By: Ardeth Abrams

In late December 2012, the fourth and final phase of the $300,000 Penn Museum Luce Program to Strengthen Southeast Asian Archaeology begins. Its focus is Luang Prabang Province, Laos, where the Museum’s Middle Mekong Archaeological Project (MMAP) has conducted surveys, test excavations and related multi-disciplinary studies since 2005. Nattha Chuenwattana, a Thai PhD student from […]

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By: Darien Sutton

So You Wanna Party Like it’s the End of the World? Before DJ Skribble makes his way to Philly for MAYA 2012: The Final Countdown Party this Friday, Dec. 21, he mused on his DJ experience and connection to Philly. Q: You have been described as an MTV legend. Tell me about your history. A: […]

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By: Tom Pedrick

Discovering unique artifacts in exotic lands has been the subject of countless explosive action films, adventure novels, and embellished storytelling, from the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann to those of Howard Carter. The human lust for treasure, especially gold, exists in the mind as a classic romantic adventure.  Thus, ancient sites across the world have been […]

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By: Molly Gleeson

In the Artifact Lab: Conserving Egyptian Mummies opened on September 30 and we have since been very busy-not only working on examining and treating objects from our Egyptian collection, but also speaking with the public on a daily basis. We had a big crowd for the 125th Anniversary open house, and some of our busiest […]

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By: Ardeth Abrams

In late December 2012, the fourth and final phase of the $300,000 Penn Museum Luce Program to Strengthen Southeast Asian Archaeology begins. Its focus is Luang Prabang Province, Laos, where the Museum’s Middle Mekong Archaeological Project (MMAP) has conducted surveys, test excavations and related multi-disciplinary studies since 2005. It’s been three years since the last […]

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By: admin

Statuette of a goat standing upright against the branches of a flowering plant. The goat has been identified as a markhor (Capra falconeri), a wild species native to the mountains of Central and South Asia, by its large corkscrew-shaped horns. The statuette is a quintessential example of early Mesopotamian (Sumerian) composite art, with its rich […]

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By: Brian Rose

  Although this mosaic now stands as a wall within the Roman gallery, it originally formed part of a large house floor in one of the ancient Roman cities in Tunisia, probably Utica. The panel is over 2 m long and 1.3 m wide, and is dominated by a meander pattern composed of interlocking squares. […]

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By: admin

A dress shield, carried at festivals by Bagobo men of southern Mindanao, in the Philippines.  At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904 men from the Bagobo village staged daily “shield dances” in which they carried shields like this one.  Among the visitors to the fair who saw the dances were two sisters […]

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By: admin

  Dating to the Middle Kingdom, this basalt statuette depicts a family group, with the mother (Sneferu) and father (Hetep-Sekhmet) on the left, and two son (Ankhu and Pepi) on the right. The left arm of each of the three males is placed across the chest, and each of the left hands grasps a bolt […]

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