Martia Dementia 2023

After eight years of spring campaigns—in which gods, monsters, birds, authors, and military commanders struggled on the Martia Dementia battle field—we’re back, with the ninth annual contest! Last year, some bloodthirsty birds defeated a slew of ancient authors, with the poisonous ducks of Pontus gaining victory over Rome’s sacred chickens. In 2023, mythical monsters are back, and ready to take on a new set of rivals, gods and goddesses. In keeping with the theme of the 2022–2023 Roman Calendar, these Martia Dementia competitors represent the non-Olympians, those deities that might personify important concepts, inspire daily worship, or offer divine revelation through initiation into their mysteries.

See the downloadable, printable PDF of the Roman Calendar here, showcasing artwork and imagery associated with twelve of this year’s Martia Dementia participants. For a variety of mythical monster activities, scroll to the bottom of our Distance Learning page to find an online matching game, printable templates to create a Guess Who?–style board game, and more.

To the victor—whoever finishes with the best bracket—belong the spoils. Before getting to the prizes, here is how the competition will work. Please read through the process carefully. For reference, we are providing a PDF of the bracket that you can use with your classes, but be sure to submit your final choices via the online system.

The Bracket

Starting today, complete and submit a bracket to be eligible for wondrous prizes. Please access and submit your bracket online via the following link: Martia Dementia 2023 Bracket. You can also find the bracket at the bottom of this blog post.

When you access the online Martia Dementia bracket, click the “Submit your bracket!” button to start making your selections. You will be prompted to enter your name and email address; we need this information so that we can track and notify the winners of the competition once Martia Dementia is completed. After signing up, you will be asked to predict a winner for each game in the bracket.  

For each round, you view a set of contestants that will "face off" against one another. Predict and select your winner for each "contest" in the bracket. 

At the bottom of this post, you will find a link to a PDF showing short descriptions of each of this year’s Martia Dementia participants. You can access the same descriptions by clicking on the photo of a given figure in the bracket.

Clicking on a god or monster will bring up a short description.

Once you have completed all of your selections and have submitted your bracket, you will receive a notice thanking you for your submission. If you would like to view your prediction bracket, simply click on the link to “View My Prediction.” We recommend saving a copy of your bracket at this point so that you can keep track of how you are doing as the competition progresses. With our online submission system, you can also easily share your prediction bracket via email or social media—a great way to show off how you’re doing, or earn some pity points if your bracket is going poorly. 

We are also providing a PDF copy of the bracket here (for reference only) in case you would like to print a copy of the bracket and fill one in with your class. However, we are not accepting scanned brackets, so make sure that you also submit the bracket online.

Brackets will be accepted through Wednesday, March 15 (the Ides of March!).

The Survey

A voting survey will be made available on Thursday, March 16, where you can vote for your picks. Whichever figures have the most votes by the time the survey closes will advance through the round. Actively participating in the survey betters your chances at winning. We will announce via social media when voting for each round has opened.

We cannot stress enough the importance of voting. When the survey goes live, cast your votes! Get your friends to vote for your picks. Teachers, get your students to stuff the survey with favorable votes!

Victori Spolia

This competition is not solely for bringing glory to your favorite ancient writer or bird. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers is offering book prizes for the brackets that most closely resemble the final results; a $100 book credit will be awarded to the first-place participant, a $50 credit to the second-place participant, and a $25 credit to the third-place participant. Feeling like you no longer stand a chance? Do not give up! There will also be a $25 credit for having the most abysmal bracket! 

Stay Connected

Be sure to bookmark this post and check back here to access the link to the voting bracket. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates as the competition progresses.

Remember, brackets close March 15, and the first round of voting will begin March 16.                                   

Bracket and Other Resources

Access the online bracket

Access a printable bracket (for reference only) 

Access a description of all Martia Dementia 2023 figures

Voting Schedule:

·         Round 1: March 16–17

·         Round 2: March 18–21

·         Round 3 (Sweet 16): March 23–24

·         Quarterfinals (Elite 8): March 25–28

·         Semifinals (Final 4): March 30–31

·         Final (Championship): April 1–4

Note that each round of voting will open at 7:30 a.m. central time and close at 4:00 p.m. central time on the designated days. 

