Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
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Both in Egypt and Hatti the renewal of kingship through festivals played an important role. This raises the question if there are similarities and/or differences between the two. An earlier...Show moreBoth in Egypt and Hatti the renewal of kingship through festivals played an important role. This raises the question if there are similarities and/or differences between the two. An earlier comparison was drawn by Volkert Haas (Haas 1994) when he briefly compared the Egyptian Heb-Sed and the Hittite Purulliya. A comparison between these renewals of kingship can help us understand this concept in a broader sense, especially, since limited interdisciplinary research has been done concerning this topic. For this study a comparative approach will be taken, which looks for similarities and differences between the Egyptian and Hittite Festival. With the help of data originating from previous work on the Purulliya and the Heb-Sed. This is accompanied by archaeological, textual, and iconographical sources that are related to the festivals. The Egyptian side has a vast richness of sources and material. However, the sources from Hatti are largely textual. This discrepancy of sources poses a problem to this research. Thus, the comparison itself focusses on the underlying aspects of the festivals, rather than detailed aspects of them. Early results of this MA research involve the separate festivals and early stage comparisons between the two. They include a comparison on the core reasons for celebrating both the festivals. This comparison is accompanied by the general rules for celebrating each festival. Using these results, an early conclusion on festivals involving renewal of kingship between Egypt and Hatti is drawn.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
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The Late Bronze Age presents a peak in the cultural interactions between the different empires of the Eastern Mediterranean. Both bulk goods and small quantities of luxury products were exchanged...Show moreThe Late Bronze Age presents a peak in the cultural interactions between the different empires of the Eastern Mediterranean. Both bulk goods and small quantities of luxury products were exchanged between the kings and the local elite over long distances. In April 2019, one of these luxury products was discovered at the Cypriot site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos. This was an Egyptian calcite-alabaster drop jar incised with geometric and floral decorations. This master's thesis places this unique find in a broader context by undertaking a detailed comparative study of all the decorated calcite-alabaster drop jars discovered in Egypt, the Levant, and Cyprus. By doing this, the function, value, and role of the calcite-alabaster drop jar throughout the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age will be proposed. For all the calcite-alabaster drop jars discovered in Egypt, the Levant, and Cyprus, the shapes, decorations, find contexts, and associated finds will be described in detail. Furthermore, a closer look will be taken at the faience and bronze drop jars, the iconographical representations, textual sources, and results of the residue analyses of the preserved remains inside of several drop jars. In Egypt, drop-shaped ceramic vessels were starting from the First Intermediate period commonly used as storage jars. This drop shape was starting from the New Kingdom adopted for smaller vessels produced in more precious materials, such as calcite-alabaster, bronze, and faience. The find of these drop jars in a rich variety of contexts, not only in Egypt, but also throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, makes this group of objects exceptional. Eight calcite-alabaster drop jars were discovered in Egypt, originating from mainly royal and elite tombs buried with a variety of other precious objects. In addition to the calcite-alabaster drop jar discovered at the short-lived trading settlement of Pyla-Kokkinokremos, three calcite-alabaster drop jars were unearthed in the royal palace at Megiddo and in a rich tomb in the Kharji cave at Beirut. The finds of the drop jars in a variety of contexts throughout the Eastern Mediterranean constitute of compelling evidence for the function and value of the calcite-alabaster drop jar in Egypt, the Levant, and Cyprus, and its role in the diplomatic exchanges.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Oude culturen van de mediterrane wereld (Bachelor)
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Deze BA scriptie gaat over het opsplitsen van huizen in Egypte in het eerste millennium voor Christus, waarbij wordt gekeken naar archeologische resten en een aantal papyri. In de scriptie wordt...Show moreDeze BA scriptie gaat over het opsplitsen van huizen in Egypte in het eerste millennium voor Christus, waarbij wordt gekeken naar archeologische resten en een aantal papyri. In de scriptie wordt behandeld hoe de huizen werden opgesplitst en waarom.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Oude culturen van de mediterrane wereld (Bachelor)
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Onderzoek naar bewijs voor spellen in drie oud Egyptische steden: Elephantine, Memphis en Tell el-Dab'a. Wat is daar terug te vinden van de bekende spellen uit graven.
