Schedules: calendars weekly schedules

Headers: for Etsy, Facebook, Youtube, email

Social media: Meme generator, Social media graphics

Have fun!

Do me a favor–>Please comment below with suggestions for other ways Canva can be used to demonstrate mastery of the material, or describing success you have had with using this program in class.

——

disclaimer: These opinions are my own, I am not compensated by Canva for these opinions or for this recommendation. 

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Why Teach Historical Fiction?

Trunk of Scrolls is a story of long ago. That makes it historical fiction. But it is also a novel that teaches, which makes it curriculum.

Historical fiction is one of two top methods of teaching students to “do history.”

teachinghistfiction

Click for free PDF
  • Historical fiction presents history as a story
  • Historical fiction gives history a human face
  • Historical fiction emphasizes everyday life in the past
  • Historical fiction helps students to see and appreciate multiple perspectives
  • Historical fiction restores dimension to history
  • Historical fiction fosters connections between the past and present

> Find out about Trunk of Scrolls as Curriculum <<

“Trunk of Scrolls is so full of history it COULD HAVE been true!”

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Grace & Peace to You: Early Christian Views on War & Peace


• “I serve Jesus Christ the eternal King. I will no longer serve your emperors. It is not right for a Christian to serve the armies of this world.” ~ Marcellus the Centurion, 298AD, spoken as he gave up his post in the army of Emperor Diocletian because of his faith.

• “We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war. We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools…now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us through the Crucified One….The more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers.”  ~ Justin the Martyr (100AD – 165AD)

• “Murder, considered a crime when people commit it singly, is transformed into a virtue when they do it en masse.”
~ St. Cyprian (200AD – 258AD)

• “We who formerly hated and murdered one another now live together and share the same table. We pray for our enemies and try to win those who hate us.”
~ Justin the Martyr (100AD – 165AD)

• “It is absolutely forbidden to repay evil with evil.”~ Tertullian (160AD – 220AD

• “To those who ask us whence we have come or whom we have for a leader, we say that we have come in accordance with the counsels of Jesus to cut down our warlike and arrogant swords of argument into ploughshares, and we convert into sickles the spears we formerly used in fighting. For we no longer take ‘sword against a nation,’ nor do we learn ‘any more to make war,’ having become sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader, instead of following the ancestral customs in which we were strangers to the covenants.”
~ Origen (185AD – 254AD)

• “Hitherto I have served you as a soldier; allow me now to become a soldier to God. Let the man who is to serve you receive your donative. I am a soldier of Christ; it is not permissible for me to fight.” ~ Martin of Tours (315AD – 397AD)

• “Christians, instead of arming themselves with swords, extend their hands in prayer.”
~ Athanasius of Alexandria (293AD – 373AD)

• The Christian poor are “an army without weapons, without war, without bloodshed, without anger, without defilement.” ~ Clement of Alexandria (150AD – 214AD)

• “I do not wish to be a ruler. I do not strive for wealth. I refuse offices connected with military command.” ~ Tatian of Assyria (died around 185AD)

plowshares2

• “Above all Christians are not allowed to correct by violence sinful wrongdoings.”
~ Clement of Alexandria (150AD – 214AD)

• “The Christian does not hurt even his enemy.”~ Tertullian (160AD – 220AD)

• “None of us offers resistance when he is seized, or avenges himself for your unjust violence, although our people are numerous and plentiful…it is not lawful for us to hate, and so we please God more when we render no requital for injury…we repay your hatred with kindness.”
~ St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (died 258AD)

• “We Christians are a peaceful race…for it is not in war, but in peace, that we are trained.”
~ Clement of Alexandria (150AD – 214AD)

• “Only without the sword can the Christian wage war: the Lord has abolished the sword.” ~ Tertullian (160AD – 220AD)

• “You cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests. We do not go forth as soldiers with the Emperor even if he demands this.”
~ Origen (185AD – 254AD)

• “We who formerly treasured money and possessions more than anything else now hand over everything we have to a treasury for all and share it with everyone who needs it. We who formerly hated and murdered one another now live together and share the same table. We pray for our enemies and try to win those who hate us.”
~ Justin the Martyr (100AD – 165AD)

