Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
under embargo until 2024-08-30
2024-08-30T00:00:00Z
This thesis searches for a profile of the upper classes of the Judean capita in the centuries leading up to the exile. The research combines archaeological and textual evidence to come to a...Show moreThis thesis searches for a profile of the upper classes of the Judean capita in the centuries leading up to the exile. The research combines archaeological and textual evidence to come to a critical approach to studying elites in the ancient Levant. The position of women as part of the elite is discussed explicitly.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
under embargo until 2024-06-30
2024-06-30T00:00:00Z
The Roman Empire of the first and second centuries AD was a multinational society that was characterized by migration and mobility. In this multicultural society, people of many different ethnical...Show moreThe Roman Empire of the first and second centuries AD was a multinational society that was characterized by migration and mobility. In this multicultural society, people of many different ethnical and cultural backgrounds had to find a way to live together and deal with cultural differences. One of these people was the satirist Lucian of Samosata (ca. AD 125-180). Although this Hellenized author lived in and travelled through the Roman Empire, he was Syrian by birth and had enjoyed Greek education. Therefore, he could be considered a migrant author who moved in-between multiple identities. Lucian’s status as a foreigner and migrant appears to have influenced his writings. He frequently stages foreigners who try to find the best way to relate themselves to other cultures and deal with the negative sentiments of host cultures. In this thesis, I argue that Lucian in his works provides different perspectives on such challenges of travelling and migration. Approaching Lucian’s 'Assembly of the Gods', 'On Hired Companions', 'Scythian', and 'Anacharsis' as migrant literature, I use the acculturation theory of Berry (1992; 1997) to analyse how Lucian in these works reflects on cultural interaction in the Roman Empire of his own time. In the first chapter, I argue that Lucian’s 'Assembly of the Gods' can be read as a parody of Roman criticism of (Greek) foreigners, and I discuss how Lucian uses this parody to plea for cultural tolerance and prevent cultural segregation. In the second chapter, I argue that Lucian in his 'On Hired Companions' uses two different perspectives on the interaction between Greeks and Romans to advocate for cultural separation and to discourage Greek attempts to integrate into Roman households. In the last chapter, I argue that Lucian in his 'Scythian' and 'Anacharsis' provides three different examples of acculturation and presents his own autonomous integration as the most desirable acculturation strategy. In this chapter, I also explain how Lucian’s various perspectives on integration and separation can be reconciled, arguing that the four works together guide both foreigners and host cultures in the creation of a culturally tolerant society.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
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In 1573, the Spanish humanist Juan Latino wrote the Latin epic Austrias carmen, commissioned by the inquisitor Pedro de Deza. This is one of many literary celebrations of the Holy League victory...Show moreIn 1573, the Spanish humanist Juan Latino wrote the Latin epic Austrias carmen, commissioned by the inquisitor Pedro de Deza. This is one of many literary celebrations of the Holy League victory over an Ottoman fleet in the 1571 naval battle of Lepanto. This thesis deals with the work's depiction of the Ottomans: both its more generalised depiction of the Ottomans as a people, and its depiction of a specific Ottoman character, the admiral Ali Pasha. While at first glance, the work appears to paint the Ottomans in a hostile light, some scholars have argued that it also contains scenes that are more empathetic, even sympathetic to the Ottoman 'enemy'. By considering the epic's depiction of the Ottomans in light of its classical intertexts and other contemporaneous Western European responses to the Ottoman Empire, this thesis seeks to nuance this claim. I argue that the work uses many of the tropes of contemporary anti-Ottoman rhetoric, while having less in common with more 'positive' contemporaneous Western European evaluations of the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, I aim to demonstrate that the epic's 'sympathetic' passages on the Ottomans tend to have a strong European, and particularly Spanish imperial, bias: any sympathy hinges on Ottoman characters' acceptance of, or submission to, a Spanish imperialist worldview. Finally, I will connect the epic's depiction of the Ottomans to its depiction of the Spanish 'Moriscos' - the part of the Spanish Islamic population that had been forcibly converted to Christianity. The epic links them to the Ottomans, and the recent suppressed revolt of 'Moriscos' in Granada to the battle of Lepanto, thereby presenting these people as an internal enemy of Spain. Here, the epic may show the influence of Latino's patron Deza, who played an important role in the violent repression of the revolt.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
