Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons^™

Staging Reception / Perception: Transhistorical Bi-Directional Dialogues Between Etruscan Visual Cultural Objects And Giuseppe Penone's Contemporary Sculptures, Shelby Morgan

University Honors Theses

I use the occasion of the March 2024 exhibit,"Vulci. Goods for Mankind. Goods for Gods." at Milan's Luigi Rovati Foundation to consider how the museum's staging of Etruscan visual material cultural objects and contemporary sculptures by Italian artist Giuseppe Penone prompts viewers to perceive transhistorical bi-directional dialogues between the viewer and material culture as well as between the ancient and contemporary objects themselves.

Via a close reading of the exhibition while leveraging the three frameworks of aura, imprint and classical reception I analyze how the staging of the hypogeum creates a place of atmosphere. I argue this is done through …

The Hope Dionysos (After Augustus): A Post-Actian Reading Of Dionysian Imagery, Jane Horman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At the center of the Roman court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York stands an almost seven-foot-tall statue of an androgynous looking figure, leaning on a smaller statue of a woman. This piece, formally known as Statue of Dionysos Leaning on a Female Figure, has been nicknamed the Hope Dionysos for both the archaic statue he is leaning on, as well as the family to whose collection he belonged for many years. However, in its day, the statue occupied a complicated place in Roman culture. This paper will examine the ways in which Dionysos, specifically through …

Aphrodite In Movement And Miniature: Knidian Statuettes Of The Ancient And Modern, Jacqueline M. Lewis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines Hellenistic statuettes of the Knidian Aphrodite as independent works of art with distinct ancient contexts and modern collecting histories. Drawing on archaeological evidence from Delos, archival and public records from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and a comparative framework that places Hellenistic and modern collecting cultures in dialogue, this thesis aims to present the Knidia within the dynamic, interactive history of statuettes. Evaluated on its own terms rather than in relation to a lost original, Knidian Aphrodite statuettes illuminate both the richness of Hellenistic domestic religious life and …

Illicit Origins, Public Displays: How Trafficking And Repatriation Reshaped Ancient Greek Pottery In Modern Museums, Alisha Bhandari

Honors College Theses

This thesis examines how illicit excavation, antiquities trafficking, and repatriation have reshaped the modern circulation and interpretation of ancient Greek pottery in museum collections. While Greek pottery has traditionally been studied through style, iconography, attribution, and artistic value, this project shifts attention to the modern systems that have determined how these objects were excavated, sold, displayed, and contested. Through a literature review and three case studies — the Aineta Aryballos, the Python Bell-Krater, and the Athena Kylix — this thesis argues that ancient Greek pottery should be understood not only as evidence of antiquity, but also as evidence of modern …

Catacombs In Context: Exploring Roman Architectural Influence In The Catacombs Of Rabat, Malta, Emily S.R Hodson

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

Previously, scholarship on the Mediterranean catacombs has focused on isolated sites or on the religious significance and iconography of regional groups. By contextualizing the archaeological data through comparison and recentering the discussion on architecture, this research offers a contextualized, non-apologetic picture of ancient Mediterranean catacombs. This architectural comparison between the Roman catacombs and those of St. Paul and Abbatija Tad-Dejr in Malta reveals both significant architectural change and the persistence of archaic features, suggesting a high degree of cultural continuity under Roman provincial governance on Malta (218 BCE - c. 5th - 6th centuries CE). This, paired with the emergence …

An Etruscan Life And Death: 2025 Findings From The Valle Gianni Archaeological Site, Skye Mccord

Exceptional Scholarship & Artistry

The site of Valle Gianni, part of The Northwest Bolsena Archaeological Project, is located on the northwest lakefront of Lake Bolsena, and harbors many Roman and Etruscan archaeological findings dating back to the late Iron Age. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the cultural traditions of the Etruscans, their place in the wider Mediterranean during the late Iron Age into Classical antiquity, and the changes to both physical landscapes and cultural landscapes after their conquest by the Romans. The site of Valle Gianni acts as a case study in the dynamics of colonization and the repurposing of sacred …

Syncretism Of Culture Through Restoration At Cyrene’S Temple Of Lykeian Zeus, Melanie Stevenson

Undergraduate Research Awards

Starting with the earliest accounts of the temple and tracking it through the cycles of destruction and reconstruction that have characterized it as a blend of time periods and constantly modernizing culture will uncover the mysteries of who exactly influenced this temple. It must have held a notable amount of significance in the ancient city, since there is a plethora of archaeological evidence—from fragmented cult statues to charred limestone remains—that marks this site as a victim of multiple bouts of religious violence. Far from being a static monument, the Temple of Lykeian Zeus in Cyrene is an intersection of Arcadian …

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.

