Vol. 65 / No. 1

By: Quinn Russell Brown

From the Editor: New Word, Ancient World

When I became the editor of Expedition in April 2023, I spent a few days thumbing through decades of back […]

View Article

Vol. 65 / No. 1

By: Christopher Woods

From the Williams Director: Research and Reflection

Dear Friends, Our last issue of Expedition was a grand celebration of our new Eastern Mediterranean Gallery: an immersive, innovative […]

View Article

Vol. 65 / No. 1

Greetings from Lagash

Reopening a dig site in southern Iraq after a 30-year hiatus, Penn Museum researchers made two stunning discoveries in the […]

View Article

Vol. 65 / No. 1

By: Holly Pittman

Back to Lagash

After a three-decade hiatus, the Penn Museum reopened a seminal dig site in southern Iraq. Cities first appeared, the Bible […]

View Article

Vol. 65 / No. 1

By: David Mulder

It’s Five O’Clock, Sumer

What does it take to reconstruct a bustling metropolis from 5,000 years ago? A great deal of fieldwork, collaboration, and […]

View Article

Vol. 65 / No. 1

By: Reed Goodman

A New Story of Sumer’s First Cities

A large expanse of Iraq’s central floodplain, once thriving with life, now lies abandoned beyond the reach of modern agriculture. […]

View Article

Vol. 65 / No. 1

By: Zaid Alrawi

Partners in Search of the Past

Since the 1980s, archaeological work in southern Mesopotamia has been challenged by waves of political instability, economic sanctions, and armed […]

View Article

Vol. 64 / No. 3

By: Lauren Ristvet, Virginia Herrmann, Eric Hubbard and Joanna S. Smith

From the Guest Editors: Exploring a Cultural Crossroads

THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN GALLERY, opened November 19, 2022, celebrates the Penn Museum’s history of excavation and research in the cultural […]

View Article

Vol. 64 / No. 3

By: Christopher Woods

From the Williams Director: A Multicultural World, Like Our Own

Dear Friends, In our last issue of Expedition, I looked forward to welcoming you to our newly reimagined Eastern Mediterranean […]

View Article

Vol. 64 / No. 3

By: Virginia R. Herrmann and Adam Smith

The Alphabet: A Remarkable Journey from Sinai to Beijing

The alphabet*—it’s a seemingly simple invention with a deeper history and longer journey than many people realize. The ancestor of […]

View Article