Nationalism studies have recently increased in popularity, and particularly those focused on the era of the U.S. Civil War. But for all the attention scholars have given to this specific area of research, no single investigation exists that directly compares and contrasts the vi…
This thesis spotlights one of Yunnan’s most important Buddhist deities – Acuoye Guanyin. This bodhisattva, also known as the Luck of Yunnan, is unique to the Yunnan region. Acuoye Guanyin played a pivotal role in the political rise of the Nanzhao Kingdom and continued to serve a…
Queen Hatshepsut stands out among the minority of women who have held the role of king of Egypt thanks to the unique methods that Hatshepsut used in order to obtain this position. Among these procedures, her complex iconographic programs should be highlighted. As such, the Red C…
The study combines statistical analysis of personal ornamentation with a contextual analysis of characters, objects, and iconographical and compositional elements to reconstruct social groupings as represented on the Borobudur Lalitavistara reliefs and the Loro Jonggrang Ramayan…
This study's research question raises the issue of the paradoxical nature of the Egyptian canon of representation which shows, simultaneously, a certain rigidity in the application of established stylistic and iconographic rules, especially in non-state commissioned art, and evi…
Taking a holistic approach to individual psalms as distinct and complete poems, this study explores the topic of divine protection in the Psalter. Specifically, three psalms are analyzed: Psalms 5, 91, and 140. The study is a contribution to a growing body of research that syste…
Recent archaeological investigations conducted jointly by the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the University of Maryland, under the direction of Ekpo Eyo, yielded a large number of decorated terracotta vessels, headrests, and anthropomorphic figurines …
This dissertation is a hermeneutic reading of four novels by the Ivorian writer, Ahmadou Kourouma: Les Soleils des indépendances , Monnè, outrages et défis, En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages, and Allah n'est pas obligé. The exegesis is based on the assumption that there is…
As a symbol of Ahuramazda the winged disk represents a powerful marker of Achaemenid Persian identity from c. 520 BCE onwards, i.e., from almost the very beginning of Darius' reign down to at least 330 BCE. At the same time we have observed that many more examples of this imager…
The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the development of Hilye-i Şerif calligraphic plate which is an innovative and unique genre that was first designed towards the end of 16th Century by the famous Ottoman calligrapher Hafiz Osman Efendi. In literature and hadith fields, …
Aphrodisias in Caria was famous in antiquity as the center of an important local cult of Aphrodite. Although she was worshipped at the sanctuary by the seventh or sixth century B.C., little solid evidence concerning the Aphrodite of Aphrodisias can be securely dated prior to the…
The post-Homeric literary sources of the Greek period mention [special characters omitted] inhabitants of a distant land, whose physical appearance differs from the Mediterranean somatic norm, but approximates that of peoples referred to in modern times as Black Africans. In the…
This dissertation concerns the role of urban spaces and political memories in revolutionary mobilization. The theoretical framework suggests that movements will use central urban spaces like streets and plazas to connect the contemporary movement with the memory of past politica…
Four types of ritual hand gestures--raising the hand while making a fist (sometimes with a weapon), raising one hand with open palm, raising both hands with open palms, and clasping hands with another person--are attested in Northwest Semitic textual sources and/or Levantine ico…
La Santa Muerte is a folk saint depicted as a female Grim Reaper in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. The Grim Reaper, as an iconic representation of death, was derived from the Angel of Death found in pseudepigrapha and apocalyptic writings of Jewish and early Christia…
Images of the Ptolemaic cosmos were produced in all three major early medieval successors to the Roman Empire (the Carolingian, the Byzantine, and the Umayyad states). Early medieval cosmological images remained formally and iconographically close to their late antique models. T…
This dissertation examines the iconography of the Circumcision of Christ and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (and the associated scene, the Purification of the Virgin) from the medieval perspective of sacred history. In this view, Christ's and Mary's participation in th…
This study investigates The Cloisters panel painting Scenes from the Life of St. Augustine assigned to the anonymous painter The Master of St. Augustine by Max Friedländer in 1937. Chapter one outlines the current state of research available on the panel. Chapter two reviews the…