Abstract This paper discusses a Greek stele dating back to the Early Hellenistic Period (about 300?250 B.C.) which depicts various divinities, the ship of the Argonauts and diplomatic text. The paper explains the shape of the stele and discusses the meaning of the text against the background of Greek history, specifically the Peloponnesian Wars. The paper also explores the importance of the dieties depicted on the stele, in relation to the gods and legends of the time period.
From the Paper "In analyzing and interpreting the text, it is safe to assume that Timeas of Laconia is being given the authority to serve as proxy for the Boiotians. The word "proxenos" is so close to the English word ?proxy,? meaning someone who has the authority to act on behalf of another, that is nearly impossible that this could be a misinterpretation. Furthermore, this authority will pass on, presumably indefinitely, to his heirs.
Ergoteles, who apparently was in power when this decree was issued, was archon. An archon was a chief magistrate in ancient Athens; that is, a local official exercising administrative and often judicial functions. Therefore, it was Ergoteles? responsibility to make sure that not only was this decree carried out, but also that it was enforced."
Abstract Radioactive dating is the process of determining the age of rocks and other specimens from the decay of their radioactive elements. By applying this information, geologists are able to decipher the 4.6-billion-year history of the earth. The paper introduces the history of this type of dating in chronological order. It discusses other issues related to radioactive dating such as Carbon-14 dating, fission track dating, Potassium Argon Dating, the Rubidium-Strontium method, lead-alpha age and debated ideas of radioactive dating.
From the Paper "Cosmic rays from the sun strike nitrogen 14 atoms in the earth's atmosphere and cause nitrogen atoms to lose a proton making it a carbon isotope this then turns into radioactive carbon 14, which combines with oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide. All living things are in equilibrium with the atmosphere, and the radioactive carbon dioxide is absorbed from the air and used by green plants. Then the radioactive carbon dioxide gets passed on through the plants into the food chain and the carbon cycle. All living things contain a constant ratio of Carbon 14 to Carbon 12 of about 1 in a trillion. The amount of carbon 14 lost in a species is continually replenished as long as it still takes in food and oxygen. At death, the exchange of carbon 14 ceases and any that is left in the tissues of the organism begins to decay to Nitrogen 14, this is not replenished by any new C-14. The change in the Carbon 14 to Carbon 12 ratio is the basis for dating this dating technique. The half-life is so short (5730 years) that this method can only be used on materials less than 70,000 years old. A lot of archaeological dating uses this method. It is also very useful in attempting to date remnants of the ice ages (Pleistocene epoch.)"
Tags: Marie, Pierre, Curie, Clair, Patterson, U, 235, atom
Abstract Discusses the importance of this Mayan architectural site in Mexico. Its variations from the Mayan norm. Its utilization of new forms of architecture and art-forms. Innovations. Describes the site. Composition of its structure. Excavations of the ruin. Discoveries, including a Pyramid. Intricate hieroglyphs found. Historical and cultural value of Mayan glyphs.
From the Paper "Palenque is the most important Maya architectural site in Mexico, surpassing even Chichen-itza in its grandeur. Discovered by the Spaniards in the late eighteenth century, Palenque has amazed archaeologists for generations. Palenque's main attraction for archaeologists lies in its many variations from the Maya norm. The Mayas who constructed the Palenque compound utilized new forms of architecture, unveiled new kinds of art-forms, and left behind perhaps the finest sarcophagus in all the Americas. Because of the sheer number and scope of the revelations that Palenque has provided on the Maya who built it, the site stands as arguably the most important Maya architectural site. Regardless of its standing among its peers, Palenque remains unique because of the hauntingly beautiful nature of the site's plan and scope."
Abstract Archaeological discoveries of female figures representing cult fertility objects an ancient goddesses. Representations of Paleolithic, Neolithic periods. Greek and Roman depictions of goddesses. Feminist ideology & goddess imagery. Patriarchal ideology. Varied views of contemporary ecofeminism in deconstructing patriarchy.
From the Paper "Contemporary Ecofeminism
Introduction
Prepatriarchal Representations
The earliest interpretations of archaeological discoveries of female figures was that they represented cult fertility objects. However, by the 1970s, there were numerous interpretations of these figures, and others, as representing ancient goddesses.
