Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-58).

This thesis studies how three Greek writers differentiate between each other in their texts about ancient Egypt. The three writers included in this thesis are Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch. Their texts describe Egypt and its many aspects, and the names of their texts are as following; Histories and Library of History by Herodotus and Diodorus, and De Herodoti malignitate, De Iside et Osiride and Placita Philosophorum by Plutarch.        This thesis is comparing these writers with each other using two case studies; The Nile and Egyptian cleanness for their gods. The case studies were chosen to limit this thesis upon two aspects of Egypt that the writers should have encountered if they went to Egypt. This brings a theory to light; if the writers' texts are truthfully representing Egypt or if their texts are nothing but literature constructions. This thesis is also looking at how Egyptians are portrayed by the writers with use of the theory the other.        By reading the texts and modern literature about the writers a conclusion is made. The writers are different from each other in their descriptions of Egypt. Herodotus and Diodorus view Egypt as a wonderful land with a wonderful culture. Plutarch is also portraying Egypt with respect as Herodotus and Diodorus but does at the same time view Egypt with a more negative view. This is because Plutarch believes that the Greek culture is the foremost culture in the world.        A problem with all the writers’ texts is based upon that they did not speak ancient Egyptian and could therefore not make use of all the sources presented to them. Herodotus is viewed to not even have visited Egypt. Their texts are to be looked at with a grain of salt even though they clearly tried to represent Egypt as well as they could in their texts. Their texts are to be view as a literature construction simply because the writers did not understand Egyptian and therefore relied on earlier texts about Egypt made in Greek.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This dissertation engages with multiple temporalities of a single, paradigmatic site in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) named “Tello” in Arabic and “Girsu” in Sumerian. The large-scale excavations at this site carried out by a team led by the French diplomat Ernest de Sarzec from 1877 onwards marked the “discovery” of the “Sumerians” and triggered an archaeological sensation in Europe. I bring the art history of this site from the third millennium BC into the present by constructing what I call a “site-world:” the totality of material encounters across time and space discussed not in isolation but as embedded in an understanding of the mutual constitution of past and present, and of object and subject. This analysis relies on two main, methodological interventions, both of which emerge from a comprehensive critique of existing disciplinary practices. First, I expand the range of sources to be consulted by reaching across disciplinary boundaries and incorporating local accounts that have been systematically neglected. These sources span from official records such as the Ottoman Imperial Archives to the diaries of individuals such as the steamship employee Joseph Mathia Svoboda. Instead of relying on Eurocentric archaeological narratives based on individual glory, I investigate the material foundations for archaeological research and demonstrate the existence of local and international networks characterized by asymmetrical relationships that were sustained by nineteenth-century colonialism. Second, I expand the temporal range of analysis by reaching across time periods and incorporating those eras that have been left out of prevailing art historical and archaeological narratives. Critiquing the scholarly reliance on narratives of nineteenth-century “discovery” in a putative terra incognita, I investigate ancient, Hellenistic, and Medieval Arabic sources and include “pre-discovery” histories of local engagement with the site of Tello. I show that the enlistment of the putatively self-evident notion of “discovery” as an explanatory model served to gloss over the millennia-long histories of local engagement with ancient Mesopotamian sites. In accordance with these two methodological interventions, I carry out formal, iconographical, material, and contextual analysis of artworks from Tello in conjunction with critical readings of ancient Sumerian texts, Medieval Arabic accounts, and late Ottoman archival documents on their design, production, excavation, transportation, and exhibition. Similarly, production processes in the third millennium BC are discussed alongside reception processes in the Hellenistic period, Medieval Islamic period, and the third millennium AD. I make the deliberate