Classics Commons^™

Book Review: Ancient Egyptian Clothing: Studies In Late Period Private Representations, Jonathan Vassar

Studia Antiqua

In this book, Aleksandra Hallmann focuses on Late Egyptian clothing during the Late Period as represented in depictions of persons without royal iconography. This first volume contains descriptions of the clothing along with her analyses and conclusions. The second volume contains images of objects and drawings to clarify and provide reference for the clothing discussed in the first volume. The book is divided into five main chapters with a sixth consisting of tables giving the different objects analyzed in her study. In this study, Hallmann focuses on revealing the various ways Egyptian clothing appeared during the Late Period, creating a …

Book Review: Urbanism In The Iron Age Levant And Beyond, Emily Jewkes

Studia Antiqua

Urbanism in the Iron Age Levant and Beyond, edited by Aren Maeir, Shira Albaz, and Angelika Berlejung, contributes to the study of the history and creation of settlements in the Levant and other locations, such as Europe and Mesopotamia, during the Iron Age. The chapters in this book are a collection of presentations given at a 2022 conference at Bar-Ilan University on urbanism during the Iron Age that employed archaeological and textual methods to analyze urbanism through a variety of theoretical lenses. The book is divided into three parts that address the topic of Iron Age urbanism in the …

Book Review: Ancient Synagogues In Palestine: A Re-Evaluation Nearly A Century After Sukenik’S Schweich Lectures, Andrew Holdaway

Studia Antiqua

Synagogue studies in the holy land have been ongoing for a little over a century, beginning with early 20th-century surveys by German scholars Heinrich Kohl and Carl Watzinger. During that time, theories about their dating and chronology of construction have become cemented in scholarly discourse, shaping how archaeologists and historians interpret Jewish life in antiquity. Jodi Magness’s Ancient Synagogues in Palestine challenges the traditional chronology of the construction of synagogues in Palestine. Beginning with Eleazer Sukenik—a pioneering Israeli archeologist operating in the early twentieth century—archaeologists chronologically dated synagogues in Palestine based on architectural types.

Confidence In The Pompeian Fullo, Tori Nielsen

Studia Antiqua

Many scholars have discussed a curious graffito parodying the Aeneid found outside of a Pompeian fullonica, but few have taken into account its visual and written context. I synthesize previous scholarship and consider additional neighboring graffiti and visual elements in order to more thoroughly reconstruct the ideas conveyed about fullers in this space. The outer wall celebrates fullers in cultural, social, and fulling matters, thus bolstering their community’s confidence in them.

Pheonix Imagery In Early Christian Art, Annie Spach

Studia Antiqua

In Early Christianity, often Christians used popular symbols that would point back to greater truths taught in their new faith. This paper discusses how early Christians followed his council through the use of the imperial representation of the phoenix rather than the common representation, highlighting their belief in resurrection, the majesty of Christ and their hope for eternal life given to all believers, while also speaking to a greater tradition outside of Christianity. The continued use of the phoenix as a symbol of resurrection, renewal, immortality and eternal life in the paradise of God is discussed, as well as the …

Perspectives On Cognitive Psychology In Ktu 1.40: Moral Implications And Prescribed Emotional Responses To Foster Unity, Richard Jarvis Iii

Studia Antiqua

This paper examines the Ugaritic ritual text KTU 1.40 through the framework of cognitive psychology to explore its moral implications and prescribed emotional responses. While earlier scholarship has debated whether this ritual carried moral weight, my analysis demonstrates that it prescribes the removal or amelioration of five moral emotions—disgust, fear, anger, empathy, and a sense of justice—to promote unity within the community of Ugarit. Building on Thomas Kazen’s approach and Gregorio del Olmo Lete’s translation, this study argues that the repeated structure and inclusive nature of KTU 1.40 reflect an intentional effort to bridge emotional divides among the many groups …

Gardens Of Rebirth: Fertility And The Afterlife In The Garden Painting From The Tomb Of Nebamun, Aleeta Day

Studia Antiqua

One of the most important aspects of Egyptian art is the emphasis on the eternal and the afterlife. Aspects of real gardens in ancient Egypt as well as artistic depictions of them reflect these values through the cosmological symbolism of life-giving water and plants frequently cultivated in these gardens. These garden depictions were seen as a way to carry their current lifestyle into the afterlife with them. This paper will discuss the garden painting from the 18th Dynasty tomb of Nebamun located in the Theban necropolis. It will briefly discuss methods of Egyptian painting and the medium by which the …

