Stories of the Ancient World
Let me place one object on the table between us: a chipped bowl, a soldier’s letter, a coin rubbed smooth by many hands. I’ll ask you who touched it, what they wanted, and what this small survivor refuses to tell us. That is how I like to open the door to history.
Meet your teacher Elena Rossi
Class details
We travel through Egypt, Greece, Rome, and China by following people rather than memorising a procession of dates. A child learning to write, a trader arguing over a price, an emperor arranging his image—ordinary motives make the ancient world breathe again.
But I will not turn the past into a tidy tale. We compare accounts, look for who is missing, and notice when two pieces of evidence disagree. I often say, ‘I don’t know yet.’ Historians are allowed to live with uncertainty; in fact, we must learn to treat it carefully.
Students become my fellow curators. They choose evidence for a claim, write labels that do not overpromise, and tell a story strong enough to hold attention while remaining honest about what we cannot prove.
I hope you leave with names and places, certainly. More than that, I hope an old object never looks mute to you again. It is waiting for a patient question—and perhaps for you to ask it.