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 …

Tetradrachms, Shekels, And Denarii: Cross-Cultural Exchange In Money At The Edges Of Greece And Rome, Miles Thompson

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the coin collection of the University of Mississippi Museum. I cataloged ancient coins in its collection through consulting online databases and reference books, and designed an exhibition to display some of the notable examples. This exhibition was based around the theme of cross-cultural interaction between Greek and Roman cultures and other ones towards the edges. It had both a physical and virtual component, and was displayed in Bryant Hall, and the museum’s website. I provide greater historical depth and research on some of the coins I cataloged that illustrate these cross-cultural interactions well. This exhibition successfully …

Unam Magnum Scutellam De Onichio: The Many Lives Of The Tazza Farnese, Merrick L. Gormley

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

The Tazza Farnese is a large-scale sardonyx phiale (a shallow bowl) with a diameter of about 22 centimeters. The Tazza has caught the attention of numerous historical figures throughout antiquity, but despite how coveted the object may have been, records of its provenance before the 1400s are dissatisfactory or entirely nonexistent. This project seeks to shape a number of clear, thorough timelines for the object, as a synthesis of the many conflicting scholarly theories for its chronology. Furthermore, it examines the Tazza in the contexts of the cultures it was immersed in and investigates the way it was interpreted by …

Aristotle And Aquinas: Nature As An Ethical Principle In Law, Jimmy J. Grumich

Honors Bachelor of Arts

No abstract provided.

Ethical Pedagogy And Roman Political Identity, Luke D. Sherman

Honors Bachelor of Arts

Students often question the value of going to school. They certainly can mindlessly sit through courses for a passing grade and forget the material right after the test, but what value is that learning actually providing for them? The most apt answer one could give to this is that education molds us into model citizens, ones who can utilize math, language, logic, and other foundational ideas as building blocks to operate and understand the world through. While the term “basic education” implies vastly different curricula across different cultures and time periods, one common thread between any basic education is the …

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.

Race And Greek Mythology: An Analysis Of A Racialized Hierarchy In Literary And Artistic Depictions Of The Line Of Io In Archaic And Classical Greece, Angie Pierre

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

Following the emergence of the Greek alphabet in 8th century B.C.E, Greece produced literary works which demonstrated contemporary beliefs, customs, and practices. Additionally, pottery during this era began to be more expressive. The use of geometric shapes and imagery from Egypt were later used to create stories and induce emotions in pottery. Following the Archaic period, the Classical era has produced a plethora of literary and artistic material that expands on material from the Archaic era while simultaneously providing commentary on its own period. While not in a consistent manner, an underlying theme within the art and literature of the …

Integral But Forgotten: Metics In Ancient Athens, Morgan Haros

Honors Theses

Every civilization has contained foreign residents, and Ancient Athens was no exception. In Classical Athens (489-323 BCE), these foreign residents and freed slaves were known as metics. The “metic” label came from the tax they had to pay: the metoikion, or metic tax. While foreign resident status most likely existed throughout city-states across Greece, Athens is the location best documented. Many of these documents come from wills and court cases, giving glimpses of the daily life of Athens’ non-citizen residents. Metics commonly worked as craftsmen, bankers, and people of commerce. Those working class metics helped supplement the Athenian labor force, …

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 …

Music As A Force Of Agency For Ancient Greek Women, Margaret Ridgeway

Honors Bachelor of Arts

No abstract provided.

