My Reenactment days
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Hi All,
This is about my regular, yearly reenactment camp participation with a bunch of very enthusiastic local patriots in a small village called Dunaszekcsล (don't even try to pronounce it!) next to the Danube.
Some images (I hope they forgive the bandwidth theft):
Some peaceful soldiers who probably also have kids
A comedy being played
It used to be the location of a Roman fortress called Lugio and every year there is a camp for about 150-200 kids (from the age of about 5 up to 20). There are theatre performances, different handcrafting things (making pottery, jewels, weaving, "stone carving", painting etc.).
Imperator Caesar Gaieus Augustus Hungaricus
A lunch with my friend Lucullus (unfortunately he died last year)
Here are some further images of the past year activities:
http://www.lugio.hu/index.htm
http://www.lugio.hu/tabor.htm
Sorry but the texts are all English (maybe I could help them out?)
But at least (I hope) this (image slide show in a video foemat) is in English:
http://www.lugio.hu/film/lugio_english.wmvLast year I was a stone cutter and was working on a Roman altar dedicated to the god Liber Pater of the orchards but mainly of vinyards (and wine of course)
The kids then came and I was telling them about Roman epigraphy and different altars and they also carved really nice things (of course it was not stone they worked with but plaster (hm. gypsum - calcium sulphate). They really enjoyed it.This year I was going to be "fresco painter" but by the end of organising things there ended up 4 of us doing the same job (including a friend who has graduated as a painter from the university and currently she is working on the restoration of the frescos of our cathedral) so I decided to do something else.
So what I1m going to do is teach SU to the kids!
I'm very excite and will prepare a couple of "regular" buildings that used to populate the area and show them to them while certainly will try to actually involve them into the modeling part. I even hope to "hook" a couple of them for further use of SU.
In the meanwhile, there is an ongoing project in the village; to restore an old granary (originally built as a church almost 300 yars ago) which I will build in SU as detaile as possible.
This will also be fun and my contribution for this year to the "preser4vation" of the past of the village.
I am already very excited and looking forward to the whole program. I might even take a camera with me and post some pictures here (provided there is any interest)
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It always fascinating to see what you're up to Csaba- if you didn't work so damned hard I'd say you have too much fun to call it a job!
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This is a voluntary thing we all do there for the sake of the kids (and I have to take my days off here in the office).
On the other hand, I have to tell that everybody enjoys the whole week so much that we are glad to do this for free.
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Wow, this is so cool! What an exciting project. The kids look like they are having a great time!
Here in the USA we have Renaissance Fairs. Where people will re-enact, dress, and prepare food based on that time period. There is a place in Utah that has a Shakespeare Festival, that is fun too
Edit: I'm sorry about your friend.
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Dear Gaieus,
Are you using traditional materials and methods in the restoration, such as lime-based mortars and plasterwork?
Regards,
Bob -
Csaba, I think you need to change something! You state,
'camp for about 150-200 kids (from the age of about 5 up to 20)'
this should read,
camp for about 150-200 kids (from the age of about 5 up to 50, at least!) -
Bob,
They use original bricks they "gathered" in the vicinity for sure. For mortar and plastering we still often use lime based materials so I guess that is not a problem. Furthermore, the building authority in case of every protected historic monument in Hungary is not the local municipality but the Heritage Protection Authority (or how to translate that) which deals with every particular case individually and defines what materials and techniques can be used. I personally haven't been involved with the project yet (I saw the building from inside last year however) so don't know about the details but I believe they are doing a good job.
James,
Yes, it seems that we are aging too fast...
Mike - well, yes, kids of all ages in reality. But why just 50?
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Dear Gaieus,
My apologies for not acknowledging your reply before now, but I have only just seen this.
I'm glad to hear that they are doing a good job and using traditional building materials. Old stone structures need to breath, and lime mortars and plasters allow this to happen. The UK has a problem with building restoration in that there is now a skills shortage. I hope that that is not the case in your country.
Kind regards,
Bob -
Hi Bob,
I could finally have a better look at the ongoing reconstruction and have to tell you that it will probably be a very nice job. They have collected 18th century bricks from all around the building and reinforcing the walls and adding what is missing of those bricks.
Also, the whole wall structure is a kind of mixture of brick, stone and adobe. The stone is probably from the Roman building found right below this one (beautiful fragments of frescos as well) so it will be a bit more difficult than seemed at first.