 

 

 

Poisonous Ducks Win: Martia Dementia 2022 Recap

 

Martia Dementia 2022 featured a fierce competition, pitting humans against avian foes. Our ancient author field covered writers from Athens to Rome and beyond, some quite archaic (Homer, Sappho), and some relatively more modern (Perpetua, Augustine). Whether poets, historians, playwrights, or philosophers, these writers wielded their all-mighty pens—styli?—against mythological winged creatures, ominous raptors, domestic fowl of note, and more.

The championship was hotly contested by the sacred
chickens of Rome and the poisonous ducks of Pontus. 

Round one saw the advancement of Homer, easily defeating the eagle of Zeus, then later the ossifragus, the bonebreaker bird. While comic Plautus and saintly poet Aelia Eudocia fell out of the competition early on, Menander rallied against the ostrich, known to the ancients as the sparrow-camel. Apollonius of Rhodes failed in his foray against the famed harpies, whom he had described attacking the Argonauts in his own epic. Meanwhile, Seneca the Younger could not repel the sacred chickens of Rome, who proved blessed by the gods. Roman poets Vergil, Lucretius, and Ovid did quite well, however, as did several historians and the mathematician and scientist Perpetua.

Poets continued to hold their own against birds large and small: Homer was able to overtake the sirens, the bird-women of the Odyssey, before matching up with (and winning against) Catullus. Vergil, who handily beat last year’s champion, the phoenix, continued into round three—where the powerful pulli, the sacred chickens, were too formidable. Of all the authors, Ovid came the closest to winning the contest, but in the semifinals, he succumbed to King Mithridates’s poisonous ducks. The final battle in the championship round was bird vs. bird, as the sacred chickens of Rome fought the poisonous ducks of Pontus beak and nail. While Rome famously defeated Pontus, the same was not true of each respective state’s representative birds. The poisonous ducks brought down the sacred chickens, reigning victorious in Martia Dementia 2022! If you'd like to see the full bracket results, you can access them here.

Thank you to all who participated this year in Martia Dementia. Our top scorer was Charlie White of Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth, TX. Second place goes to Alek Balassa of New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, IL. Rounding out the top three: Magistra Farkas’s Latin 2 class at Belmont High School in Belmont, MA. Congrats to these astute winners, who all selected their bracket matches with care and great forethought. In contrast, Ava Stumpf of New Trier Township High School achieved the most abysmal bracket, barely progressing past the first round of voting.

Once again, thank you to all participants, who helped make this year’s contest a resounding success. Have strong feelings about this year’s winners? Hope to see a particular ancient figure featured in next year’s contest? Tweet @BCPublishers what and who you would like to see and include the hashtag #MartiaDementia or give feedback in the comments below. We would love to hear from you!

Martia Dementia 2022

Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis

    arboribusque comae.

The snows have fled, now the grass returns to the fields
    and the leaves to the trees. (Horace, 4.7.1–2)

As we emerge from the cold, snowy days of winter, we not only encounter the greenery and renewal that springtime heralds: we also embark on our yearly Martia Dementia celebrations, now in their eighth year! In 2021, the best military commanders of the ancient world met their match in competition with birds. Shockingly, the birds emerged triumphant, and the immortal phoenix took (and perhaps burned to ashes) the laurel wreath. This year, the birds are back and ready to flaunt their fearlessness. Their challengers? Ancient Greek and Roman writers, in part inspired by our newest Explore Latin reader on theater and comedy! In Explore Latin: Lūdī Scaenicī by Christopher Bungard, information is presented about playwrights and poets like Menander, Livius Andronicus, Ennius, Plautus, and Terence. These authors, and many more, will now have to prove their Martia Dementia mettle. 

To the victor—whoever finishes with the best bracket—belong the spoils. Before getting to the prizes, here is how the competition will work. Please read through the process carefully: this year we will continue to use an online bracket and voting system. For reference, we are providing a PDF of the bracket that you can use with your classes, but be sure to submit your final choices via the online system.

The Bracket

Starting today, complete and submit a bracket to be eligible for wondrous prizes. Please access and submit your bracket online via the following link: Martia Dementia 2022 Bracket. 

 When you access the online Martia Dementia bracket, click the “Submit your bracket!” button to start making your selections. You will be prompted to enter your name and email address; we need this information so that we can track and notify the winners of the competition once Martia Dementia is completed. After signing up, you will be asked to predict a winner for each game in the bracket. 

