Events Calendar

Penn Cultural Heritage Center Lecture

Contested Heritage: Archaeology Museums in Turkey
Laurent Dissard, University of Pennsylvania
12:30 pm – Nevil Classroom, Penn Museum
Brown Bag Lecture – Please Bring a Lunch!

Turkey will soon be home to a series of new, state-of-the-art, archaeology museums. Such buildings are being planned, constructed, remodeled, or expanded in Istanbul, Ankara, Gaziantep, and other places. What kind of cultural heritage will these new museums display? These secular temples of the Turkish Republic have generally emphasized the country's “10,000-year-old” past. In this historical narrative, different Turkish cities usually trace their roots back to the Neolithic. But, what other stories are left out of this narrative? How have these new museums attempted to display these silenced stories? In this talk, Dr. Dissard takes Turkey as a specific case-study to argue that contested heritage seldom feels at home in archaeological museums. Free admission.

*Please note: Our e-newsletter on Feb. 5 incorrectly stated the time of this lecture. We apologize for our error.