Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Why Ancient Worldwide Ziggurat/Pyramid Complexes Support The Biblical Babel Account, Anne Habermehl

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Although the best-known feature of Babel was the tower that Noah’s rebellious descendants began to build in Shinar, the Bible says that they were constructing a “city” there as well. No details are included about the Babel city and tower. However, as this paper will show, the city that accompanied the tower was most likely composed of temples and various other religious structures, and the tower was a ziggurat (stepped pyramid).

If we look around the world, we see many ancient pagan complexes consisting of ziggurats together with temples and other buildings. It appears that after the Babel dispersion, far …

The Place Of Radiocarbon Dating In A Young Earth Framework, Douglas N. Petrovich

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

The biblical requirement for earth’s being under 7,500 years old presents a problem for conventional scholarship, as radiocarbon dating implies that life forms existed even earlier. Unjustifiably, some Christian scholars have overreacted by categorically vilifying all radiocarbon evidence. This extremist view fails to explain why radiocarbon evidence fits smoothly with dates obtained from “historical-archaeological evidence” (HAE) at times in ancient history (i.e., any time after 1400 BC) when biblical chronology provides knowable hard dates.

For example, biblical chronology requires that Sennacherib attacked Judah in 701 BC. In preparation, Hezekiah carved the Siloam Tunnel to divert water from the Gihon Spring …

Fortifications In The Book Of Mormon And In Mesoamerica

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Archaeologists have consistently denied that ancient Mesoamerican peoples systematically practiced warfare. The Book of Mormon, however, reports a great deal of warfare and fortifications. Only in the last 15 years has a small set of experts begun to see warfare playing an important role in this area, although of course it has been common everywhere else in the world.

Archaeological Survey At Pelabuhan Ratu Site And Ciletuh Site, Sukabumi, West Java: Revealing The Possibility Of Maritime Cultural Landscape And The Golden Path On Prehistoric Period, Ali Akbar

International Review of Humanities Studies

Research on Prehistoric Era, especially megalithic culture, has been conducted many times in Indonesia. Generally, the results of the study show that megalithic culture produces structures and buildings of large stones. These remains are often found in mountains or hills. However, the results of the research that the author did in Sukabumi, West Java show different outcome. The author conducted a survey at Pelabuhan Ratu Site and Ciletuh Site. These two sites can be said as newly discovered sites. The method used was an archaeological survey by visiting the site and carefully observing the structure and megalithic buildings on both …

Concrete Evidence For The Book Of Mormon, Matthew G. Wells, John W. Welch

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Helaman 3:7-11 reports that Nephite dissenters began moving from the land of Zarahemla into the land northward where they began building with cement. "The people who went forth became exceedingly expert in the working of cement; therefore they did build houses of cement," as well as "all manner of their buildings" and many cities "both of wood and of cement." The Book of Mormon dates this significant technological advance to the year 46 B.C.

Archaeology And Hauntology: An Ongoing, Stalled Conversation, Colby Dickinson

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is certainly possible that we might learn to better acknowledge the spirits of our ancestors who came before us, as well as to recognize them in such ways that we also learn to embrace the ‘woven density’ of our own lives, our histories and our communities. By doing so, we might begin to discover that the spirits we had thought were removed from our modern, secularized world never fully left us, just as the irrationality of our humanity cannot be fully tamed via a reductive, rational and scientific outlook on life. There are, as Bruno Latour had frequently argued, …

Arms And Armor From Santa Elena: A Photographic Inventory, Heathley A. Johnson

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Archaeological Photography: The United Kingdom, Madeline Scholten

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Archaeological photography is an interdisciplinary aspect of archaeological endeavors that is key in allowing archaeological finds to be accessible to a general audience. This facet is key in data collection and distribution within the field as it is to the general public.

Photography is something that people are exposed to, possibly even partaking in, on a daily basis, but photography goes a lot deeper than simply capturing a still image. The history of photography, and the ways photography has improved so many disciplines are things that are just as important as the camera itself, and yet not necessarily needed to …

The Forgetting Of Fire: An Archaeology Of Technics, Thomas A. Doerksen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation applies the methods of Bachelard and Foucault to key moments in the development of science. By analyzing the attitudes of four figures from four different centuries, it shows how epistemic attitudes have shifted from a participation in non-human, natural realities to a construction of human-centred technologies. The idea of an epistemic attitude is situated in reference to Foucault’s concept of the episteme and his method of archaeology; an attitude is the institutionally-situated and personally-enacted comportment of an epistemic agent toward an object of knowledge. This line of thought is pursued under the theme of elemental fire, which begins …

New Light Shed On Book Of Mormon Scholarship

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

William J. Hamblin of the BYU History Department and member of the F.A.R.M.S. board examines some common weaknesses of anti-Mormon comments on the Book of Mormon in a new paper, "Basic Problems with the Anti-Mormon Approach to the Geography and Archaeology of the Book of Mormon." The points he makes are sound and may prompt new lines of research for serious students of these subjects.