Bachelor thesis | Oude culturen van de mediterrane wereld (Bachelor)
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Scriptie over de weergave van architectuur in de Egyptische kunst. Aan de hand van verschillende voorbeelden (modellen, bouwtekeningen, muurschilderingen e.d.) wordt onderzocht op welke...Show moreScriptie over de weergave van architectuur in de Egyptische kunst. Aan de hand van verschillende voorbeelden (modellen, bouwtekeningen, muurschilderingen e.d.) wordt onderzocht op welke verschillende manieren architectuur wordt weergegeven in de Egyptische kunst en welke interpretatie daaraan gegeven kan worden.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Oude culturen van de mediterrane wereld (Bachelor)
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Throughout history religion has played an important role, as a means of connecting people, maintaining political power and social order, from the Ancient Near East to the Middle Ages and onwards to...Show moreThroughout history religion has played an important role, as a means of connecting people, maintaining political power and social order, from the Ancient Near East to the Middle Ages and onwards to the 21st century. This thesis will focus on the role of religious festivals in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome, the function these fulfilled in a socio-political context, and on how the two cultures differ from one another. In the case of Egypt, the state cult by which I refer to religious practices where the Pharaoh or priests appointed by him mediated between gods and men, was not accessible to the commoner. This in turn must have led to social tensions and inequality. During the festivals, the state cult was made more ‘accessible’ . The Roman festival we will be looking at, which is the Saturnalia, on the other hand, initiated a complete role reversal on a social level.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Oude culturen van de mediterrane wereld (Bachelor)
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Ivory wands are crescent-shaped objects fashioned from hippopotamus tusk. They are often inscribed with figures, motifs and (less often) hieroglyphic inscriptions which can be applied on both sides...Show moreIvory wands are crescent-shaped objects fashioned from hippopotamus tusk. They are often inscribed with figures, motifs and (less often) hieroglyphic inscriptions which can be applied on both sides. Discussions regarding the name of these objects and their function are still ongoing but the possible find of the Egyptian name of this object, Sna m Abw ‘Ivory Repeller’, can lead to consensus regarding the naming. Ivory wands are presumably products of a temple workshop as is shown on the tomb walls of Rekhmira. If this is the case, the rare use of an enclosure on wands might refer to these temples. Over 90% of the excavated wands were found in tombs but traces of use such as repairments and reworked endings also show a usage during lifetime. Moreover, depictions show their usage by wet-nurses and inscriptions on the wands also suggest a purpose during lifetime. These inscriptions usually start with Dd mdw and continue to either designate the speaker(s) using in or start the recitation itself. The figures on the wand state that they have come to draw protection over a specified person: ii.n=i/n stp=i/n sA Hr (mst n ) (anx wDA snb) I/We have come to draw protection over (born to ) (live, wellfare, health) The figures on ivory wands are referred to as sAw ‘protectors’ and nTrw ‘gods’ in inscriptions. Most figures found within the corpus of all-known wands are also represented on wands from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: only the figures ‘7. Profile lion-maned/eared figure, male (child?)’ and ‘25. Donkey head’ are not included. The most represented figures are the hippopotamus-lion, lion standing on hind legs and jackal-headed leg(s)/staff. The figures of the lion rear and long-legged feline with short neck are only found in the corpus of the MMA. In the case of the long-legged feline, I explain this uniqueness to a wrong interpretation of the depiction itself. Five ivory wands from the MMA corpus are preserved completely. Eighteen other wands are fragmented, leaving only one or two figures (partially) visible. The complete wands show no preference in orientation of the figures while the figures on the fragments are mostly facing right. With the exception of three wands, a single framing line is used on all wands. The curvature of objects shows that wands of compositional alignment categories IV, V and VI are absent in the MMA corpus. Figures are placed next to each other without use of any motifs in between. Fragments MMA 15.3.951A,B and MMA 32.8.3 can possibly be from the same wand but closer inspection is necessary. Some patterns emerge when the arrangement of figures is analyzed. First off, the group of hippopotamus-lion, lion standing on hind legs and frontal lion-maned male. The figures appear next to each other on at least four wands which proves their close connection as deities. Animal heads at the proximal and distal endings are seen as a characteristic feature of ivory wands. This is true in the sense that they only appear at the endings, but in most cases another figure is placed at the endings. For example the lion rear figure which shows a distinct pattern regarding its position. It is placed at the proximal end and a hippopotamus-lion is found besides it: 1-26-P.END. There is some use of repetitive sequences of figures on the wands. An example is the vulture figure which is only carved onto two wands but represented three times on one of them. On this same wand (MMA 26.7.1288A,B + Louvre E3614) the vulture is accompanied in twofold by a combination of the hippopotamus-lion and sitting baboon. A repetitive sequence is also found on wand MMA 22.1.103 where the vulture is placed between torch figures. Other repetitive sequences like this do not occur within the corpus, but figures are represented multiple times on seven wands. Taking in account the fragmentary state of most wands, I would suggest that there is no tendency to maximize the number of figures. Three methods were used to identify work of the same craftsman: comparison of 1) figures found besides each other, 2) measurements of the figures, and 3) style of the figures. Only the third method led to MMA 15.3.951A,B and MMA 32.8.3, being the work of the same craftsman. The first two methods are unsuitable for fragmentary objects: the order of figures is often unclear and partially visible figures cannot be measured. Although the measurement of figures and comparison of their data could be used to analyse a huge amount of objects, the process is time consuming. I would suggest identifying certain characteristics of figures (some already mentioned by Quirke and Altenmüller) such as skin-decoration, shape of the eyes and presence of a lump on the abdomen, and inserting this data in a database where user-friendly analysis can be done: https://online-collections.netShow less
