UC Berkeley Library

Ms. Kim’s honors thesis, which her professor describes as “intellectually creative and imaginative,” explores knife and flint blade production in pre-dynastic Egypt. Using her own practical knowledge of stone knapping, Kim analyzes the knife’s material properties, how it was produced, and then links that to scholarship on the imagery of the knife, producing a better understanding of the knife’s contemporary significance. From multiple libraries on campus, the Hearst Museum, and the Baer-Keller Library of Egyptology, Kim was able to access secondary sources such as museum catalogues, scholarly monographs, and journal articles, as well as uncover rich collections of primary sources, including field notebooks, excavation reports, and physical artifacts. Her research extended beyond campus, where her need to acquire foreign or obscure publications required the use of international catalogs and Interlibrary Borrowing Services to retrieve the resources. As Professor Feldman said, Kim’s “creative approach to the topic, thinking about questions of production (stone knapping), cognition, possession, and enchantment, has drawn upon and relied on the incredible breadth and depth of the Berkeley library holdings.”