Digital Commons Network^™

Examining State Development In West Africa, Through Senegal And Nigeria, Kasandra L. Housley

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper studies the relationship between the state and armed conflict in West Africa with an emphasis placed on the value, influence, and role of social institutions on the long-term stability of the West African state. The countries of the Republic of Senegal and Nigeria represent the primary focus of the paper. Comparisons are made of the history of each country/state and experience with socio-political conflict in an effort to explain the penultimate place of social as opposed to legalistic or political influences responsible for the long term survival of the independent state in West Africa. The central question explored …

Lessons From The Historical City Of Rome: How Organic Development Can Create A Lively City, Natalie Oloughlin

Senior Theses and Projects

The city of Rome, as its familiar appellation as “the Eternal City” suggests, is a home to the vast history of Italy and, indeed, Western civilization. It functions both as a destination for visitors, whether tourists or pilgrims, and a home to its residents. The city is one of the most famous in the world, and one of the most desired places to visit. It is in every history textbook. Yet, it was never strictly “planned” by architects or urban designers. Rome went through organic development, changing to fit what the people during different time periods needed from their homes. …

Increasing The Accuracy Of The Military‟S Post-Deployment Mental Health Screening Strategies, Daniel Fass

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The author investigated the prevalence rates of mental health problems reported by college students and compared them with previously existing data on active duty, reserve, and National Guard Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans. Participants completed the mental health portion of the Post-Deployment Health Re-Assessment and an additional questionnaire in which the effect of a drug use screen was explored. Subjects were also asked about their intentions to seek mental health or substance abuse treatment and how anonymity affected their treatment seeking and reporting accuracy. Results indicate similar and at times higher rates of mental health problems in the sample of college …

Review Of Tales Of Dionysus: The Dionysiaca Of Nonnus Of Panopolis, Dominic Greenlee

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

No abstract provided.

Egyptianization: Tackling Faulty Narratives With Respect To Ancient Nubian And Ancient Egyptian Relationships, Antony Schultz

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

The study of Ancient Nubia has been beset by barriers to accurate information. One such barrier, Egyptocentrism, negatively impacts the narrative of Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Nubian relationships by solely placing focus on Egypt without regard to Nubia. Egyptocentric thought, such as the idea of “Egyptianization”, and the theory of Egypt in a vacuum are two of the most poignant narratives perpetrated by scholars. Egyptianization implies the assimilation of Egyptian traits and downplays Nubian identity, agency, and culture. It suggests that Nubians lacked a distinct culture of their own and relied upon Egypt for their identity and ability to nation …

From Stone To Silicone: Interdisciplinary Insights Into The Co-Evolution Of Humans, Tools And Technologies, Mahnoor Zahid '24

Honor Scholar Theses

Excerpt: "The following thesis then explores how we as a species evolved in accordance to our tool technology. My initial hypothesis was that humans evolved because our tool technology made us smarter: the more we engaged with our tools, the more our brains found different ways to challenge themselves. This hypothesis stemmed from the initial observation I, as a modern human, have made: the more enriched our environment is as a human, the more our brains are able to grow. As children we are taught that exercise, books, and problem solving activities help the successful development and maturation of our …

Priestesshoods As Expressions Of Civic Identity, Isabella Kershner

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis offers a comprehensive examination of the role of priestesshoods in shaping the civic identity of women in Classical Athens. It challenges the traditional narrative that confines Athenian women to the domestic sphere by highlighting their public and influential roles in religious practices. Through a meticulous analysis of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic evidence, the study traces the journey of Athenian females from childhood rituals to the esteemed positions of the High Priestess of Athena Nike and Athena Polias, revealing how these religious roles served as both a spiritual passage and a civic curriculum.

The thesis argues that these priestesshoods …

Pompeiian Mill-Bakeries: Spatial Organization And Social Interaction, Madeleine Rubin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines bread production and the daily lives of those who worked in mill-bakeries during the first century CE. Bread was the staple food across the ancient Mediterranean; however, there is little textual evidence about those who produced the bread that fed the Roman Empire. The most significant body of evidence relating to the lives of mill-bakers is the archaeological remains of mill-bakeries from the city of Pompeii, preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. This thesis analyzes the spatial organization of bread production within these mill-bakeries and applies the methodologies of spatial syntax – a …

Ancient Shakespeare: Examining Classical Influence Upon Shakespeare's Plays, John Fritch