• “For what war should we not be fit and eager, even though unequal in numbers, we who are so willing to be slaughtered—if, according to that discipline of ours, it was not more lawful to be slain than to slay?”~ Tertullian (160AD – 220AD)

• “The professions and trades of those who are going to be accepted into the community must be examined. The nature and type of each must be established… brothel, sculptors of idols, charioteer, athlete, gladiator…give it up or be rejected. A military constable must be forbidden to kill, neither may he swear; if he is not willing to follow these instructions, he must be rejected. A proconsul or magistrate who wears the purple and governs by the sword shall give it up or be rejected. Anyone taking or already baptized who wants to become a soldier shall be sent away, for he has despised God.”
~ Hippolytus (170AD – 236AD)

• “Christ, in disarming Peter, disarmed every soldier.” ~ Tertullian (160AD – 220AD)

• Christians “love all people, and are persecuted by all;…they are reviled, and they bless; they are insulted, and are respectful.”~ Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus (late 2nd Century)

• “Say to those that hate and curse you, You are our brothers!” ~ Theophilus of Antioch (died around 185AD)

• “For the Gentiles, hearing from our mouth the words of God, are impressed by their beauty and greatness: then, learning that our works are not worthy of the things we say, they turn to railing, saying that it is some deceitful tale. For when they hear from us that God says: ‘No thanks will be due to you, if ye love only those who love you; but thanks will be due to you, if ye love your enemies and those that hate you’—when they hear this, they are impressed by the overplus of goodness: but when they see that we do not love, not only those who hate us, but even those who love us, they laugh at us, and the Name is blasphemed.”
~ The 2nd Epistle of Clement (140-160AD)

• “Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword shall perish by the sword? And shall the son of peace take part in the battle when it does not become him even to sue at law?”
~ Tertullian (160AD – 220AD)

• “It is the Christians, O Emperor, who have sought and found the truth, for they acknowledge God…. They show love to their neighbors. They do not do to another what they would not wish to have done to themselves. They speak gently to those who oppress them, and in this way they make them their friends. It has become their passion to do good to their enemies…. This, O Emperor, is the rule of life of the Christians, and this is their manner of life.”
~ Aristides (written around 137AD)

• “We Christians cannot endure to see a man being put to death, even justly.”~ Athenagoras (133AD – 190AD)

• “Learn about the incorruptible King, and know his heroes who never inflict slaughter on the peoples.” ~ Tertullian (160AD – 220AD)

• “Christians appeal to those who wrong them and make them friendly to themselves; they are eager to do good to their enemies; they are mild and conciliatory.”
~ Aristides of Athens (2nd Century)

• “I recognize no empire of this present age.” ~ Speratus (martyred 180AD)

• “For when God forbids us to kill, he not only prohibits us from open violence, which is not even allowed by the public laws, but he warns us against the commission of those beings which are esteemed lawful among men….Therefore, with regard to this precept of God, there ought to be no exception at all, but that it is always unlawful to put to death a man, whom God willed to be a sacred animal.” ~ Lactantius, instructor of Constantine’s son (240AD – 320AD)

• “Shall we carry a flag? It is a rival to Christ.” ~ Tertullian (160AD – 220AD)

• “I am a Christian. He who answers thus has declared everything at once—his country, profession, family; the believer belongs to no city on earth but to the heavenly Jerusalem.” ~ St. John Chrysostom (347AD – 407AD)

• “If anyone be a soldier or in authority, let him be taught not to oppress or to kill or to rob, or to be angry or to rage and afflict anyone. But let those rations suffice him which are given to him. But if they wish to be baptized in the Lord, let them cease from military service or from the [post of] authority, and if not let them not be received. Let a catechumen or a believer of the people, if he desire to be a soldier, either cease from his intention, or if not let him be rejected. For he hath despised God by his thought, and leaving the things of the Spirit, he hath perfected himself in the flesh and hath treated the faith with contempt.” ~ The Testament of Our Lord (4th or 5th Century AD document)

• “We have become sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader.” ~ Origen (185AD – 254AD)

• “If you enroll as one of God’s people, then heaven is your country and God your lawgiver.” ~ Clement of Alexandria (150AD – 214AD)