Egypt, Israel, And The Levant: The Merneptah Stele's Role In Shaping Historical Narratives, Quincy Adams

Studia Antiqua

This paper investigates the Merneptah Stele, an exceptional artifact from the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah during Egypt’s New Kingdom, to reassess the stele’s role in understanding early Israelite identity. The Merneptah Stele is among the earliest known references to “Israel,” and consequently has sparked discussion among scholars regarding this early group’s socio-political and cultural status during the late Bronze Age. By examining the stele in conjunction with the inscriptions of the Cour de la Cachette in the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, this study situates the Merneptah Stele within the broader historical and cultural framework of the New Kingdom to …

Front Matter

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Archival Notations Of The Norwegian Charter Material, Juliane Tiemann

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This paper explores archival notations, primarily from the early modern and modern periods, found on the dorse of Norwegian charters dating from the 13th to the 17th century. By examining the notation practices of two prominent Norwegian archivists and collectors, the study further highlights individual efforts in documenting and preserving these materials across various collections. The archival efforts are contextualized historically, noting a transition to systematic archival management. The findings reveal the significance of this largely unexplored component of Norwegian charters as additional historical sources, emphasizing the role of dorsal annotations in provenance research. The textual and visual analysis of …

A Detestable Nation Of Orcs: Echoes Of Eurasian Nomads In Early Fantasy And The Literary Ecosystem Behind Them, Axel Hansen

Journal of Tolkien Research

It is well known that Orcs and Easterlings in J.R.R. Tolkien's works share features with Eurasian nomadic peoples such as Huns and Mongols. The same is true for Tolkien's literary predecessor William Morris' Dusky Men in The Roots of the Mountains. This article will provide an examination of these features from a historical viewpoint, on how interactions with and subsequent records about various steppe nomads in European history can be tied to villains in early modern Fantasy literature. It will then present a short review of how a network of historic accounts, academic theories and pop cultural works – …

Naskah Tjritaan Di Atas Pertjobaan Tanem Padi Dan Nota Dari Hal Tanaman Bamboe: Sebuah Kerja Kodikologis, Riqko Nur Ardi Windayanto

Multikultura

Tulisan ini adalah penjelajahan awal (preliminer) terhadap naskah koleksi Perpustakaan Nasional RI yang bertema pertanian dan perkebunan. Melalui kunjungan langsung ke lembaga itu, peneliti mendapati dua naskah bertema demikian, yakni Tjritaan di Atas Pertjobaan Tanem Padi dan Nota dari Hal Tanaman Bamboe. Tulisan ini menyajikan tinjauan kodikologis terhadap kedua naskah dengan menguraikan deskripsi naskah secara analitis dan refleksi kritis berdasarkan deskripsi itu. Secara metodologis, peneliti mengamati langsung kedua naskah pada Oktober—November 2024. Tiap-tiap naskah dideskripsikan menurut lima aspek utama, yakni administrasi dan kebahasaan; media, penyajian teks, dan penjilidan; substansi dan tekstualitas; kolofon, estetika, dan kondisi naskah; serta kesejarahan, kelembagaan, …

The Tomb Of Andraemon And Colophonian Burial Culture, Emily Brophy

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The ancient city of Colophon is surrounded by extensive necropoleis from the Mycenaean, Geometric, and Classical periods of Greek history. Long before the necropoleis’ modern rediscovery, Pausanias described his encounter with the tomb of Andraemon in the 2nd century CE. Searching for Andraemon’s tomb using specific details from Pausanias’s Descriptions of Greece, as well as geographic and archaeological evidence, firmly places the tomb within a complex burial culture surrounding the site of ancient Colophon in modern-day Izmir, Turkey.

Contextualizing Egyptian-Themed Art In Pompeiian Shops, Kelsey Myers

The Ozark Historical Review

This project focuses on the art historical, architectural, and archaeological evidence outside the domus to investigate the multivalent messaging communicated by Egyptian imagery in Pompeii’s civic and commercial spaces. By examining the artifacts and images commissioned by traders and craftsmen in their production and shop spaces, this research offers a bottom-up approach to Roman culture and society to balance the textual based top-down perspective that has dominated the discipline. Focusing on foreign-themed objects and images in these spaces, this study also explores the reception and adoption of foreign/eastern influences by the lower social strata of Romans in a multiethnic empire.

