Dr Claire Stocks, Lecturer in Classics at Newcastle University, is currently involved in an exciting collaboration between the U.K., Italy and the Netherlands. The project in question is an upcoming exhibition on the Roman emperor Domitian, which will run from October 2020 to March 2021 at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (RMO), or the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, in Leiden. After that, the exhibition will travel to Rome, where it will be on display until September 2021.
One of the aims of the exhibition is to give more prominence to literature alongside physical objects in order to give a more rounded picture of Domitian’s rule and legacy. As one of four co-curators, Dr Stocks has been involved with the selection of objects and literary sources for display. Some of the objects will be loaned from Rome’s own museums, while others will come from right here in the North East, including two shoes which were recently unearthed at the Vindolanda Roman Fort! One object of particular interest that will be on display is the Carvoran Modius, a bronze corn measure discovered in Northumberland by a local postman in 1915. This extremely rare find bears an inscription that dates the artifact to Domitian’s reign, yet the name of the emperor has actually since been erased on the side, a practice in keeping with the widespread effort to denounce him following his death.
The idea for an exhibition about this controversial emperor first came about in 2015 and serious planning began in 2017, showing just how much time and effort has gone into preparing for its opening next year. The collaboration has also received funding from Anchoring Innovation, the research initiative of OIKOS, the Netherlands’ National Research School in Classics. This ten-year research agenda (2017-2027) is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and has granted over €800,000 (just over £700,000) to the exhibition!
Together with Ian Haynes, Professor of Archaeology at Newcastle University, Dr Stocks is hoping to set up a memorandum of understanding with the RMO so that more collaborations like this can take place in the future. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing the unveiling of the exhibition next year. And if any readers happen to be travelling to Leiden in 2020, we certainly encourage them to visit the RMO and see it for themselves!
POLARIS 