Well, Mr. Phillips I made a mistake. I should have spoken before you because
that's a difficult act to follow. I'm pleased to present the exhibition
Antiquities in the Togo Salmon Gallery at the McMaster Museum of Art and would
like to start today by thanking Carol, Ihor, Julie and the entire staff at
the McMaster Museum of Art for the opportunity to discuss the material.
Antiquities and classic archaeology for that matter are often difficult to fit
into an academic matrix. The objects we examine are artifacts of prior
civilizations and are treated as much for their informational value as much as
their aesthetic value. And sometimes, when looking at objects from everyday life
rather than masterpieces, that informational aspect really precedes
that aesthetic aspect so that were afforded, well, unique insights into the
daily life that they embody. We'll view them presently, and I refrain from
projecting images of the pottery because there's no point in looking at images of
it when we'll look at them themselves in just a second,
but before we move over to the gallery, I just wanted to demonstrate with some
images how extensive and significant the McMaster Museum of Art's Bruce brace coin
collection is. And I'm going to do that by tracing the critical moments and
important developments in numismatic history, using exclusively the coins in
the collection, many of which are also on display. Coinage was introduced in the
7th century BC and introduced in Anatolia the region that is today Turkey.
By the 6th century BC it took the form that we're familiar with. One of the
earliest silver coins to get disseminated is this, the so-called
silver siglos. It was issued probably under the Lydian King Kroises, again in
modern Turkey, at beginning just about the midpoint of the 6th century,
560 and down till about 546. On the obverse there are two animals a lion and
bull engaged in eternal conflict. On the reverse we call it an incuse punch
essentially taking a punch hooking it into the metal to demonstrate the purity
of the silver. This was a test of the the quality and the composition of the
material, proof that we're dealing with pure precious metal. Shortly after its
introduction, coinage was adopted by the Greeks and it really becomes a
fundamental Greek medium to the point we often associate it more with Greeks than
with the Lydians. One of the first Greek cities to issue coins was Aegina. This
small island city just off the Attic coast and they chose as their animal to
represent their city -- the turtle. Well, for a sea faring population on the
small island the turtle was certainly familiar and many have wanted to see
similarity between that rising curve of the island itself and the back of the
turtle. Well, I think we can make that a wonderful association. The incuse
punch begins to get a decorative form and we can see it divided into
eighths. Still the function there is to get an idea of the composition of the
metal. Following its adoption in Aegina,
coinage was picked up in Athens and Athens became the largest producer of
coinage from the late archaic into the Classical period and in fact the coinage
output from Athens far outnumbered any other Greek city. And in fact 5th century
Greek coins are found far and wide into the Near East and down into Africa. At
this point, the imagery shifts a little bit and rather than animals or aspects
from the natural world, symbols of the city are employed. And in this way the
coin is shorthand for the group that created it. Athens on the
head side, or obverse, put a portrait of their patron deity Athena and on the
reverse, yes it's an animal, but it's a significant animal, a significant
context for the animal - the owl, a bird sacred to Athena, a symbol of Athens. This
coin was unchanged for centuries and even made a return or at least the type
made a return, following the advent of the euro in 2002 on the reverse of
the Greek one euro coin the owl still can be found. Here in the museum we have
a number of examples of Athenian coins. This one I wanted to draw a particular
attention to. Dated shortly after 449 BC, this coin corresponds to
the time of Athens peak in economic and political power it was these types of
coins that paid for buildings such as the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis.
Coinage spread quickly to other Greek cities and we can see cities using this
as a forum to indicate aspects of their identity. Corinth follows suit, following
Athens with Athena on the obverse, but Pegasus on the reverse - that winged
horse. It's a figure from Greek mythology that gets localized in events
at Corinth and for this we can see a symbol significant to that community, a
reflection of that community, in its numismatic output. Coinage then spread
like wildfire across the Greek world and even to Greece's neighbors to the west.
We can find coinage appearing at Greek cities in western Greece, that is in the
area of Italy and Sicily at sites such as Syracuse that issued not only silver
but also bronze coins. Find coinage at cities such as Metaponto here a city
that was known for its production of grain, the grain ear becomes
the type, becomes shorthand for the city, and appears on the reverse of their
coinage. Sybaris located here this is a city famous for bold cattle
production and the bull appears both on the obverse and the reverse. We can see
this coin on display presently. And one more Massalia, the Greek city in what is
today France - there are Greek cities as far away as France - picks a lion as its
type. The next significant development in coinage in the Greek world comes with
the Macedonians and the transformation of a Greek world full of independent
city-states to one unified Kingdom under the Macedonians. Alexander the third, you
may know him as Alexander the Great, marks a transition from this type of
rule with transferring the imagery, the icons on the coin, from a civic emblem
for an emblem of a political group and makes it personal. Transfers it to an
individual. He, on this coin, produces his name on the reverse -- again we can see
this in the cabinet "Alexandru" and, students of Greek, we know
this is a genitive. It means "of Alexander". Alexander's coinage. Alexander is the one
sponsoring this. It's not the state, it's the individual. Despite this
personalization, the types still pertain to Greek mythology and Heracles
appears on the obverse, Zeus on the reverse. Portraiture will come a little
bit later and in fact we can see it introduced by the Romans. Before too long
the Romans begin issuing their own coins. It begins with a variety of types in
different materials, but by the end of the third century they had settled on
one particular denomination in one particular type.
