May 10th, 2020 
ARTIFACT PAPER
The artifact paper will be due on Wednesday, March 18 at 11:59 PM as an electronic submission to D2L
Dropbox. Your paper should be word-processed in 11- or 12-point font, one and a half- or double-spaced, and
approximately 67 pages in length. Below are the questions/issues that should be addressed in your paper:
Formal and stylistic attributes
o How would you describe the objects shape? What measurements are given for the object? How
does the 3D scan of the object contribute to your understanding of the objects physical
dimensions? How does the scan compare with the available photograph of the object?
o Is the object complete? If not, can you determine what the whole object might have looked like?
The reference sources, which contain comparable objects, can help you with this.
o What observations can you make about the colors, decorative features, texture, and surface finish
of the object?
Technological attributes
o What can you determine about the materials used to make artifact and the way it was made? Tools
used in its production? Again, the available reference sources will help you to address these
questions.
Function
o What is the function of the object? How do the formal and stylistic attributes of the object relate to
ideas about function? How does this object compare to other objects like it? To answer this
question, you should make use of the comparable objects listed among the reference sources.
Provenance and archaeological context
o Do we have any information about where the artifact was found in Egypt? And if so, how does
this information add to your interpretation of the artifact?
Date
o To which period of ancient Egypt does the artifact belong and how does it aid in your analysis of
the artifact?
o Why do you think it is important to situate the artifact within a particular chronological period of
ancient Egypt?
Significance
o How do you think this object contributes to our knowledge of ancient Egyptian civilization? What
social, technological, economic, political, and cultural aspects of ancient Egypt does the artifact
help us to understand?
Problems and limitations
o What problems and limitations can you identify in interpreting and analyzing the artifact?
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