PIA: Papers from the Institute of Archaeology

PIA Volume 14 (2003) Research Paper Abstracts

Michael T. Burns: Visible Proofs of Valour: The Trophy in South Italic Iconography of the Fourth Century BC

In the regions of southern Italy known to the Romans as Campania and Lucania, there are numerous tomb and vase paintings of warriors from the fourth century BC. A recurrent theme in these paintings is 'the return of the warrior', in which a warrior, who is often mounted, arrives home carrying a trophy of spoils stripped from defeated enemies over his shoulder. The image of the victorious warrior in these scenes has often been interpreted as an idealistic image created to flatter the martial pretences of the aristocracy and not a reality of warfare. This paper discusses the ideology behind the iconography of the trophy and attempts to understand the heroic ethos of the south Italic warrior. Using evidence from literary and archaeological sources, this study concludes that the heroic iconography was far from being just an ideal of the elite. Spoils taken from enemies were seen as visible proofs of a warrior's prowess and valour in battle, and were a way in which even the most humble warrior could acquire prestige and honour in south Italic society.

Hugh Kilmister : Visitor Perceptions of Ancient Egyptian Human Remains in Three United Kingdom Museums

Although the issues of retention and display of human remains have become topical over the last decade, the thoughts of museum visitors about this topic have not been registered, despite their being the museums' main stakeholder. The vast majority (82.5%) of 300 respondents questioned in the summer of 2002 at three British museums displaying ancient Egyptian human remains supported the idea of having these remains on display. However, a small percentage of visitors (14.2%) wanted the remains displayed in a "more appropriate and respectful environment", and this may be the key future challenge for collections with human remains that have no cultural descendants. This paper summarises research into visitor perceptions of ancient Egyptian human remains in museum collections and on display in the United Kingdom and suggests further research into the various aspects of human remains in museums, particularly regarding more recent remains or those with cultural descendants.

Serena Love: Questioning the Location of the Old Kingdom Capital of Memphis, Egypt

The capital city of Memphis was ancient Egypt's oldest and largest city. However, the city's origin is shrouded in myth. This study challenges five different references to Memphis, from both classical and historical accounts and concludes that Memphis' boundary should be redefined. These accounts are reviewed to illustrate the confusion amongst early historians and travellers as to the precise location of Memphis and to highlight the association between the capital and the pyramids of the Giza Plateau. For the Old Kingdom, the urban limits of Memphis should not be restricted to the modern mound of Mit Rahina, but rather the boundaries should be expanded to parallel the Old Kingdom pyramids. Recent archaeological investigations, employing sub-surface sampling techniques, have revealed contemporary Old Kingdom occupational debris scattered throughout the entire Memphite region. The inclusion of archaeological material, in combination with the historical records, will create a different interpretation for Egypt's Old Kingdom capital city.

Geoffrey J. Tassie: Identifying the Practice of Tattooing in Ancient Egypt and Nubia

Tattooing was practised by many ancient societies, including the ancient Egyptians and Nubians. Egypt, for example, boasts iconographic and physical evidence for tattooing for a period spanning at least 4000 years - the longest known history of tattooing in the world. The second oldest physical evidence for tattooing worldwide was recovered from Middle Kingdom contexts in Egypt and C-Group contexts in Nubia (the Hanslabjoch ice man being the oldest). It has been suggested that tattooing was also practised in the Predynastic period as evidenced by figurines with geometric designs, however, no physical evidence for tattooing has yet been found for this early period. Strangely there is almost no mention of tattooing in ancient Egyptian written records. Historical and ethnographic records indicate that tattooing was also practised much more recently in the Coptic, Islamic and modern eras. Unlike many past societies, tattooing in Egypt appears to have been a custom practised almost exclusively on women. Tattooing tools have not yet been positively identified from ancient Egypt. Ethnographic sources suggest that bundles of metal rods were used in Egypt's more recent history. This paper discusses physical and iconographic evidence for tattooing in ancient Egypt and investigates whether five copper rods found at Kafr Hassan Dawood, a Predynastic to Early Dynastic site in the East Delta, could be physical evidence for tattooing during this early period.

Harald Alexander Veldhuijzen: 'Slag_Fun' - A New Tool for Archaeometallurgy: Development of an Analytical (P)ED-XRF Method for Iron-Rich Materials

This paper describes the development of a new analytical tool for bulk chemical analysis of iron-rich archaeometallurgical remains by Polarising Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence ((P)ED-XRF). Prompted by the ongoing archaeological and archaeometric analyses of early first millennium BC iron smelting and smithing finds from Tell Hammeh (az-Zarqa), Jordan, the creation of this tool has already benefited several studies on iron-rich slag, of widely varying provenance as well as age (Anguilano 2002; Chirikure 2002; Ige and Rehren 2003; Stanway 2003). Following an explanation of the archaeological background and importance of the Hammeh finds, the paper describes the technical foundations of XRF analysis and the design, development and application of the "slag_fun" calibration method.