Volume 50 / Issue 3
Special Issue: 50th Anniversary
On the Cover: Members of the Abydos Survey for Paleolithic Sites (ASPS) set off into the Egyptian desert.
Photo by ASPS.
Nancy S. Steinhardt, Curator of Chinese Art, Asian Section
Meet the Curators
By: Deborah I. Olszewski
Penn museum’s curator of Chinese Art in the Asian Section, Nancy S. Steinhardt, began studying Chinese while attending the Mark Twain Summer Institute in St. Louis when she was 13 years old. This experience opened up new and exciting vistas centered on East Asia, and Steinhardt continued learning Chinese throughout her high school years by […]
From the Editor – Winter 2008
By: James R. Mathieu
Welcome to the 50th anniversary issue of Expedition—originally launched in the fall of 1958! This commemorative issue looks back on Expedition’s history, tracing its development from earlier periodical publications and showcasing the kaleidoscope of Expedition covers from the past five decades. Our feature articles this time around begin in the high desert of Egypt, where a […]
A Historical Osteobiography of the African Crania in the Morton Collection
By: Emily S. Renschler
Update on the Morton collection For updates on the Museum’s work towards the repatriation and burial of the Morton Collection, please refer to this page. The African crania in the Morton Collection were especially important to Morton’s original study since they constituted the majority of the “Native African” sample that Morton found to have the […]
ORSA: The Open Research Scan Archive
By: Janet Monge
Update on the Morton collection For updates on the Museum’s work towards the repatriation and reburial of the Morton Collection, please refer to this page. In 2002 a small grant from the University Research Council of the University of Pennsylvania helped launch ORSA—The Open Research Scan Archive—a collection of high-resolution CT scans of human and […]
The Morton Collection and NAGPRA
By: Janet Monge
Update on the Morton collection For updates on the Museum’s work towards the repatriation and burial of the Morton Collection, please refer to this page. Since 1990 the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) has required all organizations that receive federal funds to notify and work in conjunction with Native American, Hawaiian, and […]
A Unique Northern Plains Ceramic Vessel in the Museum’s Lewis and Clark Collection
What in the World
By: Mark D. Mitchell
Even well-known artifacts can yield surprising new discoveries. Scholars have long believed that fragments of pottery in the Penn Museum’s collection represented the remains of two nearly identical vessels collected during the winter of 1804–1805 by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. However, a recent attempt to reassemble the remaining pieces, undertaken in conjunction with research […]
Penn Museum’s Youngest Egyptologist Alexander Wegner
Field Experience
By: Jennifer Houser Wegner
Fans of Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody novels, which are set in late-19th century Egypt, might be familiar with a husband and wife team of archaeologists who excavate and solve murders with the help of their adventurous and precocious son, Ramses. The Penn Museum’s Egyptian Section also has a husband and wife team of Egyptologists, Jen and […]
Splendor and Tension in Benin’s Palace Theatre
Exhibit Notes
By: Kathy Curnow
“The closer you get to Benin City, the further away it is.” This Edo proverb speaks to the complexity of Nigeria’