logo

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.


Ur Digitization Project: November 2015

By: Brad Hafford

Horse and Rider at Ur A look at U.20055 (Museum Object Number: 35-1-114) And other horse and rider figurines When did the people of Mesopotamia first start riding horses? It’s a straightforward question but it has a somewhat complicated answer. First of all, the true horse (Equus caballus) was a relatively late entry into Mesopotamia […]

Read the Blog Post


Penn Museum Coloring Pages

By: Lee Roueche

With the increasing popularity of adult coloring books, I thought it would be fun to create some original Penn Museum coloring pages with objects from our collection. Through the magic of Photoshop, I was able to turn high resolution images of objects and Mary Louise Baker watercolors into B&W outlines. The intricate designs and repeating […]

Read the Blog Post


Conservation of Kaipure’s Tomb Chapel

By: Emily Brown

Hello from the Egypt (Sphinx) Gallery (or Lower Egypt as we often call it here at the Penn Museum)! We are Emily Brown and Madeleine Neiman, two project conservators working on the Vibration Mitigation Project at the Penn Museum. Currently, we are working in view of the public on an Old Kingdom tomb chapel (Figure […]

Read the Blog Post


Ur Project: October 2015

By: Kyra Kaercher

http://penn.museum/collections/object/283733Spiral pendants from the Near East Focus on 35-1-98C (no U number), B16370 (U.6800), B16794 (U.9351A). A special thanks to Dr. Sophie Cluzan (Curator of Near Eastern Archaeology at the Louvre), and Tessa de Alarcon, our project conservator, for the X-ray of 35-1-98C. The idea for this month’s blog post came while I was looking […]

Read the Blog Post


Wampum Field Report Part 2: Kaianerasere’Kówa – Stephanie Mach

By: Stephanie Mach

Every year the Penn Museum provides support to Penn undergraduates and graduate students as they deepen their understanding of the human experience outside the Museum’s walls. Follow these blog posts from our intrepid young scholars as they report on the sights and sites that they encounter throughout their travels in the field. This is Part 2 […]

Read the Blog Post


Wampum Field Report Part 1: Blueberry Stands, Beaver Dams, and Mannequins – Stephanie Mach

By: Stephanie Mach

Every year the Penn Museum provides support to Penn undergraduates and graduate students as they deepen their understanding of the human experience outside the Museum’s walls. Follow these blog posts from our intrepid young scholars as they report on the sights and sites that they encounter throughout their travels in the field. This season I continued […]

Read the Blog Post