At the bottom of this post, you will find a link to a PDF showing short descriptions of each of this year’s Martia Dementia participants. You can access the same descriptions by clicking on the photo of a given figure in the bracket.

 

Once you have completed all of your selections and have submitted your bracket, you will receive a notice thanking you for your submission:

If you would like to view your prediction bracket, simply click on the link to “View My Prediction.” We recommend saving a copy of your bracket at this point so that you can keep track of how you are doing as the competition progresses. With our online submission system, you can also easily share your prediction bracket via email or social media—a great way to show off how you’re doing, or earn some pity points if your bracket is going poorly. 

We are also providing a PDF copy of the bracket here (for reference only) in case you would like to print a copy of the bracket and fill one in with your class. However, we are not accepting scanned brackets this year, so make sure that you also submit the bracket online.

Brackets will be accepted through March 16.

The Survey

A voting survey will be made available on March 17, where you can vote for your picks. Whichever figures have the most votes by the time the survey closes will advance through the round. Actively participating in the survey betters your chances at winning. We will announce via social media when voting for each round has opened.

We cannot stress enough the importance of voting. When the survey goes live, cast your votes! Get your friends to vote for your picks. Teachers, get your students to stuff the survey with favorable votes!

Victori Spolia

This competition is not solely for bringing glory to your favorite ancient writer or bird. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers is offering book prizes for the brackets that most closely resemble the final results; a $100 book credit will be awarded to the first-place participant, a $50 credit to the second-place participant, and a $25 credit to the third-place participant. Feeling like you no longer stand a chance? Do not give up! There will also be a $25 credit for having the most abysmal bracket! 

Stay Connected

Be sure to bookmark this post and check back here to access the link to the voting bracket. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates as the competition progresses.

Remember, brackets close March 16, and the first round of voting will begin March 17.

Bracket and Other Resources

Access the online bracket
Access a printable bracket (for reference only) 
Access a description of all Martia Dementia 2022 figures

Access a short explainer on submitting a bracket

Voting Schedule

• Round 1: March 17–18
• Round 2: March 19–22
• Round 3 (Sweet 16): March 24–25
• Quarterfinals (Elite 8): March 26–29
• Semifinals (Final 4): March 31–April 1
• Final (Championship): April 4–6

Note that each round of voting will open at 7:30 a.m. central time and close at 4:00 p.m. central time on the designated days. 

 

 

Author Emma Vanderpool on Her Latest Latin Novellas

The debut titles in Bolchazy-Carducci’s Latin-language easy reader series are available both at our website and via Amazon! Both books provide an immersive introduction to the multifaceted world of augury and birds in ancient Rome. Explore Latin: Avēs uses fewer than one-hundred unique Latin words to provide basics information about birds in a Roman context, with copious color images reinforcing the text. Augury Is for the Birds explains elements of augury through a relatable coming-of-age story in 144 unique words. There are three forthcoming follow-up novellas that will build on the vocabulary, themes, and concepts established in Explore Latin: Avēs and Augury Is for the Birds. 

Emma Vanderpool, award-winning Latin teacher and the author of several self-published Latin novellas, carefully crafted these two books to appeal to students and to be readily comprehensible to beginning Latin learners. Editor Amelia Wallace was pleased to speak to her about her inspirations, writing process, and larger goals. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

AW: How did you choose the topic of augury for your novella series? What themes and key cultural ideas were you hoping to address?           

EV: I was inspired by my first novella, Sacri Pulli: A Tale of War and Chickens, which focused on an instance of augury. I wanted to continue an exploration of this influential practice and its role in history, politics, and military endeavors. Its intersection with so many different areas seemed to make a great place to focus upon.

AW: One of the main goals of these readers is to draw in novice Latin learners with compelling and comprehensible material—a challenge since students may be using different textbooks or learning in very different settings. What strategies did you use to ensure that the language in your books met these two requirements? 

EV: To make sure these novellas are comprehensible, I carefully structured the vocabulary so that I consistently utilized a core vocabulary from book to book while gradually introducing new words. To make sure these novellas were compelling, I added some levity and comedy in the dialogue while still maintaining a focus on the rather complex topic of duty. I hope the combination of these two things will draw different types of students in and keep them reading.

