By: Naomi Miller

Ayşe knows everyone in the Yassıhöyük, and one of her friends is Metin the shepherd. Last year, he sold all his sheep and replaced them with a herd of (mostly) angora goats—the kind of goat that produces mohair—which I guess makes him a goat herder. We went out to the corral to watch him prepare […]

Read the Blog Post

By: Ann Brownlee

Two stories from the epic cycle of poems devoted to the Trojan War appear on this Attic black-figure amphora.  The Iliad and the Odyssey are the only surviving works from the cycle, but we also know something of the other poems, which carry on the story of the Trojan War and its aftermath.  For example, […]

Read the Blog Post

By: Ann Brownlee

This very large pendant consists of an onyx cameo in a gold setting.   The cameo shows Dionysus, the god of wine, carrying a thyrsus and accompanied by a panther, as he discovers a dejected Ariadne.   She had helped the hero Theseus kill the Minotaur but he then abandoned her on the island of Naxos on […]

Read the Blog Post

By: Amanda Ball

I ended up in the archives by chance. I was hoping to land a summer museum internship, so I leapt at the chance to work anywhere in the Penn Museum. When I was assigned to the archives, I didn’t know what to expect. I pictured myself looking scholarly, wearing glasses, going through the personal files […]

Read the Blog Post

By: Alyssa Kaminski

This lintel was created in Egypt between 1479 and 1458 BCE. A lintel is an architectural object meant to bear weight and usually found above doors, windows, or passages. They are usually both functional and decorative objects. This Lintel has a winged sun disk at the top with three lines of inscription. As we see […]

Read the Blog Post

By: Alyssa Kaminski

This Seed Jar was crafted by the Hopi people from the region of Arizona. The jar is decorated with iconography of squash blossoms, dragonflies, and ears of corn. In 1932, Mary-Russel Ferrell Colton founded the Hopi Craftsman Exhibition. This project was designed to stimulate the creation of American Indian objects thus broadening the market for […]

Read the Blog Post

By: Ashley Harper

A hot and humid August day gets a refreshing twist during Penn Museum’s Summer Nights concert series. This time we heard the luscious sounds of musicians: Orlando Haddad and Patricia King. They formed Minas in 1978 at North Carolina School of the Arts and have been traveling both around the U.S and South America ever […]

Read the Blog Post

By: Alyssa Kaminski

This sandstone statue was made sometime between 100 BCE and 300 CE. He is wearing a fringed robe with several necklaces and armbands. In his hands he carries a staff and a pinecone-shaped object. Over his head is a sundisk and behind him are a pair of large wings. The Egyptian ba was believed to […]

Read the Blog Post

By: Jennifer Houser Wegner

Today’s object of the day is a new addition to the galleries. This colorful and beautifully decorated cartonnage mummy case lid is now on display in the Secrets and Science gallery. What is cartonnage? Cartonnage is a material consisting of several layers of linen or papyrus pasted together and covered by a thin layer of […]

Read the Blog Post

By: Alyssa Kaminski

Pictured above is a 20th century African helmet mask of Bundu society. The mask is made of wood, tin, and a pigment giving the object it’s black coloring. On top of the figure’s headdress are three sagittal crests who’s edges are covered in tin strips. Tin strips are also found on the sides and across […]

Read the Blog Post