History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

Karme Qatif: A Villa From The Second Temple Period In The Judean Shephelah / כרמי קטיף: וילה משלהי ימי בית שני בשפלת יהודה, Daniel Varga, Yigal Israel

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

Three seasons of salvage excavations conducted at Karme Qatif uncovered a villa from the Second Temple period. The villa comprised four wings: a central courtyard; a western residential wing; an eastern wing containing a bathhouse; and a northern wing, which probably included the entrance to the villa. Finds from the building include a few locally made pottery vessels attributed to the Roman period, along with ceramic pipes used to convey water to the bathhouse. Several hiding complexes, soft limestone vessels, coins from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt and a miqveh uncovered in the vicinity of the villa may …

An Alignment Of Absences: The Medicalization Of Death And Its Implications On Archaeological Methodology, Makayla J. Bowman

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Absence describes something that is "expected, wanted, or looked for [but] is not present or does not exist," (Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2026). The archaeological discipline interacts with absence in many profound ways, largely in its study of the past dead. This paper focuses on the ways in which the medicalization of death has influenced, limited, and misaligned archaeological methodology, and how the result of those methodologies produces archaeological analysis that is absent of or misrepresents our understanding of life, personhood, and our position within a greater, interconnected biosphere. Thus, I present an anthropological critique of the ways in which death and …

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Gethsemane: Christian Art And Tradition In The Passion Of Albus Dumbledore, John Anthony Dunne

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

This essay contends that Professor Dumbledore drinking a potion from a goblet administered by Harry Potter in the cave from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince evokes Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane from the Gospels and his request that "the cup" be removed from him. Even though the Gospels portray Jesus all alone, and Dumbledore has Harry with him, I argue that Harry Potter evokes the expanded Lukan account of Gethsemane, which contains a textually uncertain passage about an angel ministering to him (Luke 22.43–44). I argue further that this Lukan text informs Harry Potter specifically as mediated through visual representations …

What Bombs Cannot Occupy: Memory, Heritage, And War In Ukraine, Dalton D. Conden

The Penguin Review

Air-raid sirens have become part of the daily soundscape in Ukrainian cities. They interrupt meals, classes, conversations, and sleep. When they blare, people gather what they can and move quickly sometimes to shelters, sometimes to basements, sometimes nowhere at all. Families lock their doors without knowing whether they will ever turn the key again. Children carry backpacks filled with whatever seemed important in the moment: a photograph, a stuffed animal, a book pulled hastily from a shelf. Around them, buildings that once anchored everyday life—churches, museums, historic neighborhoods— have been damaged or destroyed.

The Digital Museum: Classical Reception In Animal Crossing New Horizons, Anna G. Kendall

Create@State

My project examines how Animal Crossing: New Horizons brings the ancient body into a modern, digital world through its recreations of classical Greek sculptures. In the game, players can collect, study, and display famous works such as the Venus de Milo, Discobolus, and Nike of Samothrace in a virtual museum. These sculptures reveal how the Greeks represented beauty, strength, and divine movement through the human form. By interacting with them in-game, players connect with these ancient ideas of the body in a new way. The game’s system of real and fake artworks also teaches players to look closely and …

Highway 3: Microscopic And Elemental Analyses Of Plaster From The Byzantine Levigation Pool Complex, Svetlana Gasanova, Davida Eisenberg-Degen

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

Microscopic and elemental analyses were employed on two plaster samples from the Byzantine levigation pools uncovered in the Highway 3 excavations. While the mineral composition of the samples was broadly similar, differences in flakiness and aggregate content imply variations in materials and techniques, indicating different construction or repair phases.

