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Welcome to the Penn Museum blog. First launched in January 2009, the Museum blog now has over 800 posts covering a range of topics in the categories of Museum, Collection, Exhibitions, Research, and By Location. Here you’ll hear directly from our staff and Penn students about their work, research, experiences, and discoveries. To explore the Museum's other digital content, visit The Digital Penn Museum.


Colonial DNA at Our Finger- (and Toe-) Tips – By Raquel Fleskes

By: Anne Tiballi

In the middle of the sticky mid-June heat, I arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee, with six skeletal samples, a car full of chemical reagents, and the mindset to learn how to do ancient DNA extraction. With help from the Penn Museum, I was able to travel to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to work with […]

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Seven Days of Senwosret – Lisa Saladino Haney

By: Anne Tiballi

With support from the Penn Museum, I was able to further the research I began in 2014 on the statuary of the pharaoh Senwosret III and his son Amenemhet III. This July, I traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore to view a series of statues and […]

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Entre Brechitas y Carreteras : The Possibilities of Museum-led Maya Language Education in the Yucatan Peninsula – Frances Kvietok

By: Anne Tiballi

As kids arrive to the Museo de la Guerra de Castas (Caste War Museum) located in Tihosuco, Mexico, they are greeted by Bety and Antonia, two of the museum’s cultural promoters, and myself in Yucatec Maya. ‘Ma’alob k’iin’ (Good day!), ‘Bishabel?’ (How are you?). Some children reply with a shy smile, some respond in Maya […]

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