J. Bernard Schultz Endowed Lecture
Department of Art History
West Virginia University
Private Lecture
This lecture is composed of two portions: a summary discussion of the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration as related to Aegean monkey imagery, and a more open second component, where we will discuss the ways students can pursue art history, archaeology, and related fields without breaking the bank. The ways in which the Aegean Bronze Age Study Initiative (ABASI) can contribute to student growth will also be discussed.
Bronze Age Aegean wall paintings depicting monkeys from Crete and Thera show the animals in a variety of roles: wild, (possibly) trained, cultic, and/or sacred. While stylistically Aegean, these images are related to Egyptian and Mesopotamian iconography. To better understand the relationships between Aegean, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian monkey imagery, primatologists from around the world who specialize in Afro-Eurasian taxa and a taxonomic primatological illustrator were consulted to identify any visible characteristics of particular species. This approach results in a new contributing source for monkey iconography: the broader Indus River Valley. Communication and collaboration with Indus and Mesopotamian specialists also prove critical for this project, which facilitates the tracing of possible Indus-Aegean trade routes via the movement of iconography, raw materials, goods, people (through aDNA and dental calculus analysis), while considering textual documentation and color theory. With an emphasis on the primatological aspect and the growing corpus of Indus goods identified in the Aegean, an image emerges of an even broader economic and socio-religious sphere of interaction.
Archaeology is one of the few fields in which transdisciplinarity is strongly encouraged and facilitated via field experience. Such work often necessitates applications for funding, which is in short supply for undergraduates. To remedy this, Doc built a non-profit to serve the needs of students who are serious about pursuing the prehistoric world. Doc is dedicating the latter portion of her talk to discussing opportunities and strategies for undergraduates to begin excavating and researching overseas, as well as ways to earn grants and scholarships to do so.
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