I focused on high frequency vocabulary, drawing on Dickinson College Commentary’s Core Vocabulary, but also did not shy away from incorporating short phrases or vocab words from Cicero’s extant texts that touched on augury. In doing so, I hoped to allow students to read the text, while still learning subject-related vocabulary. 

AW: What sources did you draw on when writing these books? Did any of the material you learned while researching surprise you?

EV: I was able to draw upon my favorite author, Cicero, when researching these books, including his De Divinatione, De Natura Deorum, and De Legibus, to inform my understanding of augury. It was most surprising to realize how fluid the Romans’ understanding of sinistra and dextra was when deciding if a sign was secundum or adversum. 

AW: What process do you use when you first begin writing a novella? Does it change depending on subject matter or intended audience? 

EV: I always set out with an audience in mind. The clearer the audience I have, the easier it is for me to craft my story in terms of plot structure and to select vocabulary. Once I have an audience in mind, I make some “first draft picks” for vocabulary, words that I will need (or really want) to use. From there, I do my round of writing and crafting of the story before allowing any “second draft picks” for vocabulary to make their way into the text as I begin editing. 

AW: In Augury Is for the Birds, we meet the character of Marcus, a Roman boy who is studying augury at the behest of his father. While this book takes place in an ancient setting, I couldn’t help but notice how relatable the central conflict of the story is for modern students. Marcus is at an age where he is exploring who he wants to be while also contending with his parents’ expectations. Did your own work with students around Marcus’s age inform this story? Any other key inspirations for the emotional core of the work?

EV: I definitely had a certain set of beloved middle schoolers in mind when I was writing this book and imagining the kind of wise mischief Marcus was getting up to as he tries to get his way. This audience shaped both Marcus’s perspective but also the kind of humor in the book. 

While many existing Roman narratives have been dominated by a “good” son who knows his duty, I thought it important to imagine that for every son aware of his duty, there was also one who was still growing into that space. For every soldier willing to die for his country, there must have been another who was haunted by the horrors of war. While extant Latin texts have certainly shaped our views of the ancient world, those are only the ones we have left and not necessarily the only perspectives available. 

AW: What are some of the features of Explore Latin: Avēs and Augury Is for the Birds? How will they enhance the reading experience for language learners (or the teaching experience for those using these works as a classroom text)?

EV: I think that the glossary is fairly innovative in the fact that it utilizes not only the traditional dictionary entry but also the different parsed forms, as students do not always recognize these forms as connected. I think this inclusion will make the book more accessible to students learning from different teaching styles [editor's note: look for an upcoming blog post that further describes these features].  

I’m also excited about the grammatica section [in Augury Is for the Birds], which provides a written example of a “grammar pitstop.” These short explanations will help students to understand the grammar on a need-to-know basis in terms of their reading. 

AW: Where will this storyline go in the future? What additional themes do you hope to explore?

EV: The next volume goes deeper into Marcus and his father’s story and their dueling views of the nature of war by looking at instances of augury within both a Homeric and ancient Roman history context. It explores further the possible tension between duty to family and duty to country. Although it may be focusing on the familiar topic of war and men, I hope to expand on existing narratives by adding layers of complexity to their characters and views.

Emma Vanderpool has been teaching Latin since 2017—two years at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a year at Trickum Middle School in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and now back in her beloved New England at Springfield Honors Academy, Springfield, MA. Vanderpool earned her Bachelor of Arts in Latin, Classics, and History from Monmouth College in Illinois and her Master of Arts in Teaching for Classical Humanities from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Among her awards, Vanderpool is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award from UMASS Amherst (2019) and was honored as the Lincoln Laureate for Monmouth College (2017). She serves on the Executive Board for Ascanius: The Youth Classics Institute and the Classical Association of New England and is an organizer for Lupercal. She has self-published nine novellae and is pleased to be an author for Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. 

In addition to writing her own novellas, Vanderpool has taught from them for several years. If you're curious to read her views on teaching and using novellas in the classroom more generally, check out her interview with editor Don Sprague in the December 2020 eLitterae newsletter.

Phoenix Wins: Martia Dementia 2021 Recap

The Martia Dementia championship came down to myth vs. a historical peculiarity.
Ultimately, the phoenix proved victorious over the poisonous ducks
and was crowned the 2021 winner!