University Honors College

The enduring position of William Shakespeare as the greatest playwright in the English language stems in part from the classical world. This relationship with ancient Greek and Roman literature has sparked scholarly curiosity and conflict in the centuries after his death. The minimal details that are known about Shakespeare’s personal life and experiences make this topic a challenging one. This essay embarks on an exploration of Shakespeare’s engagement with classical themes, characters, and storytelling techniques, as well as the thematic resonances between ancient Greek plays and his own works. Through an examination of key characteristics and themes prevalent in ancient …

Orpheus And The Harrowing Of Hell In The Tale Of Beren And Lúthien, Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Critics have observed that Beren and Lúthien’s tale is a Christian retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The “Harrowing of Hell” tradition is widespread in Italy as attested by the mosaic of San Marco among others, but it is in France that the Ovid Moralized reconnects it to Orpheus who descended into the Underworld to save Eurydice (an already late antique parallel) and therefore attests a happy ending version of the story that can be found in medieval England and also in various classical sources, perhaps even in the original legend of Orpheus. The apocryphal Harrowing is also …

Creating Legitimacy: The Dyarchy In Spartan Social Memory, Stephanie J. Dennie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Scholars of the constitutional development of Archaic Sparta and its dyarchy (or dual kingship) have long considered Tyrtaios’ Eunomia contemporary evidence for the mysterious lawgiver Lykourgos, whose alleged reforms have largely been reconstructed from late-Classical and Roman sources. According to orthodox narratives of Lykourgos, seventh-century Sparta enjoyed internal stability and good governance, but Tyrtaios’ seventh-century poem strongly suggests the continued existence of civil strife. Drawing on social memory studies and archaeological survey data, this dissertation questions the Lykourgan grand narrative and explores the capacity of Tyrtaios’ Eunomia to help us recontextualize Sparta’s socio-political development in the seventh century BCE.

I …

The Impact Of The Gut-Brain Axis On Alzheimer’S Disease, Elissa Wakim

Best Integrated Writing

Elissa’s review for the Graduate Biomedical Review focuses on the links between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain; the gut-brain axis and the development of Alzheimer’s disease. As a student in the Microbiology and Immunology Masters Program Elissa was particularly interested in the gut microbiota and their connection to neurodegenerative disease. She tidily reviewed the literature and wrote a fascinating and compelling piece of work.

Best Integrated Writing 2024 - Complete Edition, Wright State University School Of Humanities And Cultural Studies

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University. This is the first issue after a 5 year hiatus.

Visualizing Ancient Empire In Tudor England: Imperial Monarchy, Reformation, And The Antique Soldier In The Title Page To Richard Grafton’S Large Chronicle (1569), Peter Nicholas Otis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes the iconography and visual sources of the title page to the first volume of A chronicle at large and meere history of the affayres of Englande (1569) by the Tudor author Richard Grafton. Representing the visual synthesis of several distinct but interrelated currents that developed in the preceding century, the title page to the Large Chronicle offers a rare glimpse into a transitional moment in the middle Tudor perception and visual representation of the British past. These currents include imperializing royal iconography, with origins in antecedent representations in the late fifteenth century; the entry of the ‘classicizing’ …

Digitizing Delphi: Educating Audiences Through Virtual Reconstruction, Kate Koury

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Implementing a 3D model into a virtual space allows the general public to engage critically with archaeological processes. There are many unseen decisions that go into reconstructing an ancient temple. Analysis of available materials and techniques, predictions of how objects were used, decisions of what sources to reference, puzzle piecing broken remains together, and even educated guesses used to fill gaps in information often go unobserved by the public. This work will educate users about those choices by allowing the side-by-side comparison of conflicting theories on the reconstruction of the Tholos at Delphi, which is an ideal site because of …

The Ktisis Of The Early Christian Kourion: The Cosmic Symbolism Of The Mosaics In The House Of Eustolios And The Emergence Of Christian Kourion, Clay Carpenter

Doctoral Dissertations

The fourth and fifth centuries AD comprise a crucial transitional period in the history of Western Civilization. With the legalization and triumph of Christianity, the Roman Imperial world was, in time, entirely transfigured in all sectors of human life – the religious, the social, the political, and the economic. For the archaeologist in particular, the changes to the configuration and orientation of the urban space of the classical cities that abundantly dotted the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean are high upon this list of transformations. During these centuries, the classical city or polis of antiquity would begin to fade, giving …