Highway 3: Modern Ammunition, Assaf Peretz

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This article presents an analysis of modern ammunition artifacts connected to World War I military operations, uncovered during excavations along Highway 3 near es-Sawafir el-Gharbiya. The finds include British and Ottoman cartridges and spent cartridges and an Ottoman hand grenade, linked to troop movements and engagements during the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force’s pursuit of retreating Ottoman forces following the third battle of Gaza in November 1917. The study contextualizes these artifacts within the operational history of the Australian Mounted Corps and Ottoman defensive actions. Additionally, the article discusses ammunition from the 1948 War of Independence found at the site, highlighting …

Highway 3: Mollusks From Byzantine–Early Islamic Contexts, Inbar Ktalav

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This report discusses 24 bivalve remains retrieved from various fills. Most of the assemblage (twenty specimens) is comprised of the Nilotic bivalve Chambardia rubens, followed by two valves of the Mediterranean bivalve Mytilus galloprovincialis, one local freshwater bivalve Unio mancus and one Scaphopoda Antalis inaequicostata. The malacological evidence implies geographical connections with both the Mediterranean coast and the Nile region during the Byzantine–Early Islamic period. Most of the assemblage consists of nacreous shells, which may have been used in the inlay industry or as food items.

Highway 3: Faunal Remains From Byzantine, Byzantine–Early Islamic And Ottoman Contexts, Lee Perry-Gal

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

A faunal assemblage of 174 identified animal bones was recovered from excavations along Highway 3, mainly from Byzantine and Byzantine–Early Islamic and Ottoman contexts, with a small contribution from Late Roman strata. The remains originate primarily from refuse pits and from industrial-agricultural installations, including reservoirs, ovens and silos. The assemblage was analyzed using a diagnostic zone recording system, standard osteological identification, age-at-death assessment and detailed taphonomic analysis. The Byzantine and Byzantine–Early Islamic assemblages are dominated by caprines, mainly sheep, followed by pigs, equids and cattle, with minor representation of chicken and camel. Caprine mortality profiles indicate mainly mature individuals, suggesting …

Highway 3: The Coins, Gabriela Bijovsky

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This is a modest group of coins that span interruptedly a period from the first century CE to the first half of the sixth century CE. The earliest coin, dated to Antiochus IV, is a residual find, and the latest coin is an Abbasid fals. Most coin types are conventional. The fact that four chi-rho pentanummia imitations were discovered strengthens the suggestion that these poorly-preserved coins were minted in the area of modern Ashqelon.

Highway 3: The Glass Finds, Tamar Winter

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The glass finds from the excavation along Highway 3 include a single cast bowl of the late Hellenistic–Early Roman periods and vessels dated to the Late Roman−early Byzantine, Byzantine and late Byzantine–Early Islamic periods. Additionally, the excavation yielded Late Islamic–Ottoman-period glass bracelets, as well as various beads. Especially noteworthy are a Byzantine-period cylindrical beaker, which complements the only other documented example from Israel, and a trough-shaped bar, for which no analogous examples from other excavations have been located so far. Furthermore, the number, variety and quality of the Late Islamic–Ottoman-period bracelets are notable, as not many such finds have been …

Highway 3: The Late Ottoman Ceramics, Anna De Vincenz

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

A small, ceramic vessel assemblage dated to the late Ottoman period is presented here. The assemblage consists of household ceramics, including a variety of Black Gaza Ware vessels and handmade cooking pots. A rather large number of probably locally made ceramic smoking pipes are also part of this assemblage.

Highway 3: Late Persian, Hellenistic And Roman Pottery, Ilan Peretz

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The pottery in this report was recovered from the salvage excavation along Highway 3, at the former Ottoman villages of es-Sawafir el-Gharbiya and es-Sawafir esh-Sharqiya. The finds presented here date from the late Persian, Hellenistic and Roman period. The Roman pottery is attributed to the late first–second centuries CE and includes fine wares (mainly ESA), cooking vessels and imported amphorae and lamps.