closed access
In this thesis, Guido delle Colonne's Historia Destructionis Troiae will be analysed anew. Scholars have often assessed the work and its author very negatively: they claimed the work had no moral...Show moreIn this thesis, Guido delle Colonne's Historia Destructionis Troiae will be analysed anew. Scholars have often assessed the work and its author very negatively: they claimed the work had no moral message, that it was badly written, and that Guido was very misogynistic in his depiction of women. In this thesis, the Historia will be analysed intertextually to show that Guido was not a bad translator of the French Roman de Troie (his main point of focus), but that he played with his pre-text to create an original work of history with its own moral aims and messages. In the second chapter, a case study of the character of the Amazonian queen Penthesilea will show how learned and complexly constructed the work actually is. Penthesilea questions the traditional gender norms, showing that not all women are bad in Guido's work. By transcending these gender norms, she is able to question a social construct that is even more important to reform in Guido's eyes: chivalry and its intricate connection with warfare. Guido wishes to show that chivalry has no place in warfare and that eventually, war brings destruction and misery upon all. While reading this work, the reader is constantly invited to delve further into the material and extract valuable moral lessons from it.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
closed access
This thesis examines the role of Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) in relation to the goddess Hathor, as found in Hathoric festivals in the New Kingdom. Theories from the fields of psychology...Show moreThis thesis examines the role of Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) in relation to the goddess Hathor, as found in Hathoric festivals in the New Kingdom. Theories from the fields of psychology and anthropology are introduced to establish a working definition of ASCs and to give an overview of the terminology in use for ASCs in contexts of religion. Various types of ancient Egyptian sources are discussed, such as myths, hymns, temple and tomb decoration, love poems and dream reports. The sources provide insight into the occurrence of ASCs, their role and their connection to the goddess Hathor.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
closed access
Since the 1990s the field of phenomenological Landscape Archaeology has gained more traction in Egyptology. Since then it has been used to illuminate the experienced landscape(s) of the ancient...Show moreSince the 1990s the field of phenomenological Landscape Archaeology has gained more traction in Egyptology. Since then it has been used to illuminate the experienced landscape(s) of the ancient Egyptians. This thesis seeks to critically examine this approach and further illuminate the experienced landscape in ancient Egypt, specifically its role in religion. To this end, the author poses three primary research questions: 1) Did landscape influence the conception of places of power? 2) Do landscape associations change over time, and if they do: how do they change? 3) Did Egypt’s physical landscape influence conceptions of the landscapes of the afterlife? The sources reveal that the Egyptians experienced the landscape as embodied and meaningful. Iconography and text also support the notion of locations in the landscape which were infused with meaning beyond the mundane. These places of power sometimes held a strong relation with the surrounding landscape. In certain cases it is likely that a landscape-induced hierophany was the direct cause for their inception. Yet, it is difficult to ascribe a single coherent characteristic to these locations. Egypt’s physical landscape did not only influence experiences of religious awe, but also influenced the conception of landscapes of the afterlife. The afterlife reflects a bucolic ideal of Egypt’s physical landscape. Some scholars have proposed specific referents for the landscapes of the afterlife, but it seems imprudent to attribute such specific Vorlage-landscapes to these religious ideas. Phenomenological Landscape Archaeology allows us to further investigate landscape experience in ancient Egypt. Yet, a recurring issues in the implementation of phenomenological Landscape Archaeology is the over-excitement of Egyptologists to attribute a meaning to landscape features which has little or no support in the extant sources. This treacherous pitfall stems from the inability to acknowledge the difference in spatial conceptualisation between us and the ancient Egyptians, and the all-too-easy assumption that our views of extraordinary geomorphology are similar to those of the ancient Egyptians. Therefore, this thesis warns against all-too-quick attributions of the influence of landscape on the inception and meaning of religious locales.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