These representations varied between civilizations and epochs in how they represented goddesses and stories that were told about them. In the Paleolithic period, the representations were the simplest. These are the female figurines that early archaeologists identified as Venus figurines (Eisler, 1987). They were often broad-hipped, pregnant, stylized, and sometimes were missing faces or..."
Abstract Focuses on the Amarna Letters. Evidence of grammar and syntax of the language of the scribes in Canaan. Their importance in providing information about the early social and political history of Syria and Palestine in the Biblical period. Background and history of the El-Amarna site in Egypt. History of the Pharaoh The written word during the Amarna period. The Armana archive.
From the Paper "THE AMARNA LETTERS
We do not know, of course, exactly when civilization began, in terms of writing down daily events, creating grammar, fashioning a language that could be understood by the people, and developing a means of informing, educating and unifying ancient people. However, the Amarna Letters, actually grammatically detailed in four intensive volumes by Rainey (1996), provide interesting insight and information about ancient Canaan "on the verbal system in the Byblos letters… and the Akkadian grammar, written by the scribes in Canaan (and) thoroughly treated and usually put in a wider context" (Van Soldt, 1998, p. 1). This stems from a thorough review by Van Soldt of a book by Anson F. Rainey, Linguistic A Analysis of the Mixed Dialect used by Scribes from Canaan (four volumes, 1996)."
Abstract The writer discusses the "Head of the King", a statue considered to have been created by a group of artists. This is determined by the style of the sculpture and the material used. The paper shows how statues from this period can be classified as belonging to a single artist or to a group. It is assumed, but not proven, that the works belonging to this "second style" can be timed to belong to the end of Amenhotep III's rule.
From the Paper "The work is a sculpture, depicting the head of the King. Its measurements are: Height, 34 inches; width 22.9 inches; depth, 25.3 inches. It is currently in the Louvre Museum, Paris, France. The head is constructed out of granodiorite, which is a very hard medium. It is interesting that, in spite of the difficulty of working the granodiorite, the artisans that sculpted the head have worked it "as though it were modeling clay" ( Kozloff, 164).
The work is presently in relatively good condition, for the parts that remain. The evidence shows that it was originally a life-sized statue of the King, with an original height of approximately 160 ? 170 centimeters. This would have been the height without any base or pedestal. Of course, there is no accurate way to determine for sure what the size of the base might have been. Other representative standing statues from this period are known to have been resting on bases of up to 100 to 150 centimeters."
Tags: sculpture, artisan, Egypt, Amenhotep, museum
Abstract Compared to the ancient landmass, humans are a recent arrival to what is considered the state of Virginia. This essay documents the extent to which human land use has impacted the Virginian landscape.
Table of Contents:
Ancient Virginia
Arrival of Humans
Archaic ? Woodland Period
Europeans
Conclusion
From the Paper "Undoubtedly, Virginia is old with complex geology, to the west lies the ancient Appalachian and Blue Ridge province, formed on the margin of Laurentia during the Proterozoic over 1,100 million years ago. The largest physiographic province in Virginia is the Piedmont (appendix 1) comprised of weathered bedrock, overlain with saprolite, eroded in stream valleys. The Coastal plain is a terraced landscape, the bedrock consists of igneous and metamorphic rock, with various layers above comprised of sediment deposited in warm shallow seas, and eroded clay, sand, and gravel stripped from the Appalachians (Roberts and Bailey 2001). Remaining temperate forests seen below, possibly began forming about 10,000 years ago, when the Virginian shoreline extended some 30 miles further east onto the continental shelf, and glaciers withdrew as the climate warmed, though temperatures were still much colder than today (Riparian Forest Buffers 1996). The piedmont to the west, and coastal plain to the east is a dynamic environment, continually undergoing change through natural processes."
This paper suggests that further exploitation and increased specific data bring to light new patterns in the biogeographic model for the arid region of Australia.
Abstract Arrival of the original Australians has long been a topic of debate amongst anthropologists and archaeologists. The questions of why, how and when Greater Australia was colonized are often asked. The biogeographic colonization model proposed by Peter Veth has galvanized archaeologists into pursuing specific questions at regional levels. This paper looks at that model using the following format.
