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.
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 […]
The new “Lords of Time”?
By: Stephen Lang
With the new MAYA 2012 exhibit up and running the concept of time and keeping track of time has been on my mind lately. A few years ago, on my way to a restaurant in San Francisco, my friend and I stumbled across a building with a sign that said “X Long Now”. Intrigued, we […]
Ancient Yo Mama Jokes on the Colbert Report
By: Amy Ellsworth
Last Friday, my Facebook feed was flooded with comments about our cuneiform tablet that made it onto the Colbert Report in a spot about ancient yo mama jokes. Our tablet fragment, featured in the original scholarly article in Iraq, originates from Sippar (modern-day Abu Habbah, Iraq just southwest of Baghdad) during the Old Babylonian Period (1900-1600 […]