Unfortunately I couldn't take part at the excavation because I broke my arm the first day and had to go to hospital for an operation (I have a couple of iron pieces in my wrist at the moment). So much about going to the beach and swim this summer
We took a couple of pics and made some measurements so I hope I can post some here later.
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Well, another year has passed and I'm preparing to leave for this year's camp next week. Last year we had great fun with the kids introducing them to SU and quite many of them enjoyed building various kinds of Roman forts and watchtowers (well, maybe there could've been some final tweaks made but you know how it is...)
As last year I broke my arm (left wrist) right at the beginning of the camp, my friend, "Kephalos" was the one who in fact worked the most with the kids.
This year I hope to be more cautious and take my part of the job as well as him. He has made a nice model of a Roman, military camp however which has been turned into a walkabout application (like a FPS Game) the kids can explore in 3D. Different "tasks" will be hidden in the fort for them. -
So I have arrived. One of the tasks for the kids is to navigate ("walk") to the Principiaof the fort and find Gaieus.
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Well, Alan, that was obviously not necessary to write out at those times. However the kids soon spotted it out as "anachronistic"
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Dear Gaieus,
I just have spent a very refreshing while to watch all about your reenactment camp.
The I. Lugio hastรกnc fesztivรกl offers to the child wonderful activities in peace, joy and dream.
I'm sure many of them will still think of you in years.
simon -
Gaieus, Pardon my ignorance of European history, but how does a Hungarian come to reenact a Roman? I thought all those fellows were Italians?
My part of the world is a melting pot to the extent that I know of no native pure bloods as of the last three generations, and as I recall 1/20 may be enough to qualify as one. My own ethnicity is an oriental mix, but I am 99% Western cultruarated (if there is such a word):-) 4-5 nights a week I dress in a white kimono (like) outfit, and reenact a martial arts of my roots
Have a nice camp, and enjoy. -
Hdt, there are Roman re-enactments throughout the whole of Europe, including the UK. Those guys got around. They weren't all Roman, by any means. We have evidence here in Britain of Hadrian's Wall, Londinium, Deva (Chester) being manned by troops from all over the Empire...including present-day Hungary, Spain, North Africa and various parts of the Middle East. Many of them married into the local population and stayed on after the collapse of the Empire. Everywhere's a melting-pot to some extent.
Here's a partly reconstructed Roman fort in N.E. UK. Re-enactments often take place in this kind of setting.
...and a British re-enactment society, The Ermine Street Guard.
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The English were the first westerners to discover the "Sandwich Isles", but by no stretch of historic process are we exposed to Roman culture, however once a year there are those that joust, along side the Eastern horse back archers.
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Well, you can also put it this way. who is a Roman - say in the 2nd century BC? Hardly anyone outside the city of Roma and all the "rest" of the population of Italy (Greeks, Etruscans, Umbrians whatnot) are only "allies" (socii).
2-3 centuries later yes, all the population of Italy is considered "Roman" and there are the provinces (like Britannia where Alan is from or Pannonia where I am from). The population (and the military unit garrisoning where these things happen yearly) got the Roman citizenship from Septimius Severus who actually became the emperor because as the Governor of Pannonia (Superior), he was the closest to Rome after Commodus died (you know, that crazy guy from the movie "Gladiator"). Finally, his son granted Roman citizenship to (almost) all free inhabitants of the Empire.
From that time on, the military unit was called Cohors VII Breucorum Civium Romanorum Equitata (i.e. Roman Citizens). BTW several units recruited from this Celtic tribe garrisoned in Britannia, as well.
This portrait of Marcus Aurelius was also found here:
BTW my home town is listed among the UNESCO World Heritage because of our Late Roman (Early Christian) cemetery here: http://www.h2g2.hu/peregrinus/gb/3.html (watch the whole website though, there are incredible 3D reconstructions especially in the Spanish sites)
So who is an American? Who holds a US passport. The same with Rome.
Ah, and I have finally uploaded a couple of images of the first day of the re-enactment days (including the opening ceremony) to Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.hu/csaba.pozsarko/Lugio2009#
But we have Celts here, too. Don't ask me why if we are not on the British Isles.
And we also got some demonstration about the Eastern mounted archers (more exactly she is a girl here - notice that she is NOT using a saddle which was of course not true while in a battle but kids learnt to ride without a saddle first according to our Medieval chronicles)
So basically it's a great fun to be there every year but also the kids learn a lot there. -
Until today, Roman Empire wasnโt conquered...!
It is detailed presented in Revelation book, especially in chapter 17.
Cornel
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