Two conclusions are drawn from this study. The first is that the p50 component of NF- k B serves as a transcriptional modulator of TNF a production in vitro. However, it is not essential for the production of TNF a . The increased TNF a production in p50-/- mice may be due to the formation of an alternative NF- k B complex (e.g., p52/p65) in the absence of the p50-/- component. Second, p50 is essential for the expression of IL-5. Because p50 is not known to be directly associated with IL-5 expression, this suggests that a p50 dependent cascade is required for IL-5 expression.

Corinne Kearns
Advisor: Dr. Alice Christ
Department of Fine Arts

Identification of the Couple Portrayed on the Marlborough Turquoise Cameo

The Marlborough Turquoise Cameo is a small Roman gem located in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The cameo portrays a couple with features characteristic of the Julian-Claudian line of Roman emperors and empresses who reigned for ninety-five years between 27 BCE and AD 68. Divine and imperial attributes of the couple include the woman in the guise of the goddess Venus Genetrix and the young man's wreath signifying military and political accomplishments. Roman art historians agree that the woman on the cameo is the Empress Livia. The young man is inconclusively identified as either the Emperor Augustus, Livia's husband, or the Emperor Tiberius, Livia's son. The cameo is dated between AD 14-37, which places it during the reign of Tiberius. However, based on Julio-Claudian dynastic iconography and familial relationships, the two may be identified incorrectly and the gem dated much later than previously thought. I have set out to challenge the accepted doctrine of this piece, based on comparative research into the physical likenesses of other Roman empresses and their sons found on small-scale pieces such as gems and coins, along with additional dynastic relationship possibilities. These dynastic relationships focus on mother and son combinations; including Livia and Tiberius, Agrippina I and Caligula, Antonia and Claudius, and Agrippina II and Nero. Also of interest are the sons of these four women who were promoted as emperors and appeared on Imperial propaganda, but died before ascension to the throne.

Coins of the Julio-Claudian period offer a relatively unbroken chronology of the emperors, empresses, and princes, both alone and in dynastic combinations. Typical dynastic combinations include immediate familial groups or pairs. Through coins, many of which are found at the American Numismatic Society in New York City, individual characteristics of the Imperial family and the evolving history of hairstyle can be traced. It becomes evident that Caligula had a pointed chin and Nero's image changes completely from the time he was a young prince to after becoming emperor. It is on the coins of Antonia that a hairstyle resembling the woman's on the Marlborough Turquoise Cameo first appears. Based on the physical and divine attributes portrayed on coins, the woman appears to be Antonia and the young man Nero as a promoted prince. However, coins cannot reveal the entire picture of physical attributes, because the subjects are often rendered

in profile. Gems often allow for a complete frontal view of the subject. Many of these gems, notably the Grand Cam é e (Biblioth è que Nationale de France, Paris), Livia as Cybele and priestess of the Deified Augustus (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), and the sardonyx cameo of Agrippina II and Nero (Biblioth è que Nationale de France, Paris), are helpful in farther reviewing individual characteristics and possible dynastic combinations.

The last step of research will be taking what the art itself reveals and comparing it against dynastic sensibilities. For example, dynastic sensibility suggests that Antonia and Nero cannot be the couple on the Marlborough Cameo, as the coins may suggest, because their relationship is not mother and son, therefore not plausible. By personally visiting the pieces of Imperial Julio-Claudian art and weighing the results of physical comparison against dynastic sensibility, a reasonable explanation of the identity of the couple on the Marlborough Turquoise Cameo will be determined.

William “Andy” Lewis
Advisor: Dr. Benda Weber
Gaines Center for the Humanities

The Japanese Garden

It has been said that the religion of Japan is being Japanese. It is true that the Japanese have a cultural capital that is unique even in East Asia, and (some say) an aesthetic sense that binds them together as a society. The purpose of this research project is to identify elements of the Japanese Garden that immediately relate to the Japanese cultural capital.

During the course of this research, one thing became apparent above all else. Much has been written about the Japanese garden, and the average library has many, many books on the subject. What takes some time and study to realize is that in most cases, these books each say exactly the same thing, and only the spread of photographs changes. These books are written by gardening or photography enthusiasts, and not scholars — as such, they are generally made up more of crass generalizations and stale platitudes than of any effort to take up a serious, academic study of the Japanese garden.

Developing an understanding of the Japanese garden requires a broad view of Japanese cultural capital, which involves folklore, philosophy, native spirituality, and mythology as much as it does transplanted religion, history, and literary traditions. A student can see much of the Japanese cultural capital reflected in the Japanese garden as long as s/he has even a basic understanding in each of these very broad subject areas.

My research indicates that the Japanese Garden, as a concrete expression of cultural capital and the Japanese aesthetic, can be read much like a text for reflections on which parts of the Japanese cultural capital are instrumental in forming the Japanese aesthetic. Such research is valuable to us because it helps us understand the concrete expression of the humanities in the world, and suggests that many undertakings speak to the cultural capital of the society that created them. My research continues by identifying thematic structures in the garden and using them to illustrate specific nuances of the Japanese aesthetic, and then concretely tracing those points to the specific forms of cultural capital from which they sprang.