This light brown, buff colored vessel with dark brown geometric designs may seem fairly innocuous at first glance. However, its production, shape, and decoration are all tied to dramatic shifts in trade and exchange in the Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1650-1050 BCE). The Late Bronze Age Mediterranean, particularly the eastern Mediterranean, was…
March 14, 2022-April 14, 2022 The Stories Objects Tell was an exhibit curated by Kristen Marchetti, with assistance from Erynn Bentley, for Brown University’s Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. Works included in the show were a response to archaeology in general or to objects in the Institute’s Collection. The map below displays…
On March 14th, 2022, the Joukowsky Institute hosted an exhibit opening for The Stories Objects Tell. We invited the artists who submitted work to the show as well as all members of the Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design communities. The event began at 4 PM, and it was a pleasure to see…
Leading up to the exhibit, The Stories Objects Tell, the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology hosted Open Collection Hours on Thursdays and Fridays in February and early March, allowing visitors from Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design to view the Institute’s Collection in person. Although the Collection is accessible online, Open Collection Hours allowed…
During the spring of 2022, I curated an exhibit for the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World called, The Stories Objects Tell. The exhibit was on display at the Institute from March 14th to April 15th and featured literary and visual work from students, faculty, and staff at Brown University and the Rhode…
How was a processional standard like this one originally used? This curvilinear, bronze object is a seventeenth century processional standard (‘alam) that was found in Iran. When the standard was made in the seventeenth century, the powerful Safavid dynasty (1501 to 1736 CE) controlled Iran and surrounding territories in the Middle East. The Safavids were…
Objects: M290abc, M276, M287abc, M229, and M270JIAAW, Minassian Collection This Virtual Vault post focuses on a subset of objects in the Joukowsky Institute’s collection whose origins have been the subject of debate amongst Joukowsky community members for some time. They are the pottery roundels that were given to the JIAAW as part of the Minassian…
Decorated with a symmetrical design of blue and green hues, object M167 from the Joukowsky Institute’s Minassian Collection is a rich example of Damascus ware. Damascus tiles were derived from the tradition of Iznik ceramics, a school of Turkish pottery that flourished between the 15th and 17th centuries. Inspired by Chinese porcelain wares and the…
Object M039 is a blue and white Kubachi ware dish decorated with birds, flowers, and other vegetal images. Flowers and plants are a common and universal decorative motif found in many styles of artwork throughout the world, and Islamic art is no exception. As the Islamic empire expanded throughout the 7th Century and onwards, the…
The Joukowsky Institute is fortunate enough to have two hairpins, one made of bone and the other of bronze, in its collection. This Virtual Vault entry, the second in a series featuring each of the two hairpins in the vault, is about Object 297, the bronze hairpin. This object is a thin, pointed bronze hairpin…