Queering The Future Through Speculative Drag: Posthumanism, Critique, And Queer Worldbuilding In The Art Of Devan Shimoyama, Maximiliano Mamani, And Sin Wai Kin, Finley Hayes Cowlishaw

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Contemporary queer artists enact futures that resist abjection and reevaluate the state of our hierarchical classifications of human beings by invoking posthuman drag - constructed assemblages of identities - and combining them with speculative fiction, mythologies, and folklore. Devan Shimoyama, a queer bi-racial Black-identified artist, drags images of parts of his body to present queer Black masculinity in multitudes of ways while simultaneously imbuing them with magical powers and crafting their mythological origins. Maximiliano Mamani, a queer Indigenous Argentinian artist and performer, invokes the historical and political figure of eighteenth-century rebel Bartolina Sisa in his drag persona, Bartolina Xixa, as …

Presenting Past People: Storytelling Through Prehistoric Garment Reconstructions, Floor Huisman, Anna Zimmermann, Ronja Lau, Karina Grömer

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

This paper argues that we need to focus on past people (rather than just objects) in our narratives and museum displays to engage museum visitors more effectively. It will demonstrate that we can use a combination of well-researched physical and digital prehistoric garment reconstructions to implement more people-centered approaches also used in living history, which bring the past to life and allow visitors to literally come face-to-face with long-dead people. In this way, visitors can relate to past people on an emotional level, which helps them to learn much more about past life than many traditional displays. After outlining how …

Red Dyes From West To East In Medieval Europe: From Portuguese Manuscript Illuminations To Romanian Textiles, Irina Petroviciu, Paula Nabais, Maria J. Melo

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Red is the color par excellence, its symbolism being linked with protection and magic through its primary attributes, fire and blood. It was the predominant color from the earliest times, certainly during the Greek and Roman periods and into Medieval Europe, until blue became a competitor around the 13th century. Mineral pigments, like iron oxides, were the first red sources, used to draw lines, dots, or spots on cave walls or stones. Later, other mineral red pigments were also exploited: Cinnabar, natural mercury sulfide, since the Neolithic, and realgar, arsenic trisulfide, in Ancient Egypt. Scientific investigation revealed that, although …

Investigating Organic Colorants Across Time: Interdisciplinary Insights Into The Use Of Madder, Indigo/Woad, And Weld In Historical Written Sources, Archaeological Textiles, And Ancient Polychromy, Paula Nabais, Cecilie Brøns, Magdalena M. Wozniak

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Organic dyes have been used from the earliest times to provide color primarily to textiles, but also as a colorant in painting. Such organic dyes could create a wealth of colors, depending on the availability and know-how of resources. These dyes are usually organic in nature, and primarily obtained from different plant sources. Unfortunately, the characterization of natural organic colorants in textiles and artworks is still a challenge. The difficulty of analyzing these materials is sometimes allied to the frequent impossibility of micro-sampling, and the frailty of the objects. Many techniques, such as HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) and SERS (Surface-Enhanced …

“What’S In A Name?” Toponyms And Loanwords In European Textile Cultures, Dimitra Andrianou, Klara Dankova, Nade Genevska Brachikj, Angela Huang, Meghan Korten, Elena Miramontes, Jasemin Nazim, Marie-Alice Rebours, Joana Sequeira

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles as man-made products have been exchanged over distances for millennia. They can and have been produced almost anywhere; they are also, as a product, highly differentiated and quickly adjustable to changing demands. This brings with it naming practices to communicate about the goods in question. Textiles are labeled so that people can form expectations about them and rely on the reputation tied to the product’s identity. The terminology of textiles and textile items arises and develops in unison with technical innovations, discoveries, fashions, and trade patterns. Although the occurrence of toponyms e.g., in preindustrial trade (10th to 18th century …

The Terminology Of Soft Furnishings In Ancient Babylonia, Greece, And Rome: A Comparative Approach, Dimitra Andrianou, Elena Miramontes, Louise Quillien

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Various kinds of textiles were used to furnish domestic spaces in Antiquity, such as curtains, covers, hangings, pillows, cushions, mattresses, rugs, tapestries, tablecloths, and towels. These objects have practical and everyday functions, they embellish and add to daily comfort in the house and speak to the owner’s prosperity. Being made of perishable materials, furnishings have, on the whole, not survived in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. Apart from a few excavated pieces of textiles found in tombs, our information comes primarily from written testimonia and iconography.

