Abingdonian 2018

63 www.abingdon.org.uk Summer Term First Year Fishbourne Trip At the start of the last week of the Summer Term, the first years were treated to a visit to Fishbourne Roman Palace, near Chichester. The palace, the largest residential Roman building north of the Alps, is believed to have been finished during the reign of the Roman Emperor Vespasian, somewhere between AD 75 and AD 80. It is said to have been the home of King Cogidubnus, who was a ‘client king’ to the emperor and one of the key monarchs in Early Roman Britain. We began by watching a fascinating documentary about Fishbourne Palace, which revealed many helpful pieces of information, including how the site was excavated by a group of amateur archeologists in the 1960’s. It is thought that the palace was inhabited for over for over 200 years before it was badly damaged by a fire and fell into disuse. According to ancient sources, the palace had over one hundred rooms with a footprint larger than Buckingham Palace. A detailed architect-style model certainly helped us to imagine what the original palace resembled. We then had the opportunity to study some ancient artifacts and learn what insights can be gained from something as small as an old cow’s tooth or a piece of polished clay. We also viewed a reconstruction of a typical Roman kitchen and saw what type of food they cooked and consumed (their diets consisted mainly of seafood). After lunch we went to the Roman museum and wrote about the various artifacts it houses. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the museum and writing about the Roman underfloor heating system, known as the hypocaust. From the museum, we moved to the most impressive part of the entire site: the mosaics. Here, we completed a game of mosaic bingo, which entailed finding the parts of the mosaics that were pictured in their original form. The main spectacle, however, was the surviving depiction of Cupid upon a Dolphin. I had been really looking forward to seeing it and was truly astounded. Finally, we explored a Roman-style garden, starting with the outside triclinium before moving on to the herb garden, where we studied six herbs. A peculiar fact that we learnt was that the Romans treated wounds with marshmallows! We completed our tour of the garden by examining the entrance, reflecting on how impressive and daunting it would have been to walk up there to visit King Cogidubnus. Overall, the trip was very informative and it was fascinating to find out more about the setting of the stories that feature in our Latin course. While the highlight for me was definitely the opportunity to view the ancient mosaics, I immensely enjoyed the entire trip. Alexander Lees, 1MWL