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Emily Catherine Egan

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Assistant Professor, Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Art and Archaeology, Art History and Archaeology
Classics

(301) 405-1493

4222 Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building
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Education

Ph.D., , University of Cincinnati

Research Expertise

Ancient Mediterranean
Archaeology
Digital Art History
Visual Culture

Emily Catherine Egan is an Aegean prehistorian and field archaeologist. She holds a dual B.A. in Classics and Old World Archaeology and Art from Brown University, an M.Phil. in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on artistic practice in the Bronze Age Aegean, and particularly on the production, consumption, and iconography of Mycenaean painted surface decoration. She has undertaken archaeological fieldwork in Italy, Turkey, Jordan, Armenia, Cyprus, and most recently in Greece, where she is currently studying wall painting assemblages from the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, and Petsas House, Mycenae.

Dr. Egan has held fellowships at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (2009-2011), and in 2015-2016 was post-doctoral fellow of pre-modern Mediterranean Studies in the History of Art and Visual Culture Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2019-2020, she was Fellow in Aegean Art at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C.

In the field, Dr. Egan's research questions address issues pertaining to wall (and floor) painting iconography, mural reconstruction, cross-craft interaction, and visual literacy among different populations in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BC, and she is currently preparing a monograph on decorated Mycenaean floors. At Maryland, she offers undergraduate courses on Greek art and archaeology, Aegean prehistory, ancient portraiture, and the archaeology of color.

Dr. Egan is a faculty affiliate of the Department of Classics.

Publications

Standardization vs. Individualization in the Pylian Painted Argonaut

Examination of individualized elements in wall-painted argonauts from the Palace of Nestor at Pylos

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Emily Catherin…
Dates:
In 2015, Hariclia Brecoulaki and I published an article examining the emblematic use of the argonaut motif in wall paintings from the so-called Palace of Nestor at Pylos. This study serves as a brief follow-up to that investigation, and offers some preliminary thoughts on the opposing forces of standardization and individualization manifest in the motif's depictions. Through close investigation of the marine creature's anatomy as rendered across different band-friezes at the palace, it is demonstrated that while the design of certain body parts was "fixed," that of others was "flexible," resulting in repetitive compositions that were, in fact, subtly nuanced. Based on this evidence, some preliminary practical and intellectual explanations for this perceived "artistic freedom" enjoyed by the Pylian painters are presented, as are thoughts about composition in Mycenaean art at large.

A Wheel-Made Bovid from the Palace of Nestor

Analysis and reconstruction of a newly discovered wheel-made bovine figure from the Palace of Nestor at Pylos

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Emily Catherin…
Dates:
This article examines fragments of a wheel made terracotta bovid of "Mycenaean" type from the so-called Palace of Nestor at Pylos. The first such figure to be identified in Messenia, the bovid is considered in light of its physical features, excavation contexts, and similarities to published comparanda. An original storage context inside the palace at Pylos is proposed, as is a production date in Late Helladic (LH) IIIA2 or LH IIIB. In the latter period, the use of the figure is tentatively explored in light of local iconographic, faunal, and textual evidence, which points collectively to the bovid's ritual, and perhaps explicitly royal, use.

From Permanent to Portable: The Ceramic Perpetuation of Painted Landscapes at Knossos in the Final Palatial Period

Consideration of the potential replacement of wall paintings with vase paintings in the Final Palatial Period at Knossos

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Emily Catherin…
Dates:
In the early twentieth century, Sir Arthur Evans’s excavations at Knossos brought to light one of the most visually arresting and interpretively complex artistic repertoires of the Bronze Age Aegean. One facet of this complexity, noted by Evans himself, was the frequent repetition of iconographic motifs between the site’s wall-paintings and decorated ceramics. This paper examines this repetition as it pertains to one particular class of material: Palace Style jars with floral decoration. Using evidence of the jars’ physical attributes, as well as their chronology, contexts, and ritual associations, I explore the possibility that these vessels were not designed to reinforce the iconography of contemporary Final Palatial wall-paintings, as Evans once argued, but rather to replace defunct Neopalatial landscape scenes, for which they provided portable alternatives.

