HIST 1111 Final Project: Premodern World History Museum Exhibit Purpose: In your

HIST 1111 Final Project: Premodern World History Museum Exhibit
Purpose: In your midterm project, you explored the issues facing museums that house premodern artifacts today, and by focusing on a single artifact in the collection of an Atlanta-area museum, you took a position in the debate over whether those artifacts should be repatriated. For this final project, you now get to plan your own ideal museum exhibit on premodern world history. Envision it as a proposal for a new exhibit on premodern world history to be featured here at Georgia State University–prepare this project as if you would be presenting your plans to the university administration for their approval, in the hopes that the university community and Atlanta-area residents will visit this history museum on our campus!
Project guidelines: Using Microsoft Word, you will create a museumhttps://gastate.view.usg.edu/d2l/le/content/282275…
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Final Project: “A History of the Premodern World” Museum Exhibit – SURVEY OF WORLD HIST TO 1500 Section 004 Summer Semester 2023 7/27/23, 11:16 PM
catalog that features your original analysis of 3 cultural artifacts from the premodern world that you believe will help museum visitors visualize ONE important historical development from ancient times to 1500 CE. Big historical developments we’ve learned about this semester include, for example: the development of agriculture, the rise of urban societies and empires, constructions of gender and social hierarchy, growth of world religions, impact and spread of disease and environmental crises, and the development of trade routes and long- distance travel. Any one of these historical trends would be an excellent focus for your planned museum exhibit on life in the premodern world.
Your museum catalog will be organized as follows:
Page 1: the title of your planned museum exhibit–get creative and think of a title that captures the historical/thematic/geographic focus of your exhibit, like “An Exploration of Old World Trade Routes” or “Tracing Crisis in the Premodern World,” (don’t just title it with an empty place-filler like “HIST 1111 Museum” or “My Museum Project” or “Final Project”–you get the idea!). An opening statement in paragraph form (minimum 150 words) that introduces the focus of your exhibit–what big development of premodern world history will your museum exhibit seek to visualize and what lesson about that development do you want visitors to your exhibit to learn? What kinds of artifacts will be incorporated to help bring that history to life for your visitors? This opening statement should clearly explain the purpose of your planned exhibit.
Pages 2-4: Each page of your catalog will focus on ONE of the required 3 artifacts that you have chosen to be featured in your exhibit. You will include an image of the artifact and a museum label describing it. You will then write a brief analysis of the artifact in paragraph form (at least 200 words for each artifact

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Final Project: “A History of the Premodern World” Museum Exhibit – SURVEY OF WORLD HIST TO 1500 Section 004 Summer Semester 2023 7/27/23, 11:16 PM
analysis). Your practice writing primary source analysis papers will come in handy here! Take a similar approach–describe the artifact–its construction, possible uses and meanings, and what this might tell us about the society and culture that created it. Be sure to explain why you have selected this artifact as an important addition to your exhibit on one big historical development of the premodern world. In other words, how does this artifact enrich our understanding of the development of urban life, the spread of religion, constructions of gender, etc. in premodern times?
Page 5: Conclusions–this is where you will reflect on your planned exhibit and sum up, in paragraph form (at least 200 words), how these 3 artifacts connect to form a coherent exhibit that will educate museum visitors about your chosen theme/big development in premodern world history. What’s the big lesson/takeaway about life in premodern times that you want visitors to learn from walking through this planned exhibit? This is also where you should address any measures you would need to take to ensure the ethical and inclusive nature of your exhibit–do museum panels (descriptions of the artifacts in the exhibit) need to include info about how this artifact ended up in a western museum? Should efforts be made to ultimately repatriate any of the objects? Etc. Get creative here! Finally, the last section of your project must be a works cited list/bibliography of the websites and external sources that you have consulted in the course of your research on these artifacts.
Please note: It’s okay if you exceed the minimum 5 page format a bit, or if your written analyses on each page are over the required minimums–those are only minimum requirements! Just use your best judgement–your writing should be detail-rich but also succinct and clear. This
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Final Project: “A History of the Premodern World” Museum Exhibit – SURVEY OF WORLD HIST TO 1500 Section 004 Summer Semester 2023 7/27/23, 11:16 PM
project–a planned museum catalog–is not intended to be an essay, and each page won’t be totally filled with your writing. This is a creative report that incorporates images and written analysis.
Project steps:
First, open the “Project Resources” folder in the Final Project module in the content section of our course site and familiarize yourself with the resources to help guide you through this project!
Choose your project’s focus–what big historical development that we’ve learned about this semester do you want your exhibit to focus on? Pick one of the examples I’ve provided in the guidelines above, or contact me if you want to focus on a different guiding theme.
Next, check out the list of museums and premodern cultural artifact collections. I have included links to the online collections of 3 major museums with large collections of premodern artifacts —the British Museum (London), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), and the Smithsonian (Washington D.C.). Select 3 premodern artifacts (any object created between ancient times and 1500 CE) from any of these museum collections to feature in your proposed museum catalog.
A few rules here: each artifact must be a different type of thing (you cannot select 3 pieces of Jomon pottery or 3 swords, for example). The 3 artifacts must originate from at least 2 different regions of the world (central Asia, Africa, Europe, east Asia and the Pacific, or the Americas). You should aim to show how this development (spread of
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Final Project: “A History of the Premodern World” Museum Exhibit – SURVEY OF WORLD HIST TO 1500 Section 004 Summer Semester 2023 7/27/23, 11:16 PM
religion, etc.) occurred over time, so try to find artifacts created in ancient and medieval times.
Research the artifacts: for each one, its original creation, history, and its provenance—how it ended up in the museum where it is now. You’ll need to start with the info that the museum has about this artifact in its online collection, but you may also want to search for more info via databases like Ancient and Medieval History Online, JSTOR, and others, all accessible to you via your GSU Library student account.
Create your museum catalog. It should include the clear pages/sections outlined in the guidelines above.
All evidence must be cited with in-text citations or footnotes, using an academic citation style—either Chicago or MLA, and you must include a works cited page at the end of your report.
The project must be formatted as follows–single or double-spaced lines, 12-pt font (something basic like Times New Roman or Arial), indented paragraphs, page numbers, properly cited (Chicago or MLA style) supporting evidence and a works cited page.
Finally, be sure to edit your writing for typos and overall clarity after you finish—writing is rewriting, meaning that the first draft should never be your final draft. The GSU Writing Studio is an excellent resource for writing help at all stages of a project, especially for editing and revising rough drafts! You can check them out and sign up for a virtual appointment with one of their helpful staff here: GSU Writing Studio. Once you’re finished editing your report, you should submit it as a Word (.docx) or PDF document (.pdf) in the assignment portal on iCollege.
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Final Project: “A History of the Premodern World” Museum Exhibit – SURVEY OF WORLD HIST TO 1500 Section 004 Summer Semester 2023 7/27/23, 11:16 PM
Remember, all submissions must be received by 11:59pm on July
27th at the latest. Because of the tight turnaround between finals week and the deadline for submitting grades to the university, there is NO grace period for late submissions for the final project!