Vikings, Iron, And The Book Of Mormon, William J. Hamblin

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The question of the relationship between Mesoamerican archaeology and descriptions of the use of iron and other metals in the Book of Mormon is a complex one. The Jaredites, Nephites, and Mulekites came from the ancient Near East, where metallurgy was a widespread, integral part of civilization. There is evidence from the Book of Mormon that some elements of Near Eastern metallurgical technology were brought to the New World.

Project Updates

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The uncollected papers of Hugh Nibley, which he has given to FARMS, include a mouthwatering assortment of his work for the past twenty years. No decision has yet been made whether to prepare a comprehensive book or to offer them in a separate series of FARMS reprints. They include his 1968-69 series from The Improvement Era on the Book of Abraham, his 1975-76 series for The Ensign on Enoch, multi-part articles on baptism for the dead, "The Stick of Judah and the Stick of Joseph," a study of Book of Mormon criticism, some of his classical studies on the ancient …

More On Recent Archaeological Discoveries, John A. Tvedtnes

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

As we reported in the June 1997 issue of INSIGHTS, recent archaeological excavations in Israel and elsewhere have uncovered more evidence for the historical authenticity of the scriptures. Here are some of the finds.

Life Styles, Death Styles, And Posthumous Portraiture: Elite Female Burials In Iron Age Europe, Emily Ryan Stanton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the grave good assemblages in 222 burial contexts from HallstattD (c. 600-400 BCE) tumulus cemeteries in west-central Europe to test the hypothesis that certain combinations of grave goods were associated with particular categories of persons based on an intersectional marking of gender, status, age and social role. The primary data set consists of high-status graves – male, female, ungendered/pre-gendered subadults, and those of indeterminate gender – in the Heuneburg interaction sphere in southwest Germany. The results of this analysis are compared to a secondary data set of comparable burials from other west-central European locations, to determine whether …

Urbanization On The Landscape Of The Old City: An Archaeological Investigation Of Site 40kn223 In Knoxville, Tennessee, Garrett B. Wamack

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I examine the effects of urbanization on the landscape and the people who lived upon it at archaeological site 40KN223 within the Old City in Knoxville, Tennessee. This landscape analysis focuses particularly on the decades from 1850 to 1920 during the birth and growth of the Old City. Amid the rising tides of commercialization, industrialization, and the flood-prone waters of First Creek, residents established a working-class neighborhood on the fringe of a substantial African American community. I examine this neighborhood and the transformation of its immediate landscape to understand how urbanization impacted its transformation, to learn who …

“Provisioned, Produced, Procured,” And Purchased?: A Macrobotanical Study Of Enslaved Individuals’ Economic Engagement In The Shenandoah Valley, Linda A. Seminario

Graduate Masters Theses

This research investigates enslaved peoples’ economic engagement in the Shenandoah Valley during the first half of the 19th century. In 2017, archaeologists excavated two features at the Belle Grove enslaved quarters in Middletown, Virginia— a root cellar and subfloor pit that were filled in when a log cabin burned down. The preservation of the macrobotanicals has allowed for an in-depth analysis of the plants with which enslaved individuals engaged and the relationship between plant acquisition and enslaved people’s regional formal economic involvement at a 19th-century plantation in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. These data sets have also allowed for an …

Archaeogaming And The Re-Use Of Digital Archaeological Materials: Generating Serious Games For The Villas Of Roman Sicily, Kaitlyn Kingsland

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With 10 million copies sold and 500 million dollars of revenue, the 11th installment of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (2018), showed how a videogame based on ancient Greek history and archaeology can make a splash in popular culture and that the distant past can become an extinguishable source of infinite engaging gaming narratives. As pedagogic and research counterparts to videogames of this kind, serious games and archaeogames focusing on Greek and Roman civilizations move from different premises, though aspiring to the same level of success. Serious games, created for a primary purpose other than sole entertainment, have …

Historical Archaeology At The Chalmers Institute, Mississippi's First University, Antosia Briggs

Honors Theses

This study presents a basic description and analysis of the artifacts collected from the 2015 archaeological excavation conducted in Holly Springs, Mississippi at the Chalmers Institute site. The thesis includes history and background on Holly Springs as a city to orient the reader. This text also includes information regarding the program, Preserve Marshall County, as their work regarding the building and site ties directly into the ability of the student archaeologists being able to excavate in 2015 as well as the future of the building. This study analyzes the artifacts found based on the frameworks of the archaeology of institutional …

Aging An Ancient Maya Population From Actuncan, Belize Using Dental X-Rays, Kaitlyn Nicole Cash

Honors Theses

My goal is to determine an accurate age at death estimation of an ancient Maya population from the archaeological site of Actuncan, Belize. This was done by measuring the lengths of the coronal pulp cavities in the individuals’ teeth. I used X-Ray images to measure the coronal pulp cavities of the teeth and estimated age using multiple regression formulae for premolars, molars, and incisors to make age estimations. The formulae came from two studies, Ikeda et al. (1985) and Drusini (2008), that form the basis of my research. Ikeda et al. (1985) was the first to use this aging method, …

Dulce Sueños De Tierra, Sweet Dreams Of Earth, Jordany Genao

Theses and Dissertations

Jordany's paper congregates their archival research into an art practice that examines the decolonial impulse to excavate the self and produce autonomy. Using ceramics to reference and re-animate Taino ritual objects found in museums, resulting in alternative museology, their work seeks to honor Caribbean ancestors by subverting colonial history.