In this year’s Martia Dementia, military commanders of the ancient Mediterranean faced a new set of challengers: birds of many a kind of feather (the mythological, the historical, and the dubiously described by Herodotus and Pliny). Surprisingly, the avian adversaries proved formidable from the very beginning. Aethon handily defeated Agrippa, the sirens bested Artemisia of Caria, and the sacred chickens of Rome were unusually resilient in a match with Jugurtha. Nonetheless, many of the ornithological oddities (cinnamon bird, hercinia, crocodile bird, caladrius) were easily eliminated by their military foes.

The championship round featured the quasi-immortal phoenix versus the poisonous ducks of Pontus, who put forth a valiant effort for a group of seemingly benign water fowl. The phoenix surpassed a number of figures in its quest for dominance, overcoming Marcus Aurelius, Leonidas, and Julius Caesar in the first three rounds. Continuing its blaze of glory, the phoenix went on to top fantastical feathered beings in the quarterfinals and semifinals: the griffin and then the sirens.

Meanwhile, the poisonous ducks of Pontus first had to get past Sulla, the powerful Roman general known for defeating the king responsible for their very existence. Lucky for them, their lethality knew no bounds, destroying Sulla and a number of other leaders on their way to the final round. However, the poisonous ducks couldn’t quite muster the destructive force needed to overcome the fierce, fiery phoenix. In the end, the phoenix was crowned the victor.

Thank you to all who participated this year in Martia Dementia, and many congratulations to our bracket winners! First prize goes to Abby Lee, a student at Saint Ignatius College Prep (Chicago, IL). With forty-eight correct picks, Abby clear and away crushed the competition. Charlie Razeghi of New Trier High School (Winnetka, IL) took second place with forty-four correct picks. Just like last year, third place was quite close: while several participants correctly selected forty-three game winners, only one had accurately predicted the outcome of the championship game. Congratulations to Keira Rosario, student at Gorham High School (Gorham, ME)! The most abysmal bracket was awarded to Akiva Sherin of New Trier High School, who only made eleven correct selections.

There you have it—your Martia Dementia 2021 winners! If you would like to see a final bracket, click here for an easy-to-view PDF. Once again, thank you to all participants, who helped make this year’s contest a resounding success. Have strong feelings about this year’s winners? Hope to see a particular ancient figure featured in next year’s contest? Tweet @BCPublishers what and who you would like to see and include the hashtag #MartiaDementia or give feedback in the comments below. We would love to hear from you!

–Amelia Wallace, Editor

Martia Dementia 2021 (Updated with Voting Bracket)

As 2021 marches on, it’s time for the madness to start anew: the seventh annual Bolchazy-Carducci Martia Dementia is now upon us! In 2020, various military figures from across the ancient world rose up to combat a miscellany of mythological monsters. While the monsters were strong contenders, Alexander the Great proved himself difficult to defeat. Now, the famed generals, rebels, and strategists are back and ready to take on whatever stands in their way, even if they must face . . . . birds. Birds, really? Yes, really! Martia Dementia 2021—inspired by Emma Vanderpool’s two Latin language immersive readers Explore Latin: Aves and Augury Is for the Birds—will pit some cacophonous, clamorous, riotous birds against the greatest military minds of ancient times. 

Some winged creatures of myth will be making a return—sirens, griffins, and harpies are back! Some new faces (or should I say beaks?) are also in the mix. Aethon, the infamous eagle that repeatedly devoured Prometheus’s liver, may prove a daunting adversary. The Crocodile Bird (possibly an Egyptian plover?) shows no fear when approaching the mouth of the frightening Nilotic reptile. Its fearlessness will surely be of benefit now. The Poisonous Ducks of Mithridates fed on hemlock and other toxic plants, rendering their flesh deadly and destructive. Will they prove to be lethal to their opponents? 
 
To the victor—whoever finishes with the best bracket—belong the spoils. Before getting to the prizes, here is the way the competition will work. Please read through the process carefully: this year we will continue to use an online bracket and voting system. 

The Bracket

Starting today, complete and submit a bracket to be eligible for wondrous prizes. Please access and submit your bracket online via the following link: Martia Dementia 2021 Bracket. 
 
