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<p> This thesis establishes a link between conceptions of female virtue and the practice of veiling by women from ancient to medieval times in the Mediterranean region. This is evidenced by the consistent advocacy and prescription of veiling in ancient and medieval theological texts, including Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, and Islamic texts. Veiling practices are shown to have a religious foundation, grounded in the ideas of honor and virtue. These notions were reflected in society over time with veiled aristocratic noblewomen and unveiled marginalized classes. While acknowledging class-based theories of female veiling, the thesis concentrates on the religious factors for veiling, particularly for medieval Muslim societies. The argument of this thesis is that while veiling did not originate in Islamic societies, Muslims validated the practice through their own literature and laws. The paper also includes evidence of female seclusion, which co-exists with the spread in the practice of veiling by women. </p>

Ancient DNA (aDNA) was isolated from the bones of 290 individuals and four species of extinct New Zealand moa. All sampled bones had been recovered from a small geographic area (~10 km radius) near Waikari in North Canterbury. A total of 217 specimens were 14C-AMS dated, providing a temporal framework for the genetic analyses and an unprecedented opportunity to study extinct megafauna at the population level. Taxon and sex were determined for each individual, using aDNA technology. This revealed a large excess of females (overall ♂:♀ = 1:5.1), and significant compositional differences for the moa assemblages between fossil sites. Balanced sex ratios were observed among juvenile moa, suggesting that a gender-bias developed as the birds matured, probably as a result of higher male mortality. Female territoriality and ecological niche-separation are discussed in this context. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), amplified using a quantitative PCR procedure, provided a measure of DNA preservation in each radiocarbon-dated fossil. This assessment showed that DNA degrades over thousands of years according to an exponential decay model, and the average molecular half-life for the here targeted DNA fragment was estimated to be 521 years. By using high-throughput sequencing, six polymorphic moa microsatellite markers were identified and characterised. These are the first microsatellite primers developed exclusively for extinct taxa. A high-resolution genetic study of the four sympatric moa populations was carried out, combining information from mtDNA, microsatellites, sex-identification, and radiocarbon age. Genetic diversity, past demography, kinship, and other aspects of moa biology were analysed. The populations showed a remarkable extent of genetic stability throughout the 3000-4000 years preceding their extinction, suggesting that they were large and viable before suddenly disappearing. The results represent significant advances in aDNA research and thanks to the high resolution in microsatellite markers, moa have here been studied, almost as if they were still alive.

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What could the early Irish literature of the sixth to twelfth century and the Hebrew Bible of a millennium or more before have in common? Literacy came to Ireland with Christianity, and the Bible had a special relationship to Ireland's considerable corpus of both ecclesiastical and vernacular literature. Exactly how this relationship is manifest is a question that has been at the centre of debate in early Irish studies for fifty years. I have moved away from traditional approaches in an effort to address this question. Early Irish studies has long suggested a dichotomy between classifying early Irish literature as being solely the product of a monastic milieu and its imported literacy, and as a transcription of centuries of preChristian oral narrative (which would have more in common with proto-Indo European culture than early Christian Ireland). The way to address the snags of simplistic comparison is to examine the 'first' text - in this case, the Bible - as scrupulously as the early Irish texts. I have chosen three rather different kinds of protagonist from different sections of the Bible and different parts of early Irish literature. I compare the Book of Jonah with episodes from different Lives of Columba, the Book of Esther with the 'Historical Cycle' tale 'Tochmarc Becfhola', and Samson with Cú Chulainn in three different 'Ulster Cycle' tales. After discussing different patterns and themes within the narrative of each pair, I conclude that each episode includes a character whose weakness is the focus of that episode. I do not propose that this distilled theme of weakness has 'provoked' the creation of the early Irish analogue in the first place, but that in the final analysis, perhaps by different means, this theme emerges. My willingness to work with contemporary critical methods places this work firmly in the 20^th century, while drawing attention to the complexity of thought already manifest in the literature of the 10^th, and before.

