Byzantine Secular Boxes -- A digital catalogue/website
Diliana Angelova, Professor
Art History
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
This project aims at creating a born-digital catalogue of Byzantine boxes made of ivory, bone, and wood. These objects, dated between the 10th and the 12th centuries, reveal an unusual side of Byzantium. They demonstrate that the Byzantines valued merrymaking, eroticism and the cultural heritage of Greece and Rome, including the pagan myths and the pagan gods.
Because of historical circumstances, Byzantine boxes with mythological scenes are now found in museums all over Europe and North America, making it very difficult for researchers to study them. The most comprehensive catalogue of Byzantine ivories was published in 1930, in black-and-white, in German.
It is time for a new approach to how these objects are published. The website I have been working on will function like a digital catalogue. It takes advantage of modern technologies (such as 3-d models of the boxes, RTI images (on this, see the weblink below), and high-res color photographs).
The project is nearing completion.
Role: Student apprentices will help me create a website based on a template. The work calls for basic image-processing techniques in Adobe Photoshop (such as saving, renaming in bulk, cropping, light editing, etc.). The skills learned in this project are highly transferrable.
The project helps build skills in the digital humanities.
One or two new recruits may be needed.
Qualifications: Required: 1)some familiarity with Adobe Photo Shop or willingness to learn the basic functions 2) willingness to learn imaging software programs as needed 3) willingness to work in teams.
A plus: experience with the Adobe suite or website design.
Hours: 3-5 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: This projects calls for willingness to learn, weekly meetings either on zoom or in person, and teamwork.
Arts & Humanities