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 Authors

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

Short professional biographies of the Contributors: Dimitra Andrianou, Giacomo Bardelli, Magali An Berthon, Tina Boloti, Cecilie Brøns, Ana Cabrera-Lafuente, Francesca Coletti, Roxana Coman, Catarina Costeira, Cristina Cumbo, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Klara Dankova, Anna Maria Desiderio, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Arianna Esposito, Astrid Fendt, Nade Genevska Brachikj, Francisco B. Gomes, Judith Goris, Audrey Gouy, Karina Grömer, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Mary Harlow, Susanna Harris, Sophia Larissa Hayda, Angela Huang, Floor Huisman, Alina Iancu, Zofia Kaczmarek, Marisa Kerbizi, Meghan Korten, Tetiana Krupa, Karolina Anna Kulpa, Lena Larsson Lovén, Ronja Lau, Yuliia Lazorenko, Susanne Lervad, Petra Linscheid, Christina Margariti, Maria João Melo, Elena Miramontes Seijas, Leyre Morgado-Roncal, …

The Euroweb Textile And Clothing Terminology Network And The Digital Atlas Of European Textile Heritage: Some Reflections And Results, Louise Quillien, Alina Iancu, Meghan Korten, Susanne Lervad, Joana Sequeira, Catarina Costeira

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

One of the research areas of the EuroWeb project during the four years of the COST Action (November 2020 – October 2024) is the comparative study of textile and clothing terminologies in European languages across time. Inside the EuroWeb network, the research group on Textile and clothing terminologies has three topics of particular interest: 1. the specificities of these terminologies, and the strategies for naming textiles and garments; 2. the impact of European geography on textile and clothing terminologies, especially visible through textile terms formed after a toponym or through the circulation of loanwords; 3. the influence of textile and …

Exploring Dress, Gender, And Bodily Capital Through Pre- And Protohistoric Funerary Contexts: Case Studies From Southwestern Europe, Francisco B. Gomes, Catarina Costeira, Anna Maria Desiderio, Arianna Esposito, Giacomo Bardelli

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

While uneven in their scope and reach, studies of dress and dress complements (fibulae, belt buckles, buttons, etc.) have a significant tradition within the broader study of the pre- and protohistory of Mediterranean Europe. Many of these studies, however, have had a strong focus on the typology of the dress complements and ornaments themselves, either as chronological indicators, ethnic markers, or both. In more recent years, however, a shift in research agendas has ushered in the introduction of new perspectives and new ways of thinking about dress and bodily adornment.

This contribution explores one such perspective in particular — namely, …

Displaying And Experiencing Dress Identities In Museums: Case Studies From The Etruscan Period To Modern Times, Karina Grömer, Astrid Fendt, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Anna Zimmermann, Kayleigh Saunderson, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Francisco B. Gomes

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

Dress, clothes, and accessories receive and give meaning through their nearness to the human body. As P. Stallybrass writes: “Bodies come and go: the clothes that have received those bodies survive.” It is through the close interaction between dress and person that they both receive their meaning. Clothes shape the human body, and we in return shape our clothes. Dress communicates class, gender, nationality, and marital status, and we leave behind parts of us in its smell, wrinkles, wear, and tear: “Clothes receive the human imprint.” Archaeological and historical dress — no matter how ancient — remain intrinsically linked to …

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 …

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 …

Understanding Gold Textiles: Case Studies Of Gold Threads From The Bronze Age And Antiquity In Europe, Karina Grömer, Francesca Coletti, Francisco B. Gomes, Kayleigh Saunderson

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

The production of textiles, in terms of weaving techniques, has a long history in Europe, and dates back to the Stone Age, the time during which the first farming communities arrived in the Mediterranean and Central Europe, in the 7th/6th millennium BC. The first evidence of textile tools, like spindle whorls and loom weights, demonstrate that people made an important step forward in mechanizing this craft, not only twisting fibers and interlacing strands purely by hand, but also inventing tools to increase efficiency. Through the development of textile techniques, we see the unleashing of enormous creative power that stimulated even …

“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 …

Textiles, Dress And Politics: A Diachronic Perspective Through The Case Studies Of Ancient Rome And Medieval Iceland, Meghan Korten, Zofia Kaczmarek

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

People dress for more than just aesthetic reasons. Over the centuries, dress became a sign of human civilization, allowing us to identify the origin, gender, and status of the wearer. Textiles and clothing influence our body, posture, movements, and the way we are perceived by society. Textiles are also a tool used by people to further their agenda, that is why they found their place in the political life of many ancient and modern societies.

According to Michel Foucault, power can be understood as a set of activities influencing the life of the other: It provokes, forbids, or permits, but …