When you access the online Martia Dementia bracket, click the “Submit your bracket!” button to start making your selections. You will be prompted to enter your name and email address; we need this information so that we can track and notify the winners of the competition once Martia Dementia is completed. After signing up, you will be asked to predict a winner for each game in the bracket. 

 

You will be asked to select a winner for each match-up
in the bracket.

At the bottom of this post, you will find a link to a PDF showing short descriptions of each of this year’s Martia Dementia participants. You can access the same descriptions by clicking on the photo of a given figure in the bracket.

Click on the image of a Martia Dementia competitor in
the online bracket to pull up a full description.

Once you have completed all of your selections and have submitted your bracket, you will receive a notice thanking you for your submission:
 
If you would like to view your prediction bracket, simply click on the link to “View My Prediction.” We recommend saving a copy of your bracket at this point so that you can keep track of how you are doing as the competition progresses. With our online submission system, you can also easily share your prediction bracket via email or social media—a great way to show off how you’re doing, or earn some pity points if your bracket is going poorly. 
 
We are also providing a PDF copy of the bracket here (for reference only) in case you would like to print a copy and fill one in with your class. However, we are not accepting scanned brackets this year, so make sure that you also submit the bracket online.

Brackets will be accepted through March 16.

 

The Survey

A voting survey will be made available on March 17, where you can vote for your picks. Whichever figures have the most votes by the time the survey closes will advance through the round. Actively participating in the survey betters your chances at winning. 
 
Beginning March 17, simply access the voting survey bracket here, which will be updated with the link (the voting survey has a black background). We will announce on social media when voting for each round has opened; note that during each round, you will vote using the voting bracket rather than the forms used in previous years.
 
We cannot stress enough the importance of voting early and voting often. When the survey goes live, cast your votes! Get your friends to vote for your picks. Teachers, get your students to stuff the survey with favorable votes!

Victori Spolia

This competition is not solely for bringing glory to your favorite ancient figure or bird. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers is offering book prizes for the brackets that most closely resemble the final results: a $100 book credit will be awarded to the first-place participant, a $50 credit to the second-place participant, and a $25 credit to the third-place participant. Feeling like you no longer stand a chance? Do not give up! There will also be a $25 credit for having the most abysmal bracket! 

Stay Connected

Be sure to bookmark this post and check back here to access the link to the voting bracket. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates as the competition progresses.

Remember, brackets close March 16, and the first round of voting will begin March 17.                                                                                        

Bracket and Other Resources
Access the online bracket (submissions now closed)
Access a printable bracket (for reference only) 
Access a description of all Martia Dementia 2021 figures 
Access the voting bracket

Voting Schedule:

Round 1: March 17–18

Round 2: March 19–22

Round 3 (Sweet 16): March 24–25

Quarterfinals (Elite 8): March 26–29

Semifinals (Final 4): March 31–April 2

Final (Championship): April 5–7

Note that each round of voting will open at 7:30 a.m. central time and close at 4:00 p.m. central time on the designated days. 

 

Create Your Own 3D-Printed Ancient Inscription Cookie Stamp

The intersection of classics and 3D printing has resulted in some quirky-clever mashups, most notably the famed Julius Caesar pen holder. We’ve gone into the history of this object over on our Twitter account, which reveals how internet collaboration and creativity can build on the work of museums and other institutions that have made 3D models of artworks available online (in this case, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which uploaded a 3D scan of their Renaissance-era Caesar bust as part of MiniFactory’s “Scan the World” initiative).

The famed 3D-printed Julius Caesar pen holder,
adapted from a 3D scan of a Renaissance-era bust.

Unable to resist the allure of 3D printing—and inspired by the edible archaeology posts of Tavola Mediterranea, the CREWS project, and many other classicist bakers—I tried my hand at creating a 3D-printed Phaistos Disc cookie stamp. The files for printing this stamp are available at Thingiverse (a treasure trove of 3D print files that you can use and remix to your heart’s content—or perhaps, your 3D printer capacity’s content). While I certainly recommend exploring what’s already out there on Thingiverse and other 3D printing sites, what do you do if you absolutely must have a cookie stamp (or merely a 3D model) of that obscure inscription you love beyond all others?