• “God called Abraham and commanded him to go out from the country where he was living. With this call God has roused us all, and now we have left the state. We have renounced all the things the world offers…. The gods of the nations are demons.”
~ Justin the Martyr (100AD – 165AD)

• “But now inquiry is being made concerning these issues. First, can any believer enlist in the military? Second, can any soldier, even those of the rank and file or lesser grades who neither engage in pagan sacrifices nor capital punishment, be admitted into the church? No on both counts—for there is no agreement between the divine sacrament and the human sacrament, the standard of Christ and the standard of the devil, the camp of light and the camp of darkness. One soul cannot serve two masters—God and Caesar…But how will a Christian engage in war (indeed, how will a Christian even engage in military service during peacetime) without the sword, which the Lord has taken away?”
~ Tertullian (160AD – 220AD)

• “This is the way of life: first, thou shalt love the God who made thee, secondly, thy neighbor as thyself: and all things whatsoever thou wouldest not should happen to thee, do not thou to another. The teaching of these words is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast on behalf of those who persecute you: for what thanks will be due to you, if ye love only those who love you? Do not the Gentiles also do the same? But love ye those who hate you, and ye shall not have an enemy.”
~ The Didache, also known as The Teachings of the 12 Apostles, is an early Christian document written between 80AD – 90AD.

 

Sources:
40 Early Church Quotes

Quotes: The Early Church on War and Violence

Research on Pacifism in the Ancient Church

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Sarabi Dog of Alexander: Mystery and Fact

What is the connection between Alexander, the Persian Mastiff (Sarabi dog), and the Turkish Kangal? Where did the dog come from? Which breed was Alexander’s dog?

This article explores this mystery in depth.

The Sarabi dog is featured in the novel TRUNK OF SCROLLS: A FAMILY ADVENTURE. Those who love either the Persian Mastiff or the Turkish Kangal will appreciate the key role this dog plays in the story. (Get your copy today to find out!)

PERITAS

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5iIoEcICBPU/Tefbd67F6ZI/AAAAAAAAATU/qLJ9s-EqBb0/s1600/Alexander%2Bsarcophagus%2Bdog%2Bdetail.jpgPeritas was a much-loved dog of Alexander the Great (356 BC-321 BC).  Apparently there were two dogs of Alexander named Peritas. One he raised himself Plutarch writes, “he also, we are told, built another city, and called it after the name of a favorite dog, Peritas, which he had brought up himself.”  This dog might have been a greyhound type.

But another breed seems to…read more

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The Persians at the GATE

The Name

Caesar Augustus, of Bethlehem Nativity fame, 15th_century_map_of_Turkey_regiondied in 14 AD, when Jesus was a teenager.

Archelaus, besides being the son in law of Herod the Great (of Nativity infamy) was also the Last King of Cappadocia. A Roman vassal, he was active in the political game, so when Caesar Augustus died, he renamed his city after the dearly departed. It thus became Caesarea in Cappadocia.

Cappadocia played a great role in the growth of Christianity. During the half-century after Christ, the Apostles went to and fro on the earth, preaching and teaching and writing. The Scrolls they left behind became the Bible we have today.

The Persecutions

In the post-Apostolic times, that is, after John died in 90 AD, the next generation of church leaders went forward with the Scrolls left by the Apostles. They hid the scrolls, and they hid themselves, in caves as they faced the persecutions over the next 250 years.

64 AD

  • Nero
  • Domitian
  • Trajan
  • Hadrian
  • Marcus Aurelius
  • Septimus Severus
  • Maximinus the Thracian
  • Decius
  • Valerian
  • Diocletian
  • Galerius

313 AD

With the signing of the Edict of Milan in 313 the widespread persecution of Christians ended. Then when the Arabs invaded in about 1080, it was renamed Kaisariyah, an Arabic form based on the Latin (Kaisar=Caesar, meaning emperor). And as you know, Kaiser is the German (Dutch-root) name for emperor.

Now the town is called Kayseri.

Enter the Persians

In Trunk of Scrolls, the characters have concern over the “Persians at the gate.” The Persians and Byzantines were always at odds with each other. In fact, a war broke out between the two soon after the events described in Trunk of Scrolls.

What is interesting is how the Persians won. Especially today.

A few days ago, I heard from an Iranian (Persian) believer about an Iranian Christian refugee church in Kayseri. One of several Iranian refugee churches in the town.