Speaking From The Underground: Notes On Lois Elaine Griffith & The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Aesthetic, Joseph Anthony Cáceres

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Speaking from the Underground explores the work of Lois Elaine Griffith, an Afro-Caribbean diasporic visual and literary artist of Barbadian descent and one of the last surviving founders of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a Puerto Rican cultural institution grounded in Afro-Caribbean traditions located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In the common, cultural parlance, the Cafe has become synonymous with spoken word and slam poetry. Since 1973 it has been the place where artists of mostly African, Caribbean, Latinx descent gather to craft works centered around lived experiences to shape a language to counter a conventional understanding of history and a …

A Reconstruction Of The Homeric Tradition In Early Greece, Aidan F. Hoey

Student Theses

This thesis discusses the centuries-long historiographical debate that is known to us as the Homeric Question. The identity of Homer, the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the dating from when the Homeric epic poems were composed, the Homeric diction, and the historicity of the Trojan War has puzzled scholars since Antiquity. Only by the twentieth century, scholars Milman Parry and Albert Lord proved that the Iliad and Odyssey were orally composed. How the written form of the Homeric epic poems came about has become even more of a historiographic puzzle than it has been previously. Building off the …

The Unicorn And Christ – Metamorphosis And Symbology, Luis Mendonça De Carvalho, Francisca Maria Fernandes, Maria Fátima Nunes, Ana Maria Costa, Paula Nozes, Ana Paula Figueira

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The unicorn is a legendary chimaera that, for centuries, has been present in the mindset of Euro-Mediterranean cultures. Although its morphological description changed, tradition identifies it as an animal like a horse, albeit smaller and with a spiralling horn on its head pointing forward. The unicorn has been known since Antiquity, with references by authors such as Ctesias and Pliny. However, its relevance for medieval Europeans began with the Biblical references to this animal in several Old Testament verses. These verses gave legitimacy to the unicorn, and it was accepted as a tangible animal. During the Middle Ages and early …

Ritual And Revolution: Rethinking Roman Women’S Influence On Religion, Katlin Smith

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis challenges the long-standing portrayal of Roman women as passive figures. Focusing on the mid-to-late Roman Republic and early Empire (264 B.C.E.–180 C.E.), it argues that women were active participants in Roman society, particularly through their engagement in religious life. Drawing on the theory of “lived religion,” this study highlights how religion offered Roman women opportunity to interact with both domestic and public spheres in socially acceptable means. Religion allowed women to exercise influence, power, and autonomy otherwise denied to them in political or legal contexts. Through a combination of textual analysis and material evidence, such as inscriptions and …

Medusa: The Monster, Myth, And Feminist Icon, Olivia Joanne Sarjent

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The myth of Medusa is one that has been around since 7c BCE through the writings of authors such as Hesiod and Ovid. While originally a monstrous villain of antiquity in the 21st century Medusa has become an icon of feminism, very different to how she was once portrayed. Through classic art to film and TV, Medusa has integrated herself into the modern pop culture spotlight. Medusa started out in myth as a creature of horror that would bring the demise of men and this theme was carried out in medieval art with pieces like Medusa by Caravaggio, Perseus with …

‘Dark Grandmothers,’ The Art Of The Individual Over The Craft Of The Collectives: A Case Study Of Klaas Rommelaere And His Madams, Rachel L. Burner

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

An examination of Belgian artist Klaas Rommelaere with a focus on his internationally renowned embroidered sculpture series, Dark Uncles (2020). Despite his role as the artist and the public face of the craft-based collaborative project, Rommelaere’s physical involvement is minimal when compared to “the madams,” the true executors of Rommelaere’s labor-intensive craftwork. This raises critical questions about authorship and reception in contemporary art, particularly the institutional reliance on the individual artist as a figurehead to promote collective craftsmanship. By analyzing Dark Uncles through a post-structural feminist lens and considering the liminality of craft production under capitalism, the paper highlights the …

The “Deviant” Dead: (De)Constructing Personhood In Mycenaean Mortuary Landscapes, Aidan J. Gregg

