In this project you will (1) use your text books and Perseus to research
a building that stood in pre-Persian War Athens. (2) You will then
"build" it on the MOO, basing your description on the findings of your
research. You will be working in groups of 2-4.
Reconstruct one exterior face and one interior room of one of the buildings
suggested below on MiamiMOO. Include at least *one* object in one of
your rooms (see @create for object types.) Note that there is a 2 "room"
minimum for this project, though you may choose to add more rooms,
especially if you want to continue working on the same building as a
later project. Also note that, for the MOO, the word "room" means any space.
This includes exteriors, so that, for example, the Parthenon could include
four exterior rooms (north, south, east and west facades) as well as
Be sure to make it clear from your description of the building (which can
include activities occurring there), that you understand the function of the
building in its original context.
In addition to the project itself (on the MOO), please hand in
(electronically or hard copy) a bibliography of sources you used for your
reconstruction, which should include a reference to at least one photograph of the site
(from either a book or a web site). This bibliography should also include
the name of your building, its room of origin (Delta, Eta, Zeta or Theta),
a list of group members, and any other information you consider pertinent.
For web sites
other than Perseus with images of Athenian buildings, have a look at the
sites linked to our Democracy Home Page (under Web resources) as well as the
Skidmore Classics Page (click on Resources). Web sites should be cited with
their title and URL.
OPTIONAL: If you would like to link images or web
sites directly to your project, or learn more about the MOO editor, have a
look at this MOO
- Become more familiar and comfortable with using Perseus
as a research tool.
- Learn how to use architectural plans and site photos along with
textual evidence as the basis of your reconstructions of buildings which
no longer exist.
- Learn the basics of MOO building,
in preparation for later projects.
- Learn your assigned material well enough to
be able to reassimilate it in a different setting.
- Become much more intimately familiar with analyzing and synthesizing
the evidence for your building than you might if you were simply asked to
- Get a feel for what kinds
of effort is involved for this constructivist collaborative exercise and
to develop the necessary individual strategies and group dynamics for
successful completion of such assignments.
- See MOO
evaluation criteria for more on the general objectives of MOO projects.
I. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
- Choose one of the following buildings, all of which were significant
for the early Athenian democracy: Heliaia, Old Athena Temple (on the
Akropolis), Enneakrounos, Altar of the 12 Gods, Kleisthenic Bouleuterion,
Prytanikon or Monument of the Eponymous Heroes.
- Use the Web and your texts to find out more about what the building
looked like in antiquity. You will be describing it from the perspective
of an ancient Athenian, NOT as a ruin, so this will require some
reconstruction. You will also want to consider what kinds of objects
(furniture? dedications?) and people a visitor would find in and around
- Decide which exterior face of your building you want to reconstruct
(hint: pick the one with a door or opening). You will call this
something like East End. Your entrance can be called anything you like,
though "in" (and "out" for the exit back) is probably a good idea. You
will also want to decide what to call the interior. It may help to draw
a plan before you log into the MOO to build.
- Write descriptions of the exterior, the interior, AND the exits. You
should write these in 2nd person, from the visitor's perspective (e.g.
"You see a large stone gate....") Decide what kind of object you want to
include, and write a description for that as well.
NOTE: Only one person can *own* a MOO object (this includes
rooms), so you will need to decide who your group builder is, and only
that person can enter and change text. An alternative is for that person
to share his/her login name and password with other members of the
group, at least for the duration of the project (you can later change
your password again).
- Log into the MOO and make your way to the Democracy Projects Area.
Choose one of the rooms with Greek letter names to start your project
from. Note the names of exits already in use -- you do NOT want to
duplicate one of these. A good way to avoid duplication is to name the
exit to your project something like Fred'sAgora (note: NO spaces allowed
in exit names!). Choose a project name, then type
@dig Fred'sAgora|out to The Agora
This assumes that you are building the Agora, and that someone in group
is named Fred. NOTE THE SYNTAX VERY CAREFULLY: No spaces between the
entrance name, exit name and the | (pipe, which is shift-\ on most
keyboards)!!!! IF you leave a space you will end up with a room with the
name you meant for your exit to have, and no entrance to that room. This is
the MOST COMMON ERROR made by first-time builders!
To see if it worked, type 'look'. You should see "An exit leads
Fred'sAgora." If not, type @audit, @recycle your mistakes, and start
- Type Fred'sAgora to go to your new room. If it does not
have an exit, you probably mistyped the command (did you forget the |?)
It is possible to dig one, though you will need to know the object
number of the room you were digging from. It's probably easier to get
out of there by typing 'home', @audit yourself, @recycle your mistakes,
and start over. Assuming you do see an exit, you're ready to describe
your room. Remember, this is the EXTERIOR of your building.
- To describe a room, type @describe here as "whatever you want your
description to say". You can also describe exits, which is a very good
idea. This lets people know what the exit looks like and where it leads.
To do this, type @describe out as "A small wooden door leads OUT to the
Agora." NOTE: You will not be able to describe exits named "in"
except by object number (@audit to get this number).
- If you want to change the description, you can always @describe
again. This will overwrite the first description.
- Dig your interior room, using the same procedure you used to dig to
the exterior. Of course you can do all the digging first, and then the
description -- that's up to you. Again, keep in mind that whoever does
the digging is the room's owner, and only that person (or a MOO
'wizard') can describe or change the room in any way.
- To create an object to put in one of your rooms (either the exterior
or the interior), type @create -- the MOO will present you with a list
of "generic" objects, such as furniture, and throwables, that you can
copy. Follow the instructions on the screen (be sure to use the object
number, e.g. #460 for furniture), to make, name and describe your object
(don't worry about the home and realm -- just hit return).
- Once you have created something, you will be holding it ('look me'
to see it). You will want to describe it, and maybe set some of the
custom messages. To see what you can customize, try @examine [object
name]. Many of the generics have in-MOO help. Try 'help $furniture' or
'help $throwable', for example (a $ indicates a generic).
- Take your object to the room where you want it to be and drop it there.
You can set its home by typing @set-home here for objectname. One of the
messages you will probably want to set is its integrate_room message. Try
setting it (e.g., type @integrate_room object name is "A small amphora leans against the
wall."), then type 'look' to see the effect.
- OPTIONAL for Advanced Builders:You also have the option
of customizing messages on your rooms and
exits. An arrive message, for example, will print when someone goes
through an exit. Many messages have two forms: the one beginning with an
o (lower case letter O), is what others in the room see. To see what
messages are available, type '@messages here' for a room, '@messages
[exit name]' (without the brackets) for an exit. To change a message,
just type (for example) "@arrive east is "You trip over the threshold
as you push open the heavy door."
- Please do not hesitate to ask me or other MOOer's if you have any
questions. MOOmail is a good way to do this (help mail will explain the
system), as is email and the class listserv. Have fun!
- P.S. There are several ways of doing just about everything on the MOO.
The above instructions are more guidelines than rules -- feel free to do
Athenian Democracy Home Page
Revised: 19 February 1996, SB