Department of Classics 'Rumble Travel Fund' Trip to Athens

November 2013 saw the Department of Classics’ first, fully subsidized Rumble Fund fieldtrip. In total, 26 members of the department (both undergraduate and graduate students) spent their reading week visiting various sites in Athens, concentrating on monuments connected with their  ‘Classical Art of the Body’ module. The tour was led by Dr Michael Squire  and Dr Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis, and run in close collaboration with the Assistant Director of the British School at Athens, Dr Robert Pitt. Students stayed in a 4-star hotel right in the heart of the ancient city – just 100m from the new Acropolis museum.

Among other highlights, participants had the opportunity to walk inside the Parthenon, with an expert from the Greek Archaeological Service guiding them around the current restoration programme. A special handling session was also organized at the British School at Athens, enabling students to inspect at close hand many of the objects studied in class – to try on an original 6th-century BC Corinthian helmet from Sparta, for instance, and to cradle a 5000 year-old Cycladic figurine (complete with surviving traces of paint). After each intensive day of visits, students were able to unwind at some of Athens best eateries (all organized and paid for by the department).

Participants visited some dozen museum collections and archaeological sites altogether, some of them normally closed to the public. A special lecture (by Professor Olga Palagia) and welcome reception was organized at the British School at Athens, enabling King’s students to meet other international scholars and undergraduates studying Classical Archaeology at the University of Athens, as well as at a host of other research institutes.

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the fieldtrip was offered on a fully subsidized basis. Similar trips – accompanied by King’s teaching staff, and integrated within our Classical Archaeology modules – will be offered each year, and will be open to all King’s BA and MA students: King’s is currently the only Classics Department in Britain to offer such extended fieldtrips to Classical lands, integrated within our programme of undergraduate/graduate modules, and without any cost to our students.