It is thus essential to consider soft furnishings in their own right, in order …

Towards Textile Narratives: A Cross-Over Perspective On Textile Imagery In Statuary, Iconography, And Literature, Leyre Morgado-Roncal, Juliane Müller, Marisa Kerbizi

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles and clothing constitute a fundamental element of our cultural past, present, and future. Therefore, they were also represented in many mediums, such as iconographic depictions and literature. Images are a source of visual and mental illustration and are often dependent on the viewer’s perspective. As a result, the representations of textiles convey social constructions and their cultural perception. Their study is the focal point of this article: The ways in which textiles and clothing are described by the imagery shown in Greek and Roman statuary and iconography, as well as in contemporary Albanian literature and mythology.

Representations illustrate the …

Searching For The Exotic: Textiles, Orientalism, And Identities, Ana Cabrera, Roxana Coman, Karolina A. Kulpa, Tim Parry-Williams

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles, with their economic, sartorial, and identity-constructing functions, have long been at the center of cultural discourses, whether narrative or visual. Objects of desire, but also objects of curiosity, textiles have been the topic of costume books, offered in diplomatic exchanges, collected by private collectors and museums alike, and have traveled, sometimes as sample books. Their Othering function did not only differentiate between members of different civilizations, but also the members of the same society, where clothing was used to signal rank and function. The case studies presented intend to elaborate further on the role and symbolism associated with textiles, …

Clothing In Transition: Social, Symbolic, And Legal Aspects Of Garments From Prehistory To The Early Byzantine Period, Tina Boloti, Francesca Scotti, Cristina Cumbo, Petra Linscheid

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Since ancient times, garments served a wide range of purposes: Either functional, providing protection by covering the body, or symbolic, as an element of non-verbal communication and marker of identity. In particular, this stimulates the development of specific characteristics in shape, decoration, or material composition, which generate distinctions among garments, as acknowledged by Roman jurists too.

These distinctions are determined by various factors. One important factor is the social meaning of clothing: There are garments for public life, garments expressing rank, garments suited for special professions, or garments intended for sacred/priestly rites reflecting particular religious symbols. And, of course, clothes …

Young Romans: Status, Dress, And Gender, Mary Harlow, Lena Larsson Lovén

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

The demographics of the Roman world suggest that it was a world full of children. Demographers argue that in order simply to maintain population levels in a period where life expectancy was very short by modern standards, and infant mortality high, a woman should, on average, have six children, on the assumption that not all would live to adulthood. Despite much research in the last fifty years, children still remain partly invisible in the Roman world. This is primarily because they leave little evidence produced by themselves and are seen through the prism of adult eyes. Inevitably, given the nature …

The Roman Language Policy: Its Parts, Presence, And Consequences, Lilianna Darnell

Honors Bachelor of Arts

No abstract provided.

The Pie Verb: A New Reconstruction, Percy Huffman

Honors Bachelor of Arts

No abstract provided.

An Early Byzantine Ecclesiastical Complex At Ashdod-Yam: Correlating Geophysical Prospection With Excavated Remains, Yaniv Darvasi, Alexander Fantalkin, Paul Brindza, Amotz Agnon

Physics Faculty Publications

In this study we show the successful deployment of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) together with Electrical Resistivity Surveys (ERS) in guiding the archeological excavations at Ashdod-Yam (southern coast of Israel). This approach enabled the precise identification of excavation targets relating to an Early Byzantine ecclesiastical complex located in a residential neighborhood of the modern city of Ashdod. Applied over the course of five years, the combined use of GPR and ERS, interspersed with phases of archeological excavation, not only facilitated an efficient exploration but also ensured the preservation of valuable historical structures. The geophysical data, corroborated by drone images of …

[Review Of The Book Reading Underwater Wreckage: An Encrusting Ocean, By K. Quigley], Ingo Heidbrink

History Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Anyone with expectations that a book titled Reading Underwater Wreckage is a methodological handbook for maritime archaeologists or anyone with interest in analyzing artifacts sunken into the deep of the oceans as material for historical research will be deeply disappointed by Killian Quigley's new book. But for readers who are interested in new approaches to look at submerged artifacts or wrecks, who are willing to give up the disciplinary confines of academia, who are interested in nonhuman actors' involvement in artistic processes, or in other words, who are willing to look below the surface through a different lens, Quigley's …