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Despite increasing standardization in mortuary practice during the Mycenaean palatial period, there remains a significant degree of variation in burials. This project seeks to elucidate the reasons for the wide variability in the Mycenaean mortuary program with theories of anthropological personhood as a guiding framework. I focus on the palatial period, from LHIII A2 - LHIIIB2 (1410-1190) because of the pervasiveness of Mycenaean culture throughout the Aegean, but especially in Greece’s northeastern Peloponnese, during that time. I use mortuary data from 12 cemeteries in the Argolid and Korinthia to trace trends in burial practice, in the hope of establishing a …

Divine Achilles And His Raging Heart: Cannibalism In The Iliad, Lucca Crowe

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The story of the Iliad is one of identity. As Achilles struggles with whom to identify with, his divine mother or mortal father, he is consumed by an overwhelming rage that threatens to overpower him, dragging him down from both divinity and mortality into the very depths of monstrous savagery. This article examines the role that diet, particularly the act of cannibalism, plays in differentiating humans from gods and beasts. By examining Achilles identity struggle through the lens of cannibalism, this article sheds light on the broader ways Greek and Roman authors used cannibalism to express notions of otherness, situating …

He's A Pirate: Greco-Roman Pirates In The Eastern Mediterranean, Nathan Hill

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

For as long as people have traveled by sea, pirates have looked to rob and steal from them. This danger was especially true for travelers in Ancient Greece and Rome. While many ancient sources mention pirates, it is usually just in passing. However, even those few small references allude to a far more important role in history. Through the use of the ancient written sources, inscriptions, and archeological evidence, it becomes apparent that the pirates were an integral part of local economies and politics. Many city-states employed their own sailors in piratical raids against their enemies in and out of …

The Spartan Mirage; A Study Into Spartan Women, Maya Rose Sharon

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

A myth has been perpetuated about the Greek city-state of Sparta which has shrouded it in a mirage. This mirage can make it difficult to determine what Sparta was truly like, which includes the reality of its women. Scholars tend to present Spartan women within extremes that either showcase them as no different from other women or as the ones holding all the power. Spartan women were key in passing on important values to their children such as to die bravely in battle or not come home at all. By looking into Spartan women, we can find strong evidence that …

The Perry-Campbell Collection: An Analysis Of Byzantine And Roman Coins, Samuel A. Skokan

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

The Anthropology Collections of the Nebraska State Museum are home of the Gladys G. Perry Campbell and Iain Colin Gordon Campbell (I. C. G. Campbell) coin collection, which consists of an estimated 4,000 coins that date between the 1^st century BC to the 15th century AD. The collection consists of bronze coins (91%+) and billon (alloy) coins that represent low-denomination currency of the Roman and Byzantine Empires. There are approximately 3,200 Byzantine and 750 Roman coins. This study focused solely on the Byzantine coins of the Collection, to document their chronological range and research value. The collection can support …

Pedro Aceves Mfa Thesis, Pedro M. Aceves

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

My Work is about looking at Cruising through a queer decolonial lens. Using multiple mediums such as photo, glass, Augmented reality, and film, I explore these queer histories and aesthetics through not just an anthropological approach but also an artistic epistemological approach weaving together narratives of prehispanic and modern queer Latinidad.

Representations Of Queer Cowboys In History, Literature, And Film, Olivia Black

Annual Celebration for Student Scholarship and Creativity

Olivia Black ’25, History major

Faculty mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, History and Classics

My research focuses on how certain traits such as queerness in historical cowboys were erased from American popular culture yet found in journals of real cowboys and influential Western literature. This erasure contributed to an inaccurate view of American cowboys in order for the media about cowboys to be successful.

2025 Acssc Program, Acssc Planning Committee

Annual Celebration for Student Scholarship and Creativity

No abstract provided.

Herman Melville’S Bartleby And A Critique Of The Market Revolution, Emma Williams

History & Classics Student Scholarship

Emma Williams ’25, History and English major

Faculty mentor: Dr. Steven Smith, History

“If, In That Strife, ‘T Were Given To See / The Glory Of Thermopylae”: Connections To The Classics In The Alamo And The Texas Revolution, Austin M. Pritchett

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This historical research paper argues that connections to classical tradition were made in the rhetoric and symbolism of the Texas Revolution as a means of creating a national identity as Texans and as a way of garnering support from the Unites States for their cause.

Having established the background of the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836, the famous Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, and the Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece, I bring forth examples from primary sources of important figures using comparisons to classical history. The classical connections made in those writings were used to justify their …