User:Troms509/sandbox

Evaluate an article
This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.


 * Name of article: Trajan's Column
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate: It relates to the class subject of Roman Art.

Lead
Guiding questions:


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

Lead evaluation
The Lead does use a concise and clear introductory sentence. However, it is overly detailed and includes in formation that is nowhere to be found anywhere else in the article.

Content
Guiding questions:


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

Content evaluation
The article's content is relevant, up-to-date, and well-detailed, but there is some information in the lead that is not present in the article.

Tone and Balance
Guiding questions:


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

Tone and balance evaluation
As far as I can tell, the article is perfectly neutral and unbiased. All of the viewpoints are equally represented.

Sources and References
Guiding questions:


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Are the sources current?
 * Check a few links. Do they work?

Sources and references evaluation
There are many good sources and references, but there might not be enough. And some of the sources seem to be pretty dated texts.

Organization
Guiding questions:


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Organization evaluation
The article is very well organized and written.

Images and Media
Guiding questions:


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Images and media evaluation
There are plenty of well-captioned images displayed to provide a good understanding of the subject.

Checking the talk page
Guiding questions:


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Talk page evaluation
This article is rated start-class on a few WikiProjects. People have taken efforts to improve the sentence-structure and objectivity of the article.

Overall impressions
Guiding questions:


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * How can the article be improved?
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Overall evaluation
The article is well organized and written but its sources and lead can be improved.

Optional activity

 * Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes ~

Major Edits
What is bold are not my edits originally, but I have slightly edited.

Discovery and Excavation:

Meroë, the ancient city on the eastern bank of the Nile River, was a hub of human activity, crowded with hundreds of native workers, their Arab foreman, and a small population of Europeans. The director of the excavation, Garstang, had his fieldwork financed by the Sudan Excavation Committee. The “committee was an international consortium of museum professionals, academics and wealthy individuals, united by a desire to partake in the thrill of archaeological adventure and a share in the prospective finds.” The represented museums included the Royal Scottish Museums in Edinburgh, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, and the Musées Royaux of Brussels. However, most of the sponsorship was provided by a group of British individuals (including pharmaceutics entrepreneur Henry Solomon Wellcome) along with Baron von Bissingen, a German scholar and collector. It was only recent that the Sudan had become suitable for Western expeditions. It was unsafe for a number of years due to a prolonged insurgency.

It was only recent that the Sudan had become suitable for Western expeditions. It was unsafe for a number of years due to a prolonged insurgency. After this had passed, the excavations could begin. They covered a vast area that once composed the lost city that is Meroë. During their first excavation season, from November 1909 to the end of February 1910, the team had excavated in outline a monumental Temple of Ammon among a number of other structures. During the second excavation season, Garstang uncovered the ruins of two large buildings roughly in axis with the temple, containing such finds as jewelry and golden nuggets, suggesting they were royal palaces. The outlines of another building, this one with vividly decorated walls, were found a little bit north of the ruins. Five days after their arrival, Garstang found the head in the northern building. His excavation report states, “Just outside the doorway of this chamber, and buried in a clean pocket of sand [two and a half meters from the surface] there was a Roman bronze portrait head of heroic size.”

This was a tremendous find. It was entirely unexpected to find such a specimen of Roman art so far from Rome. Also, burying the statue over 1900 years ago resulted in the head being well preserved. At the end of the season, 37 crates filled with finds, including the head, were shipped from Port Sudan to England.

Identification:

Initial Reactions
As soon as the excavators unearthed the head, they immediately knew of its classical Roman origin and speculated that it was from the time of Augustus. Garstang was a specialist in Middle Eastern and Egyptian art, so he conferred with colleagues in Liverpool via mail, and falsely concluded that it depicted Germanicus, Augustus' great-nephew.

Professor Studniczka
The head was first offered for publication to the expert German Professor Franz Studniczka. He, along with the curators at the British Museum in London, proposed that the head portrayed Augustus himself. When compared with the Prima Porta, there was no doubt it was Augustus' head depicted by the portrait.

Design:

This was the case for most Augustan portraiture, especially the earliest, which evoked both youthfulness and the long-admired Grecian techniques of depicting young men.

Other Theories
There are several other theories regarding the origins of the Meroë Head. One suggested scenario states that the statue from which the head originates was given to the Meroites as a gift from Gallus. This, however, is quite unlikely because Gallus was more keen to place portraiture of himself in Egypt rather than that of Augustus. A second scenario states that the head once belonged to a statue located in the Roman fort, Qasr Ibrim. A specific podium in the fort has been pointed out as the potential spot where the statue once stood. This theory has since been disproved due to radio carbon dating and architectural grounds suggesting the podium is from the Ptolemaic period.

Re-do
The head was excavated by the British archaeologist John Garstang in December 1910 at Meroë, which had been the capital of the Kingdom of Kush for several centuries. The ancient city of Meroë was a busy archaeological site at the time Garstang, who served as director of the excavation, was digging there. The site was occupied by the many native workers, the Arab foreman, and a small number of Europeans (including Garstang). This large undertaking was financed by the Sudan Excavation Committee, comprised of the National Museum of Scotland, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. According to Thorston Opper's The Meroë Head of Augustus (Objects in Focus), the “committee was an international consortium of museum professionals, academics and wealthy individuals, united by a desire to partake in the thrill of archaeological adventure and a share in the prospective finds.” However, most of the excavation's sponsorship came from a wealthy group of Britons (including pharmaceutics entrepreneur Henry Solomon Wellcome) and one avid German collector and scholar - Baron von Bissingen.

Garstang's expedition in the Sudan was the first there following a prolonged insurgency that resulted in it being unsafe for quite a few years. The excavations covered a large chunk of land that was once Meroë, now a lost city. Among several other structures, a Temple of Ammon's remains was a significant find from the first run-through of the site. The second excavation season uncovered ruins of two large buildings, speculated to be palaces, in close proximity to the temple. North of these ruins, another building outline was found, this one distinct with vividly decorated walls. It was inside this building where Garstang discovered the head, only five days after arriving for the second excavation season. His excavation report states, “Just outside the doorway of this chamber, and buried in a clean pocket of sand [two and a half meters from the surface] there was a Roman bronze portrait head of heroic size.”

This was a tremendous find. It was entirely unexpected to find such a specimen of Roman art so far from Rome. Also, burying the statue over 1900 years ago resulted in the head being well preserved. Garstang was eager to show his discovery to the world, and as soon as the season was over, all of the findings were shipped to England. The bust was donated to the British Museum by the Sudan Excavation Committee with the support of the National Art Collections Fund in 1911.