Anthony Coogan

Inspired by a visit to Crete, Anthony has been advancing his interest in Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations by enrolling on multiple weekly learning programmes with the Department.

'Although I should have retired years ago, I am still working part-time. I have long been interested in the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations and over the past few years this fascination has been rekindled. I visited Crete last summer, made a point of visiting archaeological sites and museums, and returned determined to take my interests further. Hence I took a flexible online course, Minoans and Mycenaeans, last autumn and recently completed Minoans: the First European Civilisation, a weekly learning class in Oxford.

'As it was an in-person course, I met the other participants and discovered that they were keen and knowledgeable which made for enjoyable question-and-answer sessions. The classes combined a relaxed atmosphere with very good dialogues led by Dr Anna Simandiraki-Grimshaw who made a point of encouraging us to come up with ideas about every topic, whether it was identifying pottery, suggesting uses for a tool, explaining what we thought the significance of a fresco or seal was, and so on. There was no question of just sitting there just listening to a lecture. I found this approach to be very stimulating: it made you look at your own ideas and modify them, discover new themes that you had not considered and, in my case, made me want to take things further. For a start, I hope to take another in-person weekly class, Mycenaeans: the Dawn of Ancient Greece, next January.

'A highlight of the course was a visit to the Ashmolean Museum, comparing exhibits in the gallery with those displayed in the Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality exhibition. This gave us a chance to examine and discuss a larger variety of artefacts than is normally available in Oxford. For homework, we had a choice of completing a workbook (five topics) or essay. I chose the former as I wanted to keep close to all of the classroom topics. The subjects were varied, thought-provoking and required a degree of individual research. You might call this and the expectation of making a contribution to classroom dialogues “challenging”, but only in a strictly positive sense.

'Anyone considering such a course should be prepared to devote time and effort both before and during the course. There is normally a reading list to be completed before the course starts and it is important to read everything on it and any other relevant material. It is advisable to do some preparation before each class and to start preparing your notes for the workbooks from the early stages of the course. The more you can do, the more you will be able to contribute to, and benefit from, the class.'

Learn more:

• Minoans and Mycenaeans (flexible online course)
• Mycenaeans: the Dawn of Ancient Greece (in-Oxford weekly class)
• Weekly learning programmes in Oxford and online