–>This ONE CHURCH has more Christians in it
than TOTAL Christians in many big Turkish cities.

Finding this out floored me. The Persians at the Gate.

The Byzantines slowly left the “fold.” The beginning of the end was the Schism of 1054, but even before this the Monophysite Controversy weakened them. They did not understand the significance of Church unity on the Identity of Christ, which set the stage for a weakening empire and a slipping faith.

RaviZachariasSome people say that theology is not important. They say that God doesn’t care what you believe as long as you love Jesus. Or they say that theology divides but the Spirit unifies.

In fact, the Spirit of God divides the church by his WORD. Truth and error are separated when compared with Scripture. And Scripture principles are what “theology” is in the first place.

Theology, or the “Study of God,” means knowing who God is, what He is, how He is, what He does, what He wants from us. These are all that theology is the study of.  There is a GREAT difference between the God of Persia (Zoroaster) and the God of the Bible.

The Persians got what the land of Anatolia lost.

ACTION POINT: What about YOU? Do you care to know God for Who He IS? Studying a comprehensive catechism, like the Westminster Shorter Catechism, can help you be grounded in Truth. The truth can set you free. Please share your experiences or thoughts about this in the comments below.

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1290 Days

ancient-1246447_1920What would you do if you knew you only had 7 years left to live?
What would you do if you knew the world had only 7 years left?

I am not Chicken Little. I shy away from any kind of “end times” prophecy like I would the Tar Baby.

A few months ago, and again the other day I was reading in Daniel, and was floored by something.

Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand. And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.”

Daniel 12:10-12

A note in my New Geneva Study Bible says, “the significance of these time frames is obscure,” since it is not connected to the earlier “three and a half years” prophecies. This got me thinking.

I have been to the Temple Mount, and have seen the Muslim shrine standing where Solomon’s temple used to be. IMHO, that is an abomination. I did a very little history research about this and found out something that rocked my world.

RESEARCH RESULTS

Date of Destruction of Temple of Solomon (where Ezekiel says the Spirit left.) 597* /587 BC

1290 years–>

Date of Building of the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount, between AD 688 and 691

1335 years from Dome of the Rock–>

AD 2023-2026

597 BC–>1290 years –> 688-691 AD–> 1335 years –> AD 2023-2026

WHAT THIS MEANS

All of this says to me one thing–NOT that the world is ending in seven to eleven years. It asks me,

What would you do differently if you knew the world would end in seven years?

  • Would you more earnestly do and check-off things on your “Bucket List”?
  • Would you cross of unimportant things on that Bucket list?
  • Would you reconsider your life, and even your lifestyle, and make significant changes?
  • Would you stop playing that video game?
  • Would you spend more time with your family?
  • Would you spend more free time visiting with non-Christian friends and family?
  • Would you be busier storing up heavenly treasures?
  • Would your priorities and decisions be different?
  • Would you be more patient?
  • Would you be more faithful?
  • Would you be more generous with your wealth and outward estate?
  • Would you number your days?
  • Are you doing what you would want to do in your last seven years of life?
  • Are you doing what you would want to do during the last seven years of life on earth?

For one of these days, there WILL only be seven years left on earth.

END OF LIFE/ END OF THE WORLD RESOLUTIONS

Jonathan Edwards made a couple resolutions related to this:

19. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump.

and

17. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.

and

50. Resolved, I will act so as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world.

Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour:

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven,nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Matthew 24:32-44

WHAT*S WITH THE NUMBERS?

So the book of Daniel gives us numbers, and we should use them. After all, why would they be in the Bible if they were useless? Even Daniel himself saw that Jeremiah promised that Cyrus would send them back to Jerusalem 70 years after the exile.

