Ask Us Anything!
By: Tom Stanley
Open since September of 2012, the Museum’s ongoing In the Artifact Lab: Conserving Egyptian Mummies exhibition continues to be a big point of interest and engagement among our visitors. In case you’re not familiar with In the Artifact Lab, the concept is pretty simple: it’s a combination of an exhibition and a working conservation lab. […]
How to Make Cuneiform Tablet Cookies
By: Tom Stanley
In my own opinion, the best recipes go beyond the taste buds, and serve as a topic of discussion as well. A pre-made jar of salsa doesn’t facilitate conversation, but a recipe with unique ingredients or preparation—something that says something about the person who made it—is all the more valuable for its ability to make connections between the people […]
A Queen, Dethroned (For Now)
By: Tom Stanley
The centerpiece of the Museum’s Iraq’s Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur’s Royal Cemetery exhibition, and indeed a highlight of our entire collection, is the headdress and jewelry of Queen Puabi. Dating to some 4,500 years ago, her elaborate adornments included earrings, wreaths, rings, a comb, and a hair ribbon made of precious materials like gold, lapis lazuli, […]
Rediscovering a Forgotten Egyptian Pharaoh: A Penn Student’s Experience in the Field
By: Tom Stanley
In January, researchers from the Penn Museum made an historic discovery in Abydos, Egypt—unearthing the tomb and skeletal remains of a previously unknown pharaoh, Woseribre Senebkay, who reigned in the 17th century BCE. The finding was the culmination of work at the site that began in summer 2013 by a team led by Dr. Josef […]
Archives Photo of the Week: The Great Pi-ramid?
By: Tom Stanley
A quick note: On most Fridays, Archivist Eric Schnittke posts cool and interesting photos from the Penn Museum Archives here on our blog. I’m happy to say that Eric is at home with his wife Maureen and their brand new baby, Cormac Xavier, who was born just this past Monday. We at the Museum congratulate […]
Summer 2013 in the Field
By: Tom Stanley
Netherlands, Crete, Greece, Italy, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Iraq, Turkey, India, Mexico, France—this summer break, 20 University of Pennsylvania students (six undergraduate and 14 graduate students) will be doing research in 13 countries around the world, funded in part by competitive Penn Museum summer field research grants. The projects, supported by Penn and Penn Museum […]
A Q&A “In the Artifact Lab” with Molly Gleeson
By: Tom Stanley
One of the most interesting new Museum projects is our current exhibition, In the Artifact Lab: Conserving Egyptian Mummies. It’s unique in a number of ways, but notably for the fact that you can actually talk to the experts as they conduct live conservation work right before your eyes. As a coordinator for our social […]
Penn Museum, Arden Theatre Company, and Freud’s obsession with antiquities
By: Tom Stanley
The Arden Theatre Company, in Old City Philadelphia, is setting the stage for a unique new production… with some help from the Penn Museum. The Arden’s upcoming show, Freud’s Last Session, is set in the London office of Dr. Sigmund Freud—a famed psychologist with a penchant for collecting antiquities. In order to accurately recreate Freud’s […]
“Insights into Ancient Egypt”: Touch tours for the visually impaired
By: Tom Stanley
This fall, the Penn Museum is offering a new series of tours specially designed for people who are blind and visually impaired. These weekly tours offer visitors the opportunity to experience our collections as never before, by inviting guests with visual impairments to touch, feel, and investigate authentic ancient objects from our Egypt (Sphinx) Gallery […]
WDAS-FM encourages local communities to Imagine Africa
By: Tom Stanley
Imagine Africa media sponsor WDAS has been out in the community talking up the Imagine Africa project. In November, the WDAS street team was out at the Universal Circus. Look for the WDAS team out in the community this winter and spring!