The Ancient World 2018 will take students on an adventure by land and sea, travelling from the southernmost reaches of the Greek Islands to the rugged forests of the far north. Travelling south to north fits in perfectly with the planned intellectual adventure, which will take students from the very dawn of civilisation to the Greek Classical Age – the zenith of human culture of antiquity in terms of both philosophy, visual arts, architecture, government and scientific achievement – through to the fall of that civilisation.

Our great journey will take us through the great Bronze Age civilisations of the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, to the illustrious Greek city states, and finally to the tombs of the kings of Macedon, whose conquests brought that civilisation to a close. The itinerary starts in Crete, where Minoan culture took root and kicked off Greek civilisation. We will explore the huge, mysterious palace of Knossos, dated as nearly 4,000 years old which indicates what a powerful and sophisticated civilisation must have created this extensive network of luxurious apartments and government buildings. This centre of Minoan civilisation is where archaeology reigns supreme. We know nothing of the Minoans except for what we can piece together from the rich material remains, which help us to build up a comprehensive picture. Students will learn how to “read” evidence such as ruined buildings, pots and jewellery, to learn how an archaeologist thinks and hypothesises.

From there, we will make our way to the Peloponnese, to continue the story by looking at the Mycenaeans, who were the inheritors of the Minoan legacy on mainland Greece. We will learn about how archaeology and literary heritage interact here. Wandering around the remains of the formidable Homeric towns of Tiryns and Mycenae, with their incredible, and strangely menacing “Cyclopaean walls”, show us civilisation in its last, defensive, paranoid throes before the mysterious, barbaric, Sea Peoples destroyed the Greek Bronze Age and plunged the whole land into a Dark Age populated only by localised tribe-like societies whose material culture could only produce the sparsest of archaeological records.

Winding our way north, up the Peloponnese, we look at the Classical Greek Age that finally emerged from this darkness. The celebrated Pan-Hellenic sites of Nemea and Olympia were towns considered sacred and neutral safe havens from the frequent internecine warfare that erupted between the Greek city states. Here, Greeks could be Greeks, rather than Athenians, Corinthians, Thebans or Spartans. The most proficient and talented sculptors and artists all found their way to this incredible crossroads of high-culture. Students will learn to appreciate the incredible artistic breakthroughs in terms of realism and verisimilitude achieved by the Classical Greeks in sculpture and visual arts, at the same time learning about the equally incredible transformations in philosophical, logical and scientific thought achieved in the same era.

In the north Peloponnese, we will also go to Epidaurus, site of the other towering and lasting achievement of the Classical Greeks – Greek Tragedy – the well-spring from which all subsequent Western literature drinks. Moving north to Mainland Greece, we proceed to the foremost of all these Pan-Hellenic sites, Delphi, where students will consolidate and enrich their understanding of the culture, religious devotion, art and imagination of Ancient Greece.

The final destination on our tour takes us to the northernmost regions of Greece - to the tombs of the kings of Macedon and in particular, Philip II, father of Alexander the Great – two men whose incredible military victories have echoed through the centuries, but which also brought about the end of this cultural high-water mark of classical antiquity. From there, we sequester ourselves in the mountains and forests of Thrace, for a week of intensive learning, consolidation, fun and the great outdoors. Morning and afternoon lessons will be interspersed with exploring and hiking in the still largely untouched wildernesses of this forgotten corner of Greece. The lessons will be preparing the students for the grand finale, which will be the famous museums of Athens, which is the final stop on our journey. Students will come to the museums with an incredible background knowledge of the development of Greek sculpture, pottery, and architecture. By the time they are in Athens, they will not only be refreshed from their five days in rural bliss, but will also know exactly what they are looking at and will fit the artefacts they look at into the framework of 1,800 years of Greek history and culture that they have been studying. This will be an incredible adventure in every sense of the world. By the end of the tour, children will understand Greece, and in so doing, have a solid understanding of the foundation stone of western civilisation.

Academics

The lifespring of a school is its learning, on a summer study tour as much as for the rest of the year.  The Ancient World will include an intensive, seven-month, online preparatory course directed by the academic course leader for the trip, Mr Isaac Leaver. The online course will see students examining articles about various topics, participating in live webinars with teachers and fellow students, and submitting essays. Detailed, written feedback will be provided on two essays per month: 14 essays from December to June.

After having completed the course of online study, students will be ready to fully benefit from on-site learning opportunities. At all times, they will be guided and supervised by teachers deeply knowledgeable in their fields, in a student-to-teacher ratio of 12:1.

Art

The museum and site visits, such as the peerlessly sublime Parthenon, and Athens museum, will provide the raw material for these classes that will focus on giving students the chronological framework through which to place and contextualise the shifting movements in Ancient Greek sculpture, pottery and architecture. Emphasis will be placed on ensuring students can confidently identify stylistic features and approximately date artwork, as well as grow to recognise and appreciate the influence of classical forms on later epochs of Western art.

Literature and Philosophy

The initially strange and alienating aesthetic of Greek Tragedy really come alive in the awe-inspiring majesty of the almost perfectly preserved 2,300-year-old theatre of Epidaurus, which is still in use as an outdoor performance space. This is just one of the sites that will provide a perfect background to this set of courses whose goal is to unlock the first poetry and drama ever written, as well as the unbelievably bold attempts by the earliest philosophers to erect theoretical structures upon the vast, stormy sea of natural reality and human existence. Firmly rooted in detailed reading of original texts from Homer, the Greek tragedians, Plato and Aristotle, these courses will ignite passion for discussion of ideas.

History: Students will sense civilisation’s fragility as they contemplate the funeral mound of the Athenian dead on the plain of Marathon, which has lain for 2,500 years untouched by grave robbers and unexcavated by modern archaeologists. Such is the enduring respect for the sacrifice of those brave Greek foot soldiers in this most bloody of battles between not just the two nations of Persia and Greece, but two entirely antagonistic and irreconcilable world views. Students will learn the historic forces that formed, shaped and, ultimately, destroyed Greece, as well as learning some of the lessons that Herodotus, Thucydides and Polybius have to tell us about social structures, war, diplomacy, constitutions, law, and liberty.

Mr Isaac Leaver holds an MA in History and Latin from the University of St Andrews in the UK. At Studio, Shanghai, he teaches Classical Studies- Studio’s course on Ancient Greece- as well as Essay Writing classes on a variety of historical topics.