choice of concentrating largely on rarely discussed topics ranging from the exhibition contexts in the Ottoman Imperial Museum to the intersections of Mesopotamian archaeology with the politics of land tenure and related regulations; from the text-image dialectic in Sumerian art to phenomenological modes of visualization; or from the Medieval Islamic engagement with Tello and the statues of Gudea to the local and international networks of looting that have largely remained intact since the second half of the nineteenth century. All in all, I argue for a radical change in perspective in our engagements with pasts, presents, and futures, and contend that this change is not merely a matter of historiographical accuracy: it both informs our understanding of ancient contexts and constitutes an ethical position to address various burning issues in art history and archaeology today, including the restitution and repatriation of antiquities and the decolonization of the field.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Some academics are of the generalist opinion that ancient Egyptian beer was only consumed by the lower classes because of its low social status. This is based on the generalization that individuals only consume alcoholic beverages matching the status of their social class. Therefore the lower classes consumed beer while the upper classes consumed an alcoholic beverage of higher status, i.e. wine. However, other academics are of the universalist opinion that Egyptian beer was universally consumed by all Egyptian social classes irrespective of the status of beer. This study aims to test the validity of these opposing academic opinions and also strives to understand how statements of status in Egyptian society were devised, and what they were conveying. This was achieved by determining the status of Egyptian beer and wine and then comparing them to the respective status of beer and wine drinkers in the New Kingdom period (c. 1550-1069) according to the factors of production, consumption, health, economic exchange & distribution, and religion. Use is made of an anthropological approach which allows the researcher to limit social bias and understand ancient Egyptian society on its own terms. Results of this study indicate that Egyptian beer had a much lower status than Egyptian wine and all social classes consumed beer while only the upper classes consumed wine. The generalist opinion, therefore, is falsified and the universalist opinion validated. The results also indicate that the upper classes justified their beer consumption by producing, consuming and exchanging an elite beer of higher status in a manner reminiscent of wine so that it compared more favourably with the status of their social classes. This study, therefore, not only settles an old academic dispute but also provides new insight into Egyptian beer. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sommige akademici huldig die algemene siening dat antieke Egyptiese bier uitsluitlik deur die laer klasse gebruik is, omdat bier ‘n laer status geniet het. Dit is gegrond op die veralgemening dat individue slegs alkoholiese drank gebruik het wat ooreenstem met hul eie sosiale klas. Die laer klasse het dus bier gedrink terwyl die hoër klasse alkoholiese drank van ‘n hoër status, naamlik wyn, gedrink het. Ander akademici is egter van mening dat Egiptiese bier deur alle Egiptiese sosiale klasse gebruik is, ongeag die status van bier. Hierdie studie poog om die geldigheid van hierdie teenstrydige akademiese menings te toets en poog ook om te verstaan hoe stellings oor status in die Egiptiese samelewing bedink is en wat hulle wou oordra. Dit is bereik deur die status van Egiptiese bier en wyn te bepaal en dit dan te vergelyk met die besondere status van bier en wyndrinkers in die Nuwe Koningkryk tydperk (c. 1550-1069) volgens die faktore van produksie, verbruik, gesondheid, ekonomiese uitruiling & verspreiding en godsdiens. ‘n Antropologiese benadering is gevolg omdat dit die navorser in staat stel om sosiale partydigheid te beperk en sodoende die Egiptiese samelewing in eie reg te kan verstaan. Resultate van hierdie studie dui aan dat alhoewel Egiptiese bier ‘n veel laer status as Egiptiese wyn geniet het, het alle sosiale klasse nietemin bier gedrink, terwyl net die hoër klasse wyn gedrink het. Die algemene mening is gefalsifiseer, terwyl die universele mening gestaaf word. Die resultate dui ook aan dat die hoër sosiale klasse hul bierverbruik geregverdig het deur ‘n elite bier van hoër status te produseer, uit te ruil en te gebruik op ‘n wyse soortgelyk aan diè van hul wynverbruik, sodat dit gunstig vergelyk met die status van hul sosiale klasse. Hierdie studie los dus nie net ‘n ou akademiese meningsverskil op nie, maar gee ook ‘n nuwe insig in Egiptiese bier en die gebruik daarvan deur die hoër klasse.