We called it the Denarius, introduced about 211 BC a silver coin with helmeted head
of Roma and personification of the cities. So we can see that Civic aspect
with different types on the reverse including figures from Greek and Roman
mythology here the twin Horseman Castor and Pollux. But before too long
Roman coinage becomes personal too. the minter becomes an important office in
the Roman state because the minter gets to decide the type. And slowly we
see those civic emblems give way to more personal messages. It doesn't happen all
in one moment, but gradually over time. Here there's a moneyer who is in the
the family clan of the Martius. He puts an ancestor on the obverse, doesn't put
his own portrait but a family ancestor and then achievements of that
illustrious ancestor on the reverse including an aqueduct that his ancestor
had brought to Rome. So in this way elevates the family line and
yeah we can all do the math, you quickly see how this will become self-promotion
rather quickly.
Roman coinage predict in the Republican period is also notable for
representations of architecture and we can find images of some of the grandest
most important temples and other monuments of Rome on coinage. One example
from a coiner M. Volteius, a large temple appears on the reverse. We can identify
this with the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus Jupiter the
greatest and the best on the Capitoline hill, the largest temple in the city. This
is the monument it's recalled in Roman coinage with Augustus and the shift from
the roman republic to the roman empire we can see that iconography. The
images become political and at the same time become personal. Augustus was not
the first individual to put his own image on, Caesar did appear on coins just
in the last months of his life. But if Caesar did it first,
Augustus did it best. He put his own
image and even members of his family, but not ancestors. He put the next
generation of his family on the coinage. We can actually see his two
grandchildren and adopted sons, legally adopted sons. And with this don't look back
but look forward, look to transition, look to the next generation of the Augusti
coming into power. Now Augustus outlived these heir apparents
but the tradition was established. The tradition was established and for
successive emperors, the convention in roman numismatics was portrait on the
obverse and then the reverse could change, but oftentimes was either a
monument of the city or a deity that personifies an attribute the emperor
wishes to be associated with. So we often see concord, peace or health
appearing on the reverse -- positive attributes for the city. With this not
only is a long lived tradition in Roman coinage established, a long lived
tradition in western coinage is established. The head of state goes on
the obverse in a recognizable fashion
and, well, I'm tempted to say the rest is history.
We can see how this tradition has been maintained at least up until the present
day. Before shifting gears and taking a look at the objects themselves and maybe
allowing a couple words for the pottery in the
gallery itself I just want to offer one last reflection. We're all acutely aware
of the transformative moment that higher education is undergoing. This is a discussion
on campus, off campus and in the general population universities are making a
push and also sometimes being pushed to reevaluate the classroom and the student
experience. We're constantly being asked whether we are using the most effective
methodologies available to us and whether these methodologies produce the
best students. Spoiler alert -- YouTube lectures are not going to be the
answer in the end. We're in a moment of transition, we're in an era of multimedia
communication and, as a whole, the academic world is taking a look,
reevaluating the best way to engage students and to ensure that the material
presented is made meaningful to them, that is internalized, useful and retained
even beyond the test or final exam. Oftentimes in the classroom I lament
that all I can do is show images of artifacts and discuss them so
essentially the classroom is a one-way street of communication. The museum makes
it a two-way street and not just a two-way street, a
six-lane high-speed speed pass 407 highway is envious fast lane for
education. The museum creates a forum to interact with the vessels, to see them, to
satisfy your own curiosity upon autopsy viewing them and then let them tell
their stories and in doing so they impart important information regarding
the past cultures they represent. Objects in the museum create problem-based
learning opportunities as Mr. Phillips can attest to and has so adroitly
navigated in the previous presentation. And these types of inquiries build
essential analytical skills that are useful
even in a non-classical - that exists - an classical non-academic and in a
professional context. The museum creates that forum to engage inspire and delight.
It academically engages a student body and the general public and provides a
type of learning experience that is otherwise impossible. The university will
undoubtedly continue to do what universities do which is create
committees and working groups to discuss with the aim of examining the challenges
of higher education in the 21st century. But in truth the answer is right there
in front of them: the engaging interactive forum that
they're seeking is already known, it's right here and it's called the McMaster
Museum of Art. thank you.