Well, you’re in luck, provided you have a line drawing of your desired object. In selecting an inscription, think about size and how easy it will be to render the information into a new format. The Phaistos Disc is a little under six inches in diameter, which originally seemed to me like the perfect size to recreate in PLA plastic on a home 3D printer—and, incidentally, the perfect size for a cookie! Note that the disc has over 200 signs impressed on its surface, which is quite a lot of data compressed into a small space. Additionally, my final design also ended up being smaller than the original disc by about half, which further compressed the rather extensive amount of detail on the disc.  

Once you’ve selected your line drawing, it’s time to clean it up using a photo editing program: clean up entails eliminating excess shading or other “noise” that you do not want reproduced in a 3D print. You may also want to heighten contrast as well in order to create a cleaner vector file. As noted above, it’s important to think about how you are translating details from one medium to another. Particularly if you intend to create a cookie stamp, reducing detail will help when you actually attempt to make cookies. (As I quickly learned, cookie dough easily became trapped in the smaller crevices of my Phaistos, necessitating some impromptu archaeological work in brushing my artifact clean between uses.)

Before you can create your 3D model, you have one final step: you need to ensure that your line art is in the proper format. The online program you will be using to create the 3D print files requires an image in scalable vector graphics (SVG) format. There are many free online tools available to convert your file to SVG format; to find one, simply perform a search for “SVG file converter.”

Phaistos Disc cookie stamp design (with optional stamp handle).

With your SVG image file (digitally) in hand, it's now time to create your 3D design with Tinkercad, an easy-to-use free online tool. While creating in Tinkercad is fairly intuitive, the program also offers various tutorials and plenty of support to help you make your 3D inscription–related dreams a reality. If you are intending to print a cookie stamp, I would suggest focusing on a few elements of 3D design. What shape will your stamp be? Consider the shape of the original inscription and use that to inform your choices. Do you want the inscription on your printed object to be raised or to appear “inscribed”? Because I was planning to stamp my Phaistos Disc into dough, I raised the details on my design (which means that my stamp is the inverse of the original disc, which has the symbols pressed into it)—be sure to keep your final goals in mind as you design!

Once you’re satisfied with your 3D design in Tinkercad, you are ready to print. 3D printing is becoming more accessible than ever: printers are now fairly affordable for home use, but if you just want to dabble, look into whether your local library has a printer for patron use. If you are a teacher, your school may also have a 3D printer that you can use. If you’re wary of engaging in the actual mechanics of 3D printing, you can also use one of the many services that will print and mail you your 3D design.

While the Phaistos Disc cookies that resulted from my efforts may not have lived up to the high standards of internet critics, I greatly enjoyed combining my love of classics with crafts, both in terms of 3D design and baking. Of course, my failures in fully and accurately reproducing the intricate details of the Phaistos Disc in its ultimate cookie form suggests a lot about how size and material impacts an object’s appearance—as well as how easily information is lost and distorted as it is repeatedly translated from one format to another. In the future, I may investigate further by trying out different cookie recipes. The one I used was delicious, but had a very stiff dough. Comment below or send a message if you have any recipe recommendations!

The Phaistos Disc in its most perfect form: a lightly spiced, 
brown butter–based cookie. 

In a classroom setting, I could see a similar project raising important questions about how various inscriptions were originally created. Those that were carved into stone invariably look different from those stamped into clay. How did the materials used influence the original creators’ efforts? What is lost, gained, or preserved by translating the ancient inscription into a 3D model? What is lost, gained, or preserved in the resulting 3D plastic print?

You may also wish to explore 3D-printed models of ancient objects more broadly within the classics classroom. After all, physical models can often better bring the past to life, making the intangible tangible. If you’d like to explore this option, there are a multitude of existing designs available on Thingiverse that you (or your students) could print for classroom use. Many museums have uploaded 3D scans of their objects that you can freely print: try exploring the files uploaded by the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Art Institute of Chicago. Here are a few other select objects that would make a fantastic addition to any Latin classroom:

• Roman Colosseum by Jesse Gaspard
• Temple of Vesta by Andrew Pilgrim
• Capitoline Wolf by Geoffrey Marchal
• Venus de Milo by Cosmo Wenmen (this artist’s body of work is vast and astounding—definitely worth exploring if you are interested in making 3D prints)
• Pont du Garde by Ilan Raphael
• Knucklebone Dice by Misha Tikh
• Roman Arch by Jorge Vicens Payá

 

        –Amelia Wallace, Editor