A Lost Mycenaean Fresco Fragment Re-Examined

Analysis and reconstruction of a Bronze Age wall painting of a male figure reportedly found at Mycenae but currently lost

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Emily Catherin…
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Yannis Galanakis
Dates:
This article examines an important wall painting fragment purportedly found in the megaron of the Late Bronze Age palace at Mycenae in 1893. Originally published in Russian in 1897, the fragment depicts a right-facing mid-size male figure with stylistic affinities to processional figures subsequently excavated on Crete and the Greek mainland. Despite its apparent iconographic and historical significance, the painting has received limited attention in Aegean literature. Below, the thrilling yet murky history of the fragment’s discovery is assembled from public and private testimonies by the eminent individuals involved. Possible reconstructions of the fragment are presented, and its iconography is explored in light of current chronologies and known comparanda. It is argued that, while many details of the fragment’s biography remain ambiguous, the potential value of the find as a rare representation of a processing man in a mainland palatial context is substantial.

Marine Iconography at the Palace of Nestor and the Emblematic Use of the Argonaut

Preliminary presentation of the use of the argonaut motif in the wall paintings of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Emily Catherin…
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Hariclia Brecoulaki
Dates:
In the art of the prehistoric Aegean, the argonaut, often referred to in modern scholarship by its ancient Greek name, ναυτίλος, is a familiar figural motif. Widely represented in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, the argonaut design has been studied extensively on portable objects. Its more limited appearance in fixed wall paintings, however, has been accorded less scholarly attention. In this paper, we begin to redress this lacuna by examining the argonaut motif as it appears in the Late Helladic wall paintings of the Mycenaean Palace of Nestor at Pylos in southwestern Messenia. Using details of the animals’ iconography and contextual associations, we conclude that the Pylian argonauts, long considered to be simple decorative border elements, had a strong emblematic character, communicating the naval prowess, political strength, and perhaps piety of the occupant(s) of the Pylian throne.

Working within the Lines: Artists’ Grids and Painted Floors at the Palace of Nestor

Reinterpretation of mini-grids impressed into selected floor squares in the megaron of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos as artists' grids

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Emily Catherin…
Dates:
This paper presents a new interpretation of the inscribed "mini grids" discovered inside squares of the painted floors of the megaron of the Palace of Nestor, Pylos. In 1966, a number of these mini grids were tentatively identified by their excavators as marking places for persons to stand during important state ceremonies. New evidence, however, now suggests that these lines were artists' grids. These orthogonal guidelines, well-known from depictions of textiles in Minoan wall painting, are the first of their kind to be identified on a Bronze Age Greek floor and raise questions about how and why they were employed. This article addresses these questions, and demonstrates how observations about the mini grids help to reinterpret the unusual diagonal in the Throne Room's floor design, long presumed to be a "mistake," as an intentional visual stimulus.

An Unprecedented Naval Scene from Hall 64 at the “Palace of Nestor” at Pylos

Preliminary presentation and reconstruction of a new wall painting of ships from Hall 64 of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Emily Catherin…
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Hariclia Brecoulaki, Jack L Davis, Sharon R Stocker
Dates:
This paper explores one of the most exciting and unexpected discoveries in Aegean art in recent years: a Naval Scene from Hall 64 of the Southwestern Building of the Palace of Nestor. The publication of this collection of papers allows us to bring these finds to the attention of a broad audience and to present for the first time high quality images that illustrate the composition. Assembling the many fragments of this work has in itself been a laborious task that has occupied us for nearly a decade, but, even so, the restoration of the Naval Scene constitutes only one part of a much larger project: the reconstruction of the entire iconographic program of Hall 64. Pylos is unique in the Mycenaean world in that it permits such an approach. It is one of a very few places in the prehistoric Aegean where the archaeological record is so complete and the excavation history so well documented.