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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]
These are paper topics to get you started. You may answer one of them as is, may use it as a starting point to get going on reading and thinking, may modify it, or may propose something entirely different. If you are going to modify one of these questions or propose your own, please run your idea by me before getting too involved. Your paper must be synthetic in the sense that it must deal with a question or issue for which you examine multiple pieces of art/architecture.
Discuss the development of royal sculpture (i.e.: three dimensional representations of the king) over the course of the Old Kingdom. Examine the content, contexts, sizes, amounts and styles of such sculptures to shed light on the uses to which such sculptures were put. To what degree are meaningful trends and changes observable over the course of the Old Kingdom?
Compare and contrast royal and private relief decoration from the 5th Dynasty. Discuss themes and iconography of such reliefs and, to the degree possible, the ways relief scenes work together to form meaningful wholes. You are encouraged to focus on a single private tomb as a prime example in order to limit the amount of data you have to deal with; this should allow you to really look closely at the entire relief cycle from one place. The royal material is more fragmented and we got a very good overview in class, so you should deal somewhat more comprehensively with this, unless you can make a good argument for focusing on a single monument.
Critique David Wengrow's notion of the "evolution of simplicity" as a meaningful model for considering changes in art from the Predynastic period to the First Dynasty. Using a wealth of examples, discuss why you think this model either well represents the situation or needs modification. Wengrow is in The Archaeology of Early Egypt and Baines also had some useful things to say on this front in the early readings.
Discuss and critically examine changes in the relationship between royal and private art in the late Old Kingdom, and some of the theories that have been used to explain such changes.
Examine the art and architecture associated with the mortuary complex of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep of the 11th Dynasty. To what degree does it reflect Old Kingdom traditions, First Intermediate Period traditions, or innovation?