Category: Academic
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The Elusive Basalt Bowls of Bab edh-Dhra’ Cemetery
Written by Etta Coleman. The cemetery at Bab edh-Dhra’, on the south bank of Wadi Kerak, can provide an insight into the Early Bronze Age people who inhabited the site. Etta Coleman examines one find in particular, a collection of basalt vessels, which deepens our understanding of their society and culture further.
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MK-Ultra: Mind-Control, LSD and the US Government
Written by Eva Campbell. MK-Ultra, sanctioned during the Cold War, was programme of convert experiments conducted by the US government to develop mind-control drugs. Eva Campbell explores the horrifying human cost of the operation, a period of history which remains shrouded in mystery.
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Augustan Propaganda: Virgil and Idealism in the Aeneid
Written by Kavisha Kamalananthan. Written under the patronage of the first emperor of Rome, Virgil’s ‘Aenied’ can be understood as political propaganda. But how, and in what ways, was Virgil able to achieve this?
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Dido Elizabeth Belle, and the mysteries behind the painting at Scone Palace
Written by Sophie Whitehead. The portrait of Lady Elizabeth and Dido Belle has fascinated historians and allowed us a glimpse into Black History in the eighteenth century. But who was she? And how has she been understood by historians and art critics since the painting’s production?
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The War on Drugs and Histories of Post-Revolutionary Mexico
Written by Jack Bennett. Developments in the history of Post-Revolutionary Mexico have intertwined narratives with the war on drugs. But how have these narratives developed and come to include new ideas and conceptions?
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Are the Gospels Reliable Sources? Part One: ‘Who is This Man?’
Written by Alex Smith. As the first part of his new series on historicity of the Gospels, Alex Smith introduces the historical study of Christianity and Christian sources, laying the baseline and historiography of the critical study of Biblical sources.
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Witches by Weather: The Impact of Climate in Early Modern Witch Trials
Written by Melissa Kane. Dramatic changes in climate have for a long time demanded an explanation. Melissa Kane explores how the European Witch Trials became tied to the storms and cold of the ‘Little Ice Age’, as yet more proof of malicious deviancy.
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On the Nature of Archaeological Knowledge, Photography, Narrative, and Time
Written by Sofia Parkinson Klimaschewski. The practice of archaeology is one that has been recorded through photography for over a hundred years. But how do we unpack archaeological photography, and how do these photographs themselves become artefacts?
Retrospect Journal 