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession…  

Daniel 9:2-4

appletree

DOGMATISM vs SELF-EXAMINATION

But we cannot be dogmatic about dates and times because of Christ’s warnings (see above). Ultimately, the purpose of the dates is to stir us up. Like Daniel, it should draw us to prayer and confession and self-examination.  Scripture expects us to be wise and consider these two questions:

Action Point:
  1. Are you living life in such a way that you would not regret how you spent TODAY if the Lord returns in 2023?
  2. How do you feel about the return of Christ? When “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.'” Do you answer “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”? (Rev 22:20)
  3. We would love to read your answers in the comments below…

Notes

*1-The typical date given for the destruction of the temple is 587 BC, Babylonian documents themselves appear to date Nebuchadnezzar’s seige to 597 BC. Jeremiah states three exiles 597 “the seventh year,” 586 “the eighteenth year” and a smaller third exile after that. (See Missing Years). No one knows exactly the date for the actual destruction when the “regular burnt offering is taken away.” There was no year 0. There have been various calendar systems since ancient times. Lunar, solar, Julian, Gregorian. It is possible these changes relate to the ten missing years as well. Because of these things, the dates actually still are cloaked in mystery. Additionally, my claim that the Dome of the Rock is an abomination of desolation is just a claim. Is it “the Abomination of Desolation”? Is it one of many that will come? *2-http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-resolutions-of-jonathan-edwards

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Mysterious Family

kipling2This Istrian stone monolith was found in 1588, near Ravenna as a part of the city wall.  It is from the mid-first century. You have a family–a woman with her arm around a man (her husband?) and a sleeping/deceased girl-child in her arms. Underneath the man and woman are two young men and under them a third boy. On the very top you have the bust of a woman.

What is their story? Who is this family? They have only been remembered as far as their names and faces. You can see that the family wanted to reflect the intimacy between the woman and man, and the woman’s love for the little girl. But nothing else is known of their story, only faces and names. A piece of history has been forgotten.

IMG_7390

The Italian text says:

Gli appartenenti ai due gruppi che commissionarono il monumento sono rappresentati con busti entro nicchi alternate a pannelli iscritti. In alto e raffigurata Firmia Prima, quindi nella nicchia liberto Lucio Firmio Principe e dall’ anziana Firmia Apollonia che stringe al petto la piccola Lesbia probabilmente sua nipote. Al di sotto sono I due busti dei fratelli Marco Latronio Secondo e Salvio Latronio Saturnino e, nella nicchia inferiore fra due alberi di alloro, il giovane Sperato, schiavo nato in casa verna. L’interesse della stele e dato dal cara… realistico dei ritratti femminili di Firmia Prima Firmia Apollonian intensamente caratterizza personaggio piu importante colei… monumento sibi et suis de percunia…

A rather rough internet translation of this says:

Those belonging to the two groups that commissioned the monument are presented with busts within niches alternating panels subscribers . High and depicted Firmia First , then in the niche freed Lucio Firmio Prince and the ‘ old Firmia Apollonian embracing to her chest small Lesbia probably her niece . Below are the two busts of the brothers Marco and Latronio According Salvio Latronio Saturnino and , in the lower niche between two laurel trees , the young Hoped , a slave born at Verna . The interest of the stele and gave the dear … realistic of female portraits of Firmia Before Firmia Apollonian intensely characterizes character she most important monument

(would love to have a better Italian translation, if anyone can help.)

The whole monolith

IMG_7389

The stone can be found at the Ravenna archeological museum, next to San Vitale Church.

History is filled with mysteries such as this one. Of course we cannot always know the lives of everyone who ever lived, but if their story is not written, it floats off into the dark recesses of history.

This just goes to show:

History is not names and dates.

History is the why*s and the wherefore*s of those names and dates.

If you want to really “Do History,” then make sure you are applying the principles of historical study.

History means asking questions and finding answers using primary source documents.
In that, you will need names and dates.

But names and dates are not the end of the story, only the footnotes of the REAL STORY.

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Amazing Ancient Technology! Making of a Silver Bowl in the Roman Era

In Trunk of Scrolls, the family of Gaius Justus owns an exquisite silver relief fruit bowl. Watch the process the Romans used to make this type of bowl.

Amazing technology! While the “cup” in this video was made a century or so earlier than the Late Roman/Early Byzantine time of Justinian, the process used in making the Antioch fruit bowl (and the 6th century Antioch Chalice, which some think was the Holy Grail!) would have been very similar.

Now, for more time travel, take a look at the Getty Museum’s Ancient Luxury and the Roman Silver Collection from Berthouville artifacts!

COMMENTS: What was your favorite part of the process? Any favorite pieces from the Getty Museum?