Despite popular and scientific interest in mummies, very few studies of ancient Egyptian mummy collections, especially from the same area, have been conducted. As such, this research is the first comprehensive analysis of mummies from Akhmim, Egypt and is one of only a few studies that investigate a large mummy collection from both a biological and cultural point of view. A group of 25 mummies from the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium database was evaluated using computed tomography. Using computed tomography and the associated imaging software, two dimensional (2D) x-ray scan images were analyzed, then processed and edited to generate three dimensional (3D) models of each mummy. Both the 2D and 3D images of each mummy were used to collect both biological information and cultural data in a nondestructive manner. Results from this study indicated that the population of Akhmim was very diverse. Furthermore, this research both supports and challenges conventional wisdom on how ancient Egyptians were mummifying their dead.

<p> Because of the lack of provenance or accompanying text, the depictions of anthropomorphized animals on ancient Egyptian New Kingdom ostraca and papyri have long puzzled Egyptologists. Attempts to understand the ostraca usually focus on the role reversals where predatory animals serve their natural prey, which is evident in some of the motifs. Some scholars have suggested that these images are satirical and served as an outlet for mocking elite society. However, their social and cultural context, which has not been thoroughly explored until this dissertation, shows that it is unlikely that the images were considered to be negatively charged social satire. Rather, it is more likely that they were envisioned as humorous parodies of primarily elite imagery that were produced by individuals who considered themselves to be elite as well. "Anthropomorphized Animal Imagery on New Kingdom Ostraca and Papyri: Their Artistic and Social Significance" is also the first time the vignettes are given a full art historical treatment in which the formal qualities of the drawings are studied and evaluated. As a result, this dissertation addresses the aesthetic value of these drawings in ancient Egypt, which will be of interest to the discipline of art history on more general terms as well. Another section of this dissertation discusses the narrative potential of the papyri and ostraca on which these anthropomorphized images are drawn. Though the narrative qualities of these images have been discussed before, this dissertation addresses the broader concerns of visual narrative construction in ancient Egyptian art, which has thus far been given little scholarly attention. The figured ostraca and papyri on which these anthropomorphized animals are drawn show that visual narrative construction in ancient Egypt is not necessarily linear and sequential, but can also embody fluid, and more open-ended narrative constructions that is evident in not only the decorative programs of elite tombs, but in written ancient Egyptian literature as well.</p>

The topic of the dissertation is a study on the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus, a document that was discovered together with other papyri and funerary objects in a late Middle Kingdom tomb in Ramses II’s funerary temple on the West bank of Luxor. The thesis will cover an analysis of the complete find, providing information on the provenance of the collection, the circumstances of its discovery, the dating of the papyri, and the identity of the tomb owner. The focus of the dissertation, however, is the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus itself, which features the guideline for the performance of a ritual. The preservation and fabrication of the manuscript is described as well as the layout of the text. Based on a copy of the original text done with the help of a tablet PC, an up-dated transliteration and translation of the text is provided, accompanied by a commentary. The text has been studied by several scholars, but a convincing interpretation of the manuscript is lacking. Thus, the dissertation will analyse the previous works on the papyrus, and will compare the text of the manuscript with other attested rituals from ancient Egypt. By highlighting the differences and similarities the text has with these other ceremonies, the exact nature of the rites described in the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus can be identified. Finally, a new interpretation of the text is offered, suggesting that the ceremony concerns a statue ritual performed in commemoration of Senwosret I’s accomplishments at Karnak.

The topic of the dissertation is a study on the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus, a document that was discovered together with other papyri and funerary objects in a late Middle Kingdom tomb in Ramses II’s funerary temple on the West bank of Luxor. The thesis will cover an analysis of the complete find, providing information on the provenance of the collection, the circumstances of its discovery, the dating of the papyri, and the identity of the tomb owner. The focus of the dissertation, however, is the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus itself, which features the guideline for the performance of a ritual. The preservation and fabrication of the manuscript is described as well as the layout of the text. Based on a copy of the original text done with the help of a tablet PC, an up-dated transliteration and translation of the text is provided, accompanied by a commentary. The text has been studied by several scholars, but a convincing interpretation of the manuscript is lacking. Thus, the dissertation will analyse the previous works on the papyrus, and will compare the text of the manuscript with other attested rituals from ancient Egypt. By highlighting the differences and similarities the text has with these other ceremonies, the exact nature of the rites described in the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus can be identified. Finally, a new interpretation of the text is offered, suggesting that the ceremony concerns a statue ritual performed in commemoration of Senwosret I’s accomplishments at Karnak.