2020 RESEARCHERS
BET HUCKS
University of Heidelberg
I am in the 4th year of research for my PhD, studying the influence of aegyptiaca romana, or Egyptian and Egyptian-style objects used and displayed by Romans, during the Imperial Period. I am putting together a database of these materials located at 4 sites in Rome and Tivoli, which offer a range of material from religious to secular and within both public and private spaces. I analyze these objects or visual themes statistically, and then try to recreate as much as possible their original contexts by placing them back into their original positions together with Graeco-Roman pieces in computerized 3D models. My goal is to 3D print the models and display them to the general public as touch-friendly exhibits. This work is important because in quite a lot of the work on these materials they are analyzed as separate classes from the Graeco-Roman objects they appeared alongside in antiquity. Today they are displayed in separate museums or sections of museums, and many of them are widely dispersed throughout the world. This project offers the first chance to visually analyze how these pieces would have been perceived/sensed by the Romans under different lighting conditions and times of year, as well as providing an interdisciplinary approach to materiality and personal identity in the Roman world.
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JAY CABALLERO
University of Texas at Austin
My research interests center mainly on comparative law in the ancient Near East as well as the development of law within the ANE societies, especially within the Hebrew Bible. My interest in the development of law in the Hebrew Bible also entails that my research often ties to Pentateuchal source criticism and the composition history of the Pentateuch. As I detail below, my immediate research is on the criminalization of certain sexual activity, other than male-female, consensual adultery. In addition to that, I am interested in the development of the slave laws in the Hebrew Bible as well as the evolution of judicial processes in the Hebrew Bible.
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My project for summer 2021 is one chapter in my dissertation. My dissertation, as a whole, is concerned with certain sexual conduct that seems to be punished as criminal conduct in the ancient Near East.
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MAY-SARAH ZEßIN
Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main
My current research interests are focused on production and construction processes of glazed architectural features such as façades, podia, ramps, entrances, gates and towers of temples and palaces in the Ancient Near East. My research question is how it is possible to detect these processes through marks made or caused by artisans, craftsmen and workers on glazed bricks as well as on glazed tiles from the first Millennium BCE. Thereby my work is not just focused on the royal kings ordering these building projects but moreover on those people who were responsible for actually building these impressive monuments, brick by brick, tile after tile. I am curious to find out if certain systems might have existed for several regions and during a specific time period.
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My dissertation is about the production and construction processes of glazed architectural features in the Ancient Near East and focuses primarily on marks occurring on glazed bricks from the first Millennium BCE. A small article on the history of fitters’ marks could be published in 2019 and another article is planned by the end of this year concerning marks occurring on Neo-Assyrian glazed bricks from the Ashur temple in Ashur based on a paper I presented at the 12th ICAANE 2021 in Bologna
KIMBERLEY WATT
University of Cambridge
I focus on the administration involved during the construction of temples and tombs during the Eighteenth Dynasty and the agency of officials at the time. By reevaluating the texts that highlight the king's role in construction projects, I gave the administrators and the people their voice back.
I am expected to graduate from my PhD at the University of Cambridge in Archaeology, specializing in Egyptian social history, within the year (depending on the pandemic and its consequences in the United Kingdom).
I propose to write a children book presenting the fictionalized results of my PhD thesis. I believe that presenting ancient Egypt to children in a recreational manner can share accurate scientific results. I have developed the synopsis of a story aimed at children (8-14 years old) and to their parents. The story will follow at preteen Egyptian boy whose father is an architect (Overseer of works) for King Amenhotep III who has to replace his father on a construction project. This character is fictive, but all the Egyptological details are accurate, from the construction methods to the relationships between people.
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