The Nabataean people controlled the Petra region of modern-day Jordan from sometime before 300 BCE until the Roman Annexation of the Nabataean kingdom in 106 CE. The Nabataeans are known for the monumental façades carved into the sandstone cliffs surrounding their capital city. The first survey of the façade monuments was undertaken by Brünnow and Domaszewski in 1904. They created a typology that has only been slightly modified by subsequent authors including Judith McKenzie (1990). This typology does not account for all of the variations in façade types in Petra, thus creating a need for a new typology proposed in this paper. Additionally, no previous studies of the façade monuments has examined the impact of geological structures such as the orientation of the pre-existing cliffs, the presence of faults and fractures, and the height of the available cliffs. This study also assesses the potential role of naturally occurring zones of weakness in the sedimentary cliffs such as those created by faults and fractures caused by regional and local tectonic activity and their potential impact on Nabataean rock-cut structures. In order to organize the 300 Nabataean façades in this data set, it also became necessary to develop a new and more comprehensive typology of these structures than has been previously developed in Nabataean scholarship.

A defining feature of the non-flying mammal pollinated (NMP) syndrome is inflorescence crypsis whereby flowers are close to the ground and somewhat hidden within the canopy. A number of species in the Cape Proteaceae are NMP, two of which were chosen as focal species for this study: Protea amplexicaulis and Protea humiflora. This study investigated the two previously suggested hypotheses for crypsis: hidden flowers are more difficult for nectarivorous birds to access, or hidden flowers provide greater cover for small mammal pollinators from aerial predators. Using remote triggered cameras, P. amplexicaulis and P. humiflora inflorescences were observed over the 2017 flowering period, noting visitation by birds and small mammals and assessing the legitimacy of birds as pollinators. In the literature, bird visitation to exposed inflorescences is suggested to be rare, but this study showed that it is considerable. Observations of camera footage suggest that birds are in fact illegitimate pollinators and thus nectar rob. Bird visitation to exposed inflorescences was more than tenfold that of hidden inflorescences, suggesting that crypsis is likely a strategy to avoid nectar robbing by birds. Both P. amplexicaulis and P. humiflora have been observed to retain dead leaves, which may contribute to their cryptic nature. Alternative hypotheses for dead leaf retention in Proteaceae – that it may increase flammability or result in a below canopy spike in nutrients post fire (selfish fertilization) – were assessed and rejected. Sampling of eight local Protea species showed that dead leaf retention is not a consequence of prolonged live leaf retention, with P. amplexicaulis retaining dead leaves for up to 6 years. The removal of dead leaves in 30 P. amplexicaulis individuals resulted in a significant decrease in the number of inflorescences hidden from aerial view, thus suggesting that dead leaf retention may be a strategy to enhance crypsis and thus forms part of the NMP syndrome. This research expands on the knowledge of the NMP syndrome; providing evidence in support of an anti- nectar robbing crypsis function, discovering a novel crypsis adaptation regarding dead leaf retention, and casting doubt on the Restricted Distributions hypothesis for the evolution of the syndrome.

The ability to produce power during competition is essential. Football requires explosive power in order to get off the ball faster, increase speed of the first step, and increase the height of the vertical jump. Most strength training professionals use the back squat to increase power of the lower extremities; however, as large forces are placed on the back, athletes are at greater risk for injury. The trap bar dead lift is similar to the back squat in movement and form, but the trap bar dead lift reduces the force on the lower back. After testing for maximum vertical jump,athletes at Timpview High School participated in a strength program using either back squats or trap bar dead lift for seven weeks. A pre-test, mid-test and post-test were performed to calculate the increase in maximum vertical jump, if any. It was found that neither lift was significantly different than the other when testing for maximum vertical jump. These results will allow strength training professionals to use the trap bar dead lift instead of the back squats in subjects similar to those participating in the study.

The aim of this study, therefore, is to trace briefly the historical origins and development of the LDS temple baptismal font and to investigate the various iconographic meanings which may pertain to it and its role as a potential vital symbol in the Mormon Church.

The Book of Mormon contains twenty-one chapters of the Book of Isaiah: two through fourteen, twenty-nine, and forty-eight through fifty-four. The language is primarily that of the King James Version with some variations. The King James Version itself has been translated from the Massoretic Hebrew Text. It is a fair assumption that the variations in the Book of Mormon represent an older, more accurate text than the Massoretic Text.Textual critics are anxious to find ancient texts and versions of the scriptures in the hope that some of these texts may contain readings closer to the original than does the Massoretic Text thereby avoiding some of the errors of transmission to which the Massoretic Text has succumbed during its long history. It is generally expected among believers in the Book of Mormon that the variations in the Book of Mormon will be supported by comparison with the ancient versions and ancient Hebrew texts of Isaiah.

A well-known characteristic of the Qumran sectarian texts is the boast that community membership included fellowship with the angels, but scholars disagree as to the precise meaning of these claims. In order to gain a better understanding of angelic fellowship at Qumran, this study utilizes the fact that an important facet of Early Jewish angelology was the concept that certain angels were closely associated with Israel. Specifically, these angels can be placed in one of two categories: guardians (i.e., warriors who strove against Israel’s enemies, celestial or otherwise) and priests (i.e., the celebrants of the heavenly temple). A crucial component of the presentation of both angelic guardians and angelic priests was that they were envisioned within apocalyptic worldviews that assumed that realities on earth mirrored those of heaven, with the latter serving as the ideal, archetypal, or “more real” world. After discussing the conceptual backgrounds of angels associated with Israel in the Ancient Near Eastern texts and in the pre-exilic, exilic, and early post-exilic texts of the Hebrew Bible, this study sets out to compare how angelic guardians and angelic priests are presented in both the sectarian texts and the late Second Temple Period compositions of a non-sectarian provenance found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. While the non-sectarian compositions clearly posit a connection, correspondence, or parallel relationship between the angels and the Jewish people, an interesting facet of these works is that they imply definitions of Israel that are either quite generous or more stringent but paradoxically tempered by universalistic sentiments. Conversely, the witness of the sectarian compositions is that the Yahad viewed itself alone as the true Israel of God, with these texts evincing the belief that the angels associated with Israel had a unique connection to the sectarians, who had effectively usurped for themselves the privileges that were formerly those of the entire nation. Moreover, the texts which speak of angelic fellowship – both during the eschatological war and in the present time – suggest that sect members upheld the lofty self-estimation that they were either equal to the angels in some sense or had even attained a rank and glory higher than the angels. Given that the sectarians were convinced that their reconstitution of Israel’s covenant was the nation as it ought to be, there arguably would have been no better way for the Yahad to promote itself as such than to boast that the sect members were equal to – and even outranked – the guardians and priests of heavenly, archetypal Israel. Thus, while there has been scholarly disagreement as to the exact meaning of the sectarian angelic fellowship claims, this thesis demonstrates that at least part of the meaning is to be found in the contribution these claims make to the identity of the sect as the true Israel of God. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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