When as assignment seems impossible... :( (1 Viewer)

[Ellie_Belly]

This is the first time I've gotten an assignment that I just can't seem to do. I can't get my head around it; my teacher has confused me, so has the task notification.
It's about Pompeii and Herculaneum. What we have to do is collect secondary sources about the regions in relation to trade, social structure, local political life, everyday life, religion, etc. etc. We also have to find primary sources to support the secondary sources. And we have to annotate these primary sources for what they tell us about the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

This is all well and good, except our teacher isn't actually teaching us the topic in class. We have to research it independently and put together our own notes. I can't seem to collect enough relevant material. So far I've been using the net, but I'll try books next.

I have 2 and a half weeks to do this, and so far I've done some research and tried to summarise it... but I just don't know what to leave out or include, because we're studying almost everything relevant.

I asked my teacher, who really confuses me, for some advice and clarity, and she told me to find evidence to support the information I find in text books. She also said find some villas which can be related to several areas- i.e trade, everyday life, social structure etc.

I can't get started, I feel lost, I don't know if anyone here can help me, I don't know what to do anymore. It's worth 15% of our internal mark. I don't want to stuff it up. What makes it worse is that my friends seem to be much farther ahead of me, and when I ask them for help, they're confused about it too.

Anyway, this is probably futile, but any help would be appreciated.

 

[Ellie_Belly]

This is so depressing. I'm so friggin confused

 

[Ellie_Belly]

goddammit, someone at least talke to me...

 

[Ellie_Belly]

Anyone, any past students with advice on this bloody thing?

 

[smurfygirl]

It's not futile.

I would suggest that you go in search of archaeological evidence - look at the remains of the cities and what they tell you about the the various aspects you've listed.

If you're searching the net and having trouble, look for the Friends of Herculaneum Society and the modern town of Ercolano.

Books are a very good source of information and there are plenty of new texts that have been written for this course. Try Brennan and Lazer 'Interpreting the Evidence' discussions and sources are organised in the categories you mention. Also Zarmatti 'Pompeii and Herculaneum'. Even though some on this site will say that you're marked down for it in the HSC (you aren't) you can also refer to Bradley 'Cities of Vesuvius' for help. There are plenty of sources there.

An example of a house and social structure :The House of the Vetti in Pompeii. Clearly a wealthy home given the artefacts and size of the home. But, the Vetti brothers were liberti - freedmen. They are an example of ex slaves who climb the ladder of influence.

Another example is the Trellis House in Herculaneum which appears to be a boarding House for the poor.

Houses will tell you a lot about the society and social struture. Also look at the buildings in the Forum for examples of everyday life and economy.

From the looks of the topics you've listed, that's most of the unit - what are you doing in class?

 

[Ellie_Belly]

It's not futile.

I would suggest that you go in search of archaeological evidence - look at the remains of the cities and what they tell you about the the various aspects you've listed.

If you're searching the net and having trouble, look for the Friends of Herculaneum Society and the modern town of Ercolano.

Books are a very good source of information and there are plenty of new texts that have been written for this course. Try Brennan and Lazer 'Interpreting the Evidence' discussions and sources are organised in the categories you mention. Also Zarmatti 'Pompeii and Herculaneum'. Even though some on this site will say that you're marked down for it in the HSC (you aren't) you can also refer to Bradley 'Cities of Vesuvius' for help. There are plenty of sources there.

An example of a house and social structure :The House of the Vetti in Pompeii. Clearly a wealthy home given the artefacts and size of the home. But, the Vetti brothers were liberti - freedmen. They are an example of ex slaves who climb the ladder of influence.

Another example is the Trellis House in Herculaneum which appears to be a boarding House for the poor.

Houses will tell you a lot about the society and social struture. Also look at the buildings in the Forum for examples of everyday life and economy.

From the looks of the topics you've listed, that's most of the unit - what are you doing in class?

Thanks a lot for your help In class, we're not doing much - our teacher wants us to learn most of it ourselves. So we're mainly just watching videos and taking notes.

I actually feel a lot better about the assignment since the weekend, thank the lord.