In the archives, we tend to have about a thirty-year lag between something happening at the museum and a researcher wanting to look at those records. However, it’s worth reminding our public that the Penn Museum is actively involved in dozens of research projects, and that the scientists and others involved in this process are creating records every day.
Amy Ellsworth, writing for the Middle Mekong Archaeological Project, has produced one of the more fascinating blogs I have ever encountered. She writes about life on an archaeological dig with humor and a sense of adventure — I would recommend this for anyone who’s interested in archaeology, travel, or who just wants to know what it’s like to ride an elephant.
The Middle Mekong Archaeological Project team is studying caves in the World Heritage site of Luang Prabang in the heart of the middle Mekong River basin, in northern Laos. China is to the north, Vietnam to the north and east, and Thailand to the south and west. As an area at the core of Southeast Asia, yet one that is virtually an archaeological terra incognita, northern Laos can provide some missing puzzle-pieces in several theories on how settled societies developed in the region.