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Humanities Writing Competition 2013-14

This competition is for Lower Sixth Form (or equivalent) students and is

aimed at anyone with interests in the Humanities. It is based on six

objects from the College's small antiquities museum. Named after a

Girton student, the Lawrence Room contains Anglo-Saxon finds from the

College grounds, Egyptian material including the rare portrait mummy

'Hermione', and Mediterranean material from the Classical and pre-

Classical worlds.

This competition is an opportunity for research and writing beyond the

curriculum using one or more of the six objects as your focus. Essays or

creative responses (such as dramatic monologues or short stories) are equally welcome. We are looking for the

ability to connect different areas of knowledge, to think about details and to communicate clearly. Pictures and

descriptions of the five objects are below.

An online Lawrence Room catalogue is now available for use. Detailed pictures, descriptions and backgrounds of all the objects in the Lawrence Room collection are available to be browsed through, so please make use of it as an aid to your research. http://www.lrc.girton.cam.ac.uk/

Here are examples of issues raised by the six objects, which are offered as starting points for thought from any angle

you choose, with reference to any texts, periods or other contexts you are interested in.

• Funerary monuments • Rulers and ruled • Egypt, Rome and multiculturalism • Symbolic animals • Life and afterlife • Materials and technology

Competition Rules

The word limit is 1800 words (though creative writing in particular may be shorter). Include a word count, and a list of references if applicable.

There is a limit of 3 entries per school.

Submissions must relate to one or more of the Lawrence Room objects.

Submissions should be typed in English in a standard font, lines 1.5 spaced, and every page should be marked with the entrant’s name.

Submissions are to be posted to: Schools Liaison Assistant, Girton College, Cambridge, CB3 0JG by Friday 14th March 2014, with a completed cover sheet. Teachers must sign this to certify that the submission is the entrant’s own work and does not replicate anything submitted for examination.

The cover sheet and further information can be found on the Girton College website: www.girton.cam.ac.uk/undergraduates/for-schools/humanities-writing-competition Prizes The total value of the prize will be £300, partly funded by the kind sponsorship of Cambridge University Press. The prizes will be presented by the Mistress at Girton College in May 2014. Runners up will also be invited to the College. Receipt of your essay will be acknowledged by email. It will not be possible to provide feedback on all the essays, nor to return them, so do ensure you keep a copy. The judges reserve the right not to award prizes if there is no entry of sufficient merit. For further information, please email humanities-comp@girton.cam.ac.uk.

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HUMANITIES WRITING COMPETITION 2013-14 OBJECTS IN THE LAWRENCE ROOM COLLECTIONS

1. Senet gaming piece (LR. 176)

2. Roman engraved glass dish (LR.1026)

Senet (so-called from the hieroglyphs z n t signifying ‘passing’) was, to judge from its frequent depiction and the survival of both boards and gaming pieces, the most popular board game in ancient Egypt. From the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC) onwards, the game came to represent the journey or passing of the deceased though the netherworld. It was played on an oblong board of thirty squares, normally with two players using seven (later just five) gaming pieces each. Gaming pieces came in two forms representing opposing sides: the taller conical or lighthouse shapes and smaller pieces. This jackal-headed piece of faded green faience has been moulded and then fired and glazed; another of the taller pieces in the collection is in the form of the dwarf god Bes. They were acquired by Gwendolen Crewdson, during her stay in Egypt in 1905. Place: Egypt Date: BC 945-715 Acquisition Source: Gwendolen Crewdson, 1918-19 Dimensions: Height 2.2 cm; base circumference 1.5 cm

In the spring of 1881 gardeners began to dig in the front of Girton College to prepare the ground for tennis courts. First they found a clay pot – then a skeleton. They realised that there might be more. A Fellow of Trinity College, Francis Jenkinson, was asked to excavate the whole lawn. He found a large Anglo-Saxon cemetery dating from 5th to 6th centuries AD, and on the same site, two rich Roman graves (the Roman period in Britain dates from 1st to early 5th century AD). Their finds included this green glass dish, engraved with a flying duck emerging from lotus plants. It is Egyptian, probably from Alexandria. It was returned to Girton in 2008 from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, where it had been held since 1924. Place: Roman Cremation Grave II, Girton College. Date: AD 101-150 Dimensions: Height 9.5 cm; rim diameter 5.4 cm; base diameter 5.9 cm

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3. Lion head (LR.1029)

4. Throne and footstool (LR.778)

This carved head of a lion is Roman in date; it was found in a rubbish pit during Francis Jenkinson’s dig at Girton College in 1881, when he excavated Roman graves on the same site as an Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Four other pieces of sculptured stone were found, including the lion's paws and tail and a human torso. The lion could have been part of a grave monument, or merely an architectural ornament. This sculpture was on long-term loan to the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) from 1924 until June 2008. Dimensions: Length 32.5 cm; width 24.2 cm; height 29.3 cm Date: c. AD 150

The name ‘terracotta’ comes from Italian and means baked clay. The terracotta figurines of the Archaic and Classical periods follow a long tradition of portraying humans and animals in the medium of sculpture, but this clay representation of a throne and footstool goes well beyond the established subjects. The throne may have been occupied by a separate figure. Its function is not known precisely, but the majority of the figurines in the Lawrence Room were discovered in tombs, indicating their use as funeral, ritual and symbolic items. In the nineteenth century they were desirable collectible items. Before the Hellenistic period, most figurines were made by the use of moulds. This piece, however, is hand-made. Colours were added by firing the figurines up to three times. Date: c. BC 400 Place: Attica, Greece (purchased in Athens 1873) Acquisition Source: Hon. Evelyn Saumarez (former Girton student), 1902 Dimensions: Height 15.8 cm, width 11.3 cm depth 6.9 cm

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5. Coptic tunic piece (LR.465)

6. Horse and rider (LR.1056)

To look up the full entries of these and other items in the Lawrence Room Catalogue online, see http://www.lrc.girton.cam.ac.uk/

For further information about the Lawrence Room, with links to information leaflets, see http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/lawrenceroom

Coptic is the term commonly used to describe Late Antique Christian Egypt, that name itself being a transliteration of the Arabic corruption of the Greek term for Egypt (Aigyptos). The Copts remained Christian in a largely Muslim world following the Arab conquest of Egypt in AD 642. This woollen textile has been described as part of an ecclesiastical garment, but the design embroidered on it seems secular. It includes ducks, fish, doves and hoopoe sitting among green vines with red flowers or fruit, with two camels or horses under a tree or flowering plant depicted in the central panel. Although a small section of a larger garment, this square is in excellent condition due to the dry Egyptian climate. Dimensions: Length 25 cm; width 21.5 cm Date: AD 575-699 Place: Egypt Acquisition Source: Gwendolen Crewdson, 1918-19; bought in Luxor 1905

This finely modelled pottery tomb figure, dating from the Tang Dynasty, portrays a black-and-white horse in mid-gallop. The rider twists to its right and extends the left hand above the head, sleeves billowing with the motion, while the right arm braces on the horse's flank and the left leg tucks back. Rider and horse have been modelled together, then fired and painted. The body is hollow. A crude circular base underneath the horse's belly supports the figure. Dimensions: Figures: 34 cm long; 22.5 cm high; 11 cm wide. Date: AD 618-907 Place: China Acquisition Source: Dorothy Vazeille Temperley, 1962 (purchased in Shanghai, 1936)