Skin Echoes, Andreia Santana

Theses and Dissertations

Santana’s explores the intersection of biology and identity, incorporating living matter and performative gestures into installations to reflect on social constructs of history and gender. By observing water and its qualities of defying Western dichotomies, Skin Echoes focuses on the material interchanges across bodies and the wider material world.

Ars, Virtus, Impetus: Gladiatorial Training And Roman Legionaries, Daniel Porter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 105 BCE, the Roman consul Publius Rutilius Rufus employed gladiatorial training for his legionaries. This thesis examines the physiological and psychological consequences of this style of training on the human body in an effort to understand why these particular soldiers were so effective. I used experiential testing alongside primary and secondary source research to examine how this process better prepared Roman troops for engaging in actual combat.

Entangled Conquest: A Study Of Cultural Hybridization And Change In Norman Ireland, Sean Mcconnel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employs entanglement theory and new geophysical macro-analytical methods to

examine the spread of Norman culture in late medieval Ireland. The traditional theories of

Anglo-Norman conquest by mass migration, by military conquest, and by political conquest are

reviewed and compared to a more nuanced theory of Normanization, which suggests that

genetically Irish people, who spoke Irish, practiced Irish law, and pursued Irish interests were

primarily responsible for what is considered "Norman" material culture on the Island. This

dissertation presents the idea that adherence to the English king was a necessary and expedient

action on the part of Irish lords …

Spirits And Spirituality: Temperance And Racial Uplift In Nineteenth-Century Nantucket, Ma, John T. Crawmer

Graduate Masters Theses

Studies of alcohol consumption have shown alcohol’s role in defining social boundaries based on class and ethnicity, but few have interrogated alcohol in the context of race. During the early-19th century, free black communities were encouraged to refrain from alcohol as part of a larger project of racial uplift. Black societies and churches perceived intemperance as not only immoral but a threat to community survival. Excavations of the Nantucket African Meeting House noted a considerable lack of alcohol bottles, but it was unclear whether temperance was equally observed at the neighboring Boston-Higginbotham House. This research uses a minimum number of …

The Submergence Of The City Of Jerusalem In The Land Of Nephi, John L. Sorenson

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In touring southern Guatemala, many FARMS patrons traveled west of the capital city to visit Lake Atitlán, one of the most photogenic spots in Central America. Tour guides have told thousands that the beautiful “waters of Mormon” beloved by Alma and his people (see Mosiah 18:30) might well be Lake Atitlán. The Nephite record also tells us that a city called Jerusalem, which was constructed by Lamanites led by Nephite dissenters, was located “away joining the borders of Mormon” (Alma 21:1–2).

Down The Bay Oral History Project Newsletter - Spring 2023, Center For Archaeological Studies, Mccall Library

Down the Bay Oral History Project Newsletter

Public newsletter sharing information about progress and discoveries during the ongoing Down The Bay Project.

La Colección Arqueológica Costarricense De Karl Wahle, Cónsul Honorario De La Monarquía Austrohúngara. Renacimiento De Una Colección Olvidada, János Gyarmati

Tejiendo imágenes. Homenaje a Victòria Solanilla Demestre

En 1902, el Departamento de Etnografía del Museo Nacional de Hungría, antecesor del Museo de Etnografía, adquirió una colección de ciento tres objetos arqueológicos costarricenses del Museo de la Corte de Viena. Los objetos habían pertenecido originariamente a un conjunto mayor (de cuatrocientos cincuenta), comprados al director del Museo Nacional de Costa Rica por Karl Wahle, el cónsul austrohúngaro en San José, quien posteriormente los donó al museo de Viena. Una cuarta parte de las piezas, hallazgos arqueológicos de cuatro cementerios en las inmediaciones de la capital costarricense, llegaron a Budapest por intermediación del diplomático húngaro Bela Rakovszky, quien en …

Down The Bay Oral History Project Newsletter - Summer 2023, Center For Archaeological Studies, Mccall Library

Down the Bay Oral History Project Newsletter

Public newsletter sharing information about progress and discoveries during the ongoing Down The Bay Project.

Creating And Maintaining A Web-Based Platform For The Bard College Archaeological Forest Site, Rose Battista

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

Main project is the website: bardforestsite.com

Malthi In Media: Peopling An Ancient Village In Virtual Space, Rebecca Worsham, Sarah Kam, Annika Lof, Nora Sullivan, Aurora Bagley

Other Student Projects

STRIDE Project "A Digital Archaeology of Malthi, Greece"

Digital applications have increased the possibilities for the visualization of archaeological material. Here are presented two reconstructions of the Bronze Age settlement Malthi, created using Minecraft and Twine, both readily accessible programs. These recreations draw on data from archaeological work at the site and are intended to depict alternative interpretations of the settlement, allowing for the uncertainty inherent in archaeology. They are likewise intended to invite interaction with the site beyond physically visiting, with the goal of increasing participation in the formation of knowledge about Malthi. The approach advocated here is applicable …