Tag: Daphne Gallagher

From Household to Empire: the Zooarchaeology of Diouboye

Presenter: Auschere Caufield

Mentors: Stephen Dueppen and Daphne Gallagher, Anthropology

Poster: 9

Major: Anthropology

The purpose of this research is to understand the economic and cultural processes that created the unique assemblage of animal remains at the archaeological site of Diouboye in the Upper Senegal region of West Africa. Diouboye is a late Iron Age site occupied from AD 1000 to 1300. The faunal record from this site shows a focus on wild resources from the riverine environment. Overall, Diouboye produced a large faunal assemblage with particularly high frequencies of medium bovids and reptiles. In addition, pottery decoration indicates the inhabitants were closely related to the Mande society to the south. Long distance trade was a major part of the economy of the Mande state. This included trade in secondary animal products such as leathers and skins. Oral histories and ethnographies also document the spiritual importance hunting held in Mande society. Through an analysis of taxa distribution, element representation, burning, and cut marks conclusions were drawn from the archaeological record. It appears as though the inhabitants of ancient Diouboye were actively involved in trading secondary animal products with the large trading empires of the region. This research adds an entirely new dimension to the role that small, decentralized villages, such as Diouboye, may have had in the dynamic economic system of Medieval West Africa.

Portrayals of Power: The local Identity of Three Cypriot Sarcophagi from the 5th Century BCE

Presenter(s): Samantha Mcgee − Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Daphne Gallagher

Oral Session 4O

Research Area: Social Science (Anthropology/Archaeology)

Funding: Honors College Extraordinary Expenses Thesis Grant, Undergraduate Anthropology Award for Research

Cyprus has been a place of cultural interaction and exchange as long as humans have occupied it. Its location just beneath the Anatolian peninsula has made the island a meeting ground of many of the iconic Mediterranean powers of history, including Greece, Egypt, Assyria, and Persia. There has been a great deal of research on the way Cyprus was influenced by external forces, as well as how these cultural influences were engaged and manipulated on the island. However, more research is needed on the exclusively local identity of Cypriot material culture. This paper focuses on three sarcophagi covered in detailed relief sculpture from the first half of the fifth century BCE, analyzing their place as objects in their local communities. These three objects were chosen because they are similar in date and form, and are from three different cities, providing context for inter-island diversity at a time of extreme political and cultural turmoil on the island. The main focus of this research is the iconography of the relief sculpture; the local context and use of the elements and images is analyzed, as well as how the context of this iconography on the sarcophagus, and its place as an item of funerary ritual might have impacted the understanding of these objects in their local communities. I conclude that the iconography of each sarcophagus is clearly impacted by their local spatial and social context, and is also connected to political and cultural events occurring over the course of the fifth century.