closed access
The thesis argues that the language of Aeneas Tacticus, writer of the earliest Greek manual on warfare, can be better understood when studying it as a 'technical treatise', accordingly written in a...Show moreThe thesis argues that the language of Aeneas Tacticus, writer of the earliest Greek manual on warfare, can be better understood when studying it as a 'technical treatise', accordingly written in a technical register.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
under embargo until 2025-01-01
2025-01-01T00:00:00Z
The ancestors and conceptions of the afterlife have always been one of the most prevalent topics of research within Egyptology. From the ‘scenes of daily life’ in the tombs of the Old Kingdom to...Show moreThe ancestors and conceptions of the afterlife have always been one of the most prevalent topics of research within Egyptology. From the ‘scenes of daily life’ in the tombs of the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom books of the afterlife, a variety in interpretation is not lacking. It is perhaps due to this wealth of later evidence that the Early Dynastic period (c. 3000 – 2613 BCE) remains somewhat of a ‘Dark Age’ in the history of ancient Egypt. This dissertation explores the Early Dynastic attitude towards the tomb, the ancestors, and the afterlife by a holistic examination of the parts of the Early Dynastic tombs that were accessible after the interment of the tomb owner: the tomb superstructure and enclosure space. The corpus of the thesis consists of published superstructures from the Memphite area, that being the capital of Egypt at the time and most densely populated. The spaces are examined in a heuristic manner in Chapter One, with little initial reliance of previous identification and theory. Chapter Two features an examination of the material through the lenses of modern theories and methodologies. Included here are landscape biographies, the structure of the authority of things, human-thing entanglement, ancestor identity, and the ontological turn. The final chapter sees the reintegration of the material into a wider Egyptological framework. The resulting thesis has suggested that little to no uniformity can be seen in regards to post-mortem existence other than the social importance of the individual, and a subsequent wish for acknowledgement and offerings.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
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It is a well-known fact that hunting was an integral part of the ancient Egyptian society. From the Early-dynastic period onwards, hunting appears as an important subject in iconographical as well...Show moreIt is a well-known fact that hunting was an integral part of the ancient Egyptian society. From the Early-dynastic period onwards, hunting appears as an important subject in iconographical as well as in textual sources. In Egyptology hunting is often represented as a symbolic act of fighting the forces of evil, manifesting itself in animals. This idea is often applied to many sources in every historical period of Egyptian history, without taking into consideration the occurring changes on how hunting is represented to us in Egypt’s long history. The question is then: how did the concept of hunting and its significance develop from the Early-Dynastic Period to the New Kingdom 20th dynasty, and what are the main problems encountered when studying the development, and significance of hunting in ancient Egypt? In order to answer this question we must analyse the primary sources themselves. Iconographic depictions of hunting appear on royal monuments as well on monuments dedicated to the elite such as tombs, but also on objects used in daily life. Besides there are also textual sources which tell us about hunt. This great variety in contexts means it is paramount to study these sources in their proper context. This proves that most sources have their own significance in their own context, and that we cannot apply one single interpretation to all sources concerned with hunting. The primary sources indicate that the iconographical representation, and ideological meaning of hunting changed throughout Egyptian history. It is these changes that will be discussed during in this thesis. Different kinds of hunting will be discussed such as fishing, fowling, the hippopotamus hunt, and desert hunt.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
closed access
This thesis examines how Heinsius, in his Monobiblos, engages with his Greek and Latin literary models in terms of imitation and allusion, illustrated by a commentary on the first and the third...Show moreThis thesis examines how Heinsius, in his Monobiblos, engages with his Greek and Latin literary models in terms of imitation and allusion, illustrated by a commentary on the first and the third elegy of the first edition of the Monobiblos.Show less
