The scholar and his famous student
By: Alessandro Pezzati
One Scholar’s Famous Student: James Pritchard and Martin Luther King, Jr. James B. Pritchard (1909-1997) was a renowned Biblical archaeologist. He worked at the Penn Museum from 1950 to 1978, excavating a number of sites in the Syro-Palestinian region, including Gibeon (1956–1962), where the sun stood still for Joshua. He also worked at Tell es-Sa’idiyeh, […]
Rugs and Facebook: “Battleground War Rugs from Afghanistan”
By: Gabrielle Niu
With the political uprisings that have swept across the Middle East and Northern Africa in the past few months, we see the important role that social media has played in elucidating the general public as well as in creating and portraying a cohesive national voice for the people themselves during times of conflict. Without the […]
My time at YOC (Year of Ceramics)
By: Sureeratana Bubpha
YOC or “yuk” as my friends in Thailand pronounce it. Since I came to Penn last September, I have been keeping up-to-date with my friends and colleagues back in Thailand on Facebook. They often ask the question, “What is the progress of my work here at The Ban Chiang Project?” Last semester, when I was […]
Notes from Afghanistan, Day Four: Equal Education for Boys and Girls
By: Brian Rose
Thursday’s events fell into three groups. In the morning we attended the opening of a girls’ school in Ghazni that had been funded by the U.S. Embassy and implemented by the Ghazni Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in conjunction with the Ghazi Department of Women’s Affairs. There were opening speeches by the governor along with an […]
Notes from Afghanistan, Day Three: Ancient Monuments of Ghazni
By: Brian Rose
Today was devoted exclusively to a tour of the ancient monuments of Ghazni, which stretch from perhaps as early as the Achaemenid or Persian period to the Timurid period in the early 16th century. This trip required us to travel to all sides of the city. Although we advised at the beginning of the day […]
Notes from Afghanistan, Day Two: A Tour of Ghazni
By: Brian Rose
Early this morning we boarded a military helicopter and flew to Ghazni, nearly 150 km to the southwest of Kabul. The flight took us over the Hindu Kush mountains, which had been crossed by Alexander over 2,300 years ago. We’re staying just outside of Ghazni at a PRC (Provincial Reconstruction Center), which contains a mix […]
Notes from Afghanistan, Day One
By: Brian Rose
C. Brian Rose, former President of the Archaeological Institute of America, shares his observations about Afghanistan during his current trip: As many of you will remember, two years ago I had the good fortune of visiting Iraq at the invitation of the US Embassy in Baghdad, and I described my impressions of the country, and […]