Research Steps
1. Get ready to research! Do this tutorial (MLA) and send a screenshot of your results!
2. Choose a topic (below).
3. Find Journal Articles here
4. Read and take notes
On the John Abbott Library site
Click on the tab labelled Databases and try JSTOR
Click on the tab labelled Databases and try JSTOR
Choose a topic and become a researcher!
Pick a topic that is very specifically about the representation of humans in a particular culture, in ancient or classical times (nothing after 500 CE).
1. Choose a culture/era:
Prehistory, Egypt, Mesopotamia (Sumerians, Assyrians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Hittites, Persians), Greece, Rome, Africa or Neolithic China or Japan. Must before 500 CE.
2. Find at least three academic, peer-reviewed articles on the library databases (start with JSTOR) about the paintings, drawings, or sculptures of human beings made by this culture
3. Narrow your topic by focussing on:
a specific person (kings, pharaohs, emperors), god, hero, etc,
or a category of people (the elderly, children, women, scribes, soldiers, slaves, priests, etc.)
4. Narrow your topic further by focussing on:
The materials/techniques (vase painting, tomb carving, portrait sculptures, etc.)
Some examples of topics that might be good:
•Cycladic figures from Ancient Greece
•Roman funerary sculptures
• a particular god or goddess in Greek vase paintings
•representations of people in prehistoric cave art
•Achaemenid relief carvings from Persia
•women in Ancient Egyptian art
•terracotta warrior sculpture in China
•women’s hairstyles in Rome in portrait busts
•haniwa figures from the kofun period in Japan
•”Fayum” mummy portraits from Roman Egypt
•sculpted heads from the Nok people of Nigeria
•relief carving, sculpture and painting of the pharaoh Akhenaten from Egypt
•portrait busts of Roman emperors (maybe one in particular)
•Assyrian soldiers, relief carving
And then start reading your sources and taking notes on the cards provided.
1. Choose a culture/era:
Prehistory, Egypt, Mesopotamia (Sumerians, Assyrians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Hittites, Persians), Greece, Rome, Africa or Neolithic China or Japan. Must before 500 CE.
2. Find at least three academic, peer-reviewed articles on the library databases (start with JSTOR) about the paintings, drawings, or sculptures of human beings made by this culture
3. Narrow your topic by focussing on:
a specific person (kings, pharaohs, emperors), god, hero, etc,
or a category of people (the elderly, children, women, scribes, soldiers, slaves, priests, etc.)
4. Narrow your topic further by focussing on:
The materials/techniques (vase painting, tomb carving, portrait sculptures, etc.)
Some examples of topics that might be good:
•Cycladic figures from Ancient Greece
•Roman funerary sculptures
• a particular god or goddess in Greek vase paintings
•representations of people in prehistoric cave art
•Achaemenid relief carvings from Persia
•women in Ancient Egyptian art
•terracotta warrior sculpture in China
•women’s hairstyles in Rome in portrait busts
•haniwa figures from the kofun period in Japan
•”Fayum” mummy portraits from Roman Egypt
•sculpted heads from the Nok people of Nigeria
•relief carving, sculpture and painting of the pharaoh Akhenaten from Egypt
•portrait busts of Roman emperors (maybe one in particular)
•Assyrian soldiers, relief carving
And then start reading your sources and taking notes on the cards provided.