HARVARD UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP SEMINAR

It was a privilege to welcome Dr Paul Kosmin from Harvard University to our Scholarship Seminar.

Dr Kosmin talked to our Year 7 boys about an alternative perspective of time and how our view has changed over history. A fascinating and challenging topic that will enrich the boys future studies.

Justin Y and Reuel J have written about this very interesting talk;

At our last scholarship talk, we heard from Professor Kosmin of Harvard University about the invention and interpretation of time and calendar years in the Hellenistic period (ca. 200 BC). It was quite mind-boggling and sometimes hard to comprehend, but it was very interesting and engaging. A fact I have learned from this talk is that before universal calendar time, they used the start of the king’s reign to commence the start of a new time section. Also, before the king’s reign, they would calculate the time by thinking back to when an important event occurred. Then in the Seleucid kingdom which stretched from the Middle East to India, they invented the idea of linear time as opposed to a king’s reigns or the agricultural year. 

Thank you to Dr Kosmin, for sharing your knowledge with the boys of St John’s.