Highway 3: The Iron Age Pottery, Svetlana Talis

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The excavations along Highway 3 yielded pottery from the Iron Age. The finds were retrieved from fills without clear stratigraphic context, and no architectural remains from the Iron Age were identified. The vessels are therefore presented chronologically, dating from the Iron Age IIA and IIB (tenth–eighth centuries BCE), based on parallels from sites in Judaea, the Shephelah and the southern coastal plain, such as Tel Lakhish, Tel Batash, Tel es-Safi and Tel Ashdod. The Iron Age IIA pottery comprises Philistine-style kraters and chalices, while the Iron Age IIB artifacts include open, rounded and carinated bowls, cooking pots and holemouth jars. …

Cannibal Ghouls Of Japan: The Representation Of Cannibalism In Contemporary Japanese Manga, Nico Indovina

Research and Creativity Symposium

A noticeable uptick in depictions of cannibalism has appearing in the last few years in Japanese manga. It has appeared across several genres of the medium and has given rise to questions over its inclusion. Previous research connected the inclusion to the Japanese oni, a creature originating in Buddhist art, as early as the 8th century in Japan. This article argues that the connection goes beyond simply the oni and also derives inspiration from real cannibals of the 20th century in Japan and theory on monsters. The visual similarities between the historical representations and those of contemporary Japanese manga …

Highway 3: Architectural Remains From The Late Hellenistic, Late Roman–Early Islamic And Late Ottoman Periods, Davida Eisenberg-Degen

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

Excavations along Highway 3 revealed intermittent occupation, with remains from the late Hellenistic, Late Roman, Byzantine–Early Islamic and Ottoman periods, as well as earlier unstratified pottery from Iron Age II. The late Hellenistic period is represented by a winepress, likely associated with a rural farmstead. A winepress and a hypocaust, dated to the Late Roman–early Byzantine periods, may reflect the expansion of the settlement exposed in previous excavations to the east of the present excavation. Byzantine–Early Islamic remains include pottery-production facilities comprising potter’s wheels, levigation pools and slags. The latest remains date to the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries (late Ottoman period), reflecting …

An Analysis Of Katsinam Figurines In The University's Gendler Collection, Sam Rekstad

Undergraduate Research Symposium (2026- )

After a cultural shift in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Euro-American collectors and ethnologists took a significant interest in sacred indigenous objects such as the Hopi Katsinam figurines, which spurred transformations in the ways the figurines tended to be stylized, as well as in how they were circulated. Such figures were initially created solely for ritual and communal purposes, but in modern and contemporary times, they are often created by makers who identify themselves as artists. In this project, I study the history surrounding the creation and distribution of Katsina figurines and also examine selected Katsina figurines in …

Hotels As Placemakers In Downtown Los Angeles, 1890-1950, Chrissie Alea Rensing, Megan Kendrick

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Early twentieth-century Los Angeles is often characterized as a rapidly expanding metropolis shaped by informal segregation along lines of race, class, and gender. Yet within this landscape, hotels and lodging houses sometimes functioned as unexpected sites of inclusion and community for marginalized populations. This project investigates how these spaces of hospitality served women and racial minorities between 1890 and 1950 in Los Angeles. Drawing from recent scholarship from Natalia Molina and others, we set out to examine the role of vernacular hotel architecture and the “placemakers” who operated them.

The project involved examining hundreds of handwritten census pages and original …

The Materiality Of Religious Syncretism And Co-Production In The Catacombs Of Sicily And Malta: Novel Techniques For The Interpretation And Dissemination Of Legacy Data, Madeleine A. Kraft

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the lengthy history of the investigations into the catacombs of Sicily and Malta. These investigations, in some cases, began as early as the 17th century. They have maintained the intrigue of archaeologists beginning in the late 19th century. In doing so, these spaces have amassed truly remarkable amounts of data and of interpretations of that data. This legacy data has proved simultaneously a barrier and an entrance to understanding these complexes. While they are valuable for descriptions of the spaces prior to mutilations and interventions as well as descriptions of evidence no longer extant due to a …

Harriet Hosmer: Femininity And Stone, Savannah V. Parrish

Undergraduate Theses

Harriet Hosmer was an American woman sculptor who studied in Rome, Italy, from 1853 to 1900. Hosmer led her own cohort of women artists and inspired other artists in Rome. Hosmer’s sculptures and the controversies surrounding them exemplify her experiences as a career woman of her time. Hosmer made sculptures of women who defied the will of men, both mythical and historical. Hosmer’s sculptures show how she felt restricted in the world, particularly in the field of sculpture as a woman and how like the figures of her sculptures she found freedom in stone, where she could tell the stories …