Recent discoveries near the village of Nea Agathoupoli, in Pieria, Greece have revealed the remains of an ancient town, identifiable with the ancient town of Methone, a putative Eretrian colony founded, according to Plutarch, in ca. 733 BC. From the material excavated so far, the town’s zenith was in the Late Geometric and Archaic periods, well documented by the high amounts of imports from all regions of the ancient world, especially by imported transport vessels. The significant percentage of transport amphorae in comparison to that of fine pottery strongly indicates the settlement's commercial character and suggests that Methone was operating as a redistribution centre which supplied Macedonia's hinterland with goods. This study is based on unpublished pottery analyzed here, for the first time. Among the regions, whose products are most popular in Methone are Chios and Athens, although more Eastern Greek towns such as Samos and Miletus had trading relations with Methone, too. Settlers from the these regions may have established themselves in Methone, but the initiative for the foundation of the town was, most probably, taken by Euboeans, whose activity in the Northern Aegean, in the Geometric period, was strong. Alongside the abundant imported vessels, a large amount of locally made transport vessels was unearthed. These early archaic amphora types (early 6^th century BC), which have also been found in other sites in the Northern Aegean and possibly Northern Ionia, have been known in literature by my study. The discovery of these local transport vessels reveals participation by the local population in trading transactions and manufacture of a product which was packaged and circulated among the Northern Aegean towns. A mixed cultural environment starts to form in archaic Methone and includes Euboeans, Eastern Greeks, local Thracians and others, including Macedonian neighbours. Having emerged as the most powerful military force of the area, the Macedonians residing in nearby Bottiaia, constantly expanding, were, arguably, involved in the commercial activities at Methone. This study suggests that because of Methone's geographical location and proximity to the capital of the Macedonian kingdom, Aigai (modern Vergina), Methone functioned as the capital's face to the sea, as the royal harbour of Macedonia, until it was destroyed by Philip II, in 354 BC when all activities related to trade moved to neighbouring Pydna. Methone's finds together with other Northern Aegean settlements mentioned in this study reveal how important, even indispensable, this part of the ancient world was to the commercial networks of the archaic Mediterranean. The Northern Aegean is, therefore, not only well integrated into networks connecting southern and Eastern Greece, Egypt and the Levantine coast, but constitutes a vital part of them from the 8^th century BC, onwards.

The Exodus story of the Israelites' slavery in Egypt and subsequent redemption was central to Jewish accounts of their national origins and was an important component of Jewish self-identification in antiquity. Although Greek and Latin sources appear ignorant of the Exodus story, ancient ethnographies of the Jews in non-Jewish sources claim that the Jews were originally Egyptian. This thesis examines how Josephus presents the Exodus story of the Jews' servile national origins in Egypt to a Roman audience who had biases against slaves, freedmen, and Egyptians, and little knowledge of Jewish origins apart from reports that they were Egyptian by origin. Josephus's first work Jewish War, a politico-military history, includes tangential remarks about Jewish origins, but implies in the proem that the Jews were originally Egyptian. Jewish Antiquities, which rewrites the biblical account of Jewish origins, explicitly denies that the Jews were originally Egyptian and deliberately omits mention of the Jews' servitude in Egypt at important points in the narrative where it would have been expected. In Against Apion, an apologia, Josephus subtly uses keywords and the rhetorical technique of insinuatio to prove that the Jews were not originally Egyptian without stating openly that this is a goal of the work. Several factors explain these results. Aristotle's theory of natural slavery, which posits that slaves are innately defective, was part of the ideological assumptions of first century CE Roman elites. Romans were also ambivalent about their own partly-servile origins in Romulus's asylum. Influenced by Augustan propaganda about Actium, first-century Roman sources deride Egyptians with a range of negative stereotypes. Josephus denies that the Jews were Egyptian and omits their servile origins at important points in the narrative where the Bible mentions it in order to portray the Jews as favorably as possible.

The dissertation is intended to show whether it is possible for a Roman traveller to make a journey around the Roman world in the year C.E. 210, within 180 days, in a manner similar to that of Phileas Fogg, a character in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days (1874). The Roman's 180-day adventure to complete the journey within the set time incorporates logistics and itinerary on ancient roads, canals and sea voyages, and quotes Horace, Juvenal, Pausanias, Ovid and Strabo. Verne linked the past, an ancient two thousand year old water system in Aden - with his traveller who also visited the site. The Roman traveller will link the past with the present, viewing ancient building and engineering works such as the Lyonnais aqueducts, and the Greek use of curvature in design when building the Parthenon. Parts of such construction remain in situ for the present-day traveller to view. / Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies / (M.A. (Specialization in Ancient Languages and Cultures))