Table of Contents:
Abstract
Introduction
Arid Region
Paleoenvironment
Islands in the Interior
Central Refuge
Corridors
Barriers
Dissecting the Islands
Biogeographic Regions
Technology
Social Transformation
Summary
Future Research
Conclusion
References
From the Paper "Paleoenvironment information is derived from 'geomorphological and paleoecological research in Australia and New Guinea? (Mulvaney and Kamminga 1999). Sites at Lake Fromme, Lake Eyre and Willandra indicate higher precipitation rates from 40,000 to 25,000 BP, followed by a colder drier climate c. 21,000 ? 15,000 BP, known as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). During the LGM sea levels were 130 metres below present shorelines increasing Australia's overall land area, connecting New Guinea in the North and Tasmania to the South. Mulvaney (1999:116) suggests a reduction in warm surrounding ocean and increased landmass was responsible for creating intense inland aridity. Paradoxically, the intense aridity associated with the LGM palaeoenvironment coincides with human occupation dates for the arid region. Although, Ross et al., (Lourandos 1992) maintains ?The arid interior has always been dry, in geomorphic terms.? During this period, inland lake levels fluctuated until c. 14,000 BP when most inland lakes became dry, possibly extending the arid area into present day semi?arid boundaries (Fig. 1) until "a general climatic amelioration [began] towards the start of the Holocene" (Lourandos 1997)."
Abstract This paper begins by providing a history of the evolution of zero and discusses the origin of the symbol. It then discusses the origins of the concept of "zero" and how this was perceived differently by various ancient cultures such as the Egyptians, the Mayans and the Babylonians. It then focuses specifically on the "Babylonian zero" and how this differed in concept from other figures at the time. The paper includes several diagrams and pictures.
From the Paper "The symbol zero evolved into its present form after quite a number of transformations. The idea of how the symbol was devised also harbors a few contradictory ideas. Opinions range from it being a dot originally, replaced by a circle with a dot in the center and then maturing to the current form, an oval shape that we all are familiar with. (Pearce, I., 2002). The Egyptian zero that evolved has also been equated with the hieroglyph for beauty, and that of the human windpipe, heart and lungs. (Williams, S. W., 2002)"
Abstract This research examines elements of Egyptian culture that seem closer to magic than to religion as they are commonly understood. The research sets forth the context in which concepts of magic and religion achieve resonance in ancient Egypt and then discusses specific examples from Egyptian religious literature and thought that show how the Egyptians distinguished between religion and magic, compared to other monotheists. Finally, it illustrates how magic fits into the religious environment of the culture.
From the Paper "Differentiating between religion and magic in ancient culture has proved problematic for western commentators to the degree definitions of the terms are approached from the Western but not from a subject other culture's point of view. The tendency to bring Western religious classifications to the project of identifying the attributes of Egyptian religion does not seem to accomplish a great deal analytically. In the worst instances of this type, Ritner says, misinterpretation and mistranslation of some hieroglyphic inscriptions have resulted. Specifically, inscriptions that supposedly distinguished between magic and religion (cult) have proved to be inaccurate. Walker agrees, defining magic not as an expression of evil but as "the art which attempts to influence a course of events by controlling nature of supernatural powers." The good-evil opposition of religion and magic that is typical of and fundamental to Western analysis proves not to be sufficient to the task of understanding the character of religion and the role of magic in religion for Egyptian antiquity."
Abstract This research sets forth the context in which Christian spirituality unfolded in the first century A.D., also known at the apostolic period. It discusses in particular evidence of how the apostles made connections from spiritual experience to the shared experience of faith in the Christian community. The paper examines how the apostolic generation arrived at and then fostered a cohesive doctrine of spirituality that centered around the figure of Jesus Christ, in the shape of a mission of love.
From the Paper "No less significant is the fact that this spirituality and the apostolic mission are new because they specifically differ from Judaism, not only in the content of the message but also in the behavior of the messengers. For example, Matthew's Jesus (13:14) refers to those who are taught in parables as a fulfillment of "the [Hebrew] prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing he shall hear, and shall not understand." What is implied here is that the teachings of Jesus are meant to be directly relevant to Jewish experience, but the Christian mission is also meant to reinterpret it and point it in new directions. When Matthew says that "every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven" (13:52), the implication is that the new interpretation, not the old law, will be preeminent, hence that the Christians and not the Jews (i.e., the new scribes and not the old black-letter-law priests of Judaism) are to have the keys of the kingdom."
Abstract This research provides six specific examples of how the gods were believed to communicate with humanity in ancient Egypt. The research describes ways in which divine-to-human acts of communication were thought to take place in various periods of Egyptian civilization and the content of the patterns of belief. It discusses how perceptions and beliefs appear to have altered over the course of the culture's several-thousand-year tenure, before it was absorbed by Rome in the first century BC. Egypt's pharaonic period, which begins with the Old Kingdom (about 3200 BC), ends in 525 BC, which coincides with the emergence of Greek influence and the infancy of Rome. The paper shows that it is a truism that Greeks and Romans alike considered Egypt to be an ancient civilization.
From the Paper "What began in the Old Kingdom as a perception of the underworld as a place of wondrous information and potentiality was transformed by the time of the New Kingdom into a perception of the underworld as almost instrumental in the project of transfiguration of human experience into divine experience. As Hornung says, the figure of Osiris in the Old Kingdom period is given precedence over the pharaoh "as if it were a title; later [Osiris] is placed before the name of each deceased individual," which shows that godhead could be incorporated in or infused humankind, the oneness symbolic of perfect communication between matter and spirit."
Abstract This research examines archaeological evidence associated with the story of Noah's Ark told in Genesis. It explains how the Genesis story of Noah's Ark, which describes a great flood that destroys all life and civilization except for an extended family and the extended family of livestock in its care, is premised on the idea that the family patriarch, Noah, received instructions from God to build a gigantic boat, or ark. The paper looks at alternative version of the story and archaeological evidence of its occurrence through history.
From the Paper "Articulation of alternative visions of Noah in the modern period has occurred in a climate of contentiousness. That is because the absence of definitive archaeological confirmation of the ancient texts runs up against a widespread insistence in Judaeo-Christian culture on the historicity of the Noah story. The extent of contentiousness was manifest especially in 1997, when a credentialed Australian geologist, Ian Plimer, was ejected from a creationist lecture when ark explorer Allen Roberts refused to answer questions about geologic time. Plimer later sued Roberts for science fraud on the theory of "the dangers inherent in letting fundamentalists go unchallenged" (Scott 9). Plimer lost on the legal issue, which resulted in his bankruptcy, but won on substantive argument and PR grounds, reflected in a host of contributions to Plimer's legal fund."
Abstract The Panathenaic Prize Amphora, on display in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, is dated to around 375-70 B.C. and stands 33 inches high. It is attributed to the Asteios group and is an example of the ceramic black-figure ware that was a principal industry of Athens. This paper discusses the amphora and shows why its design and features are so typical of Athenian ceramic-ware production.
From the Paper "Various centers competed in the production and export of ceramic wares, but by the middle of the sixth century Athens had eliminated its principal rivals "and the many other wares that had flourished during the seventh and early sixth century had gradually disappeared, continuing only as local products" (Richter 315). Athens' dominance in the Mediterranean ceramics market extended from 550 to 400 B.C. and the Detroit example comes at the end of the city's reign. Black-figure technique also dominated production in the sixth century but was gradually overtaken in popularity by red-figure ware in the fifth century."
Abstract This paper offers a descriptive review of the architectural site Palenque in Mexico. The writer believes that Palenque may be the most beautiful and evocative of all the Maya ruins. The paper includes a description of the actual site, its surrounding scenery and additional sites nearby. The paper also includes a history of the site with reference to its discovery in the 1700s by an indigenous farmer. The paper points out that Palenque is famous not only for its beauty but it also has the distinction of being the actual site of major breakthroughs in the study of the Maya written language.
From the Paper "The site lies on a narrow shelf of land abutting the forested escarpment of the Chiapas highlands. Below Palenque, the lush coastal plain of Tabasco extends all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Set upon this scenic vista lies the true beauty of Palenque?its unequaled architecture. The Maya architects that constructed Palenque revolutionized the methods utilized in the construction of the day. The Maya architects made the upper facades of the temples in Palenque slope backward at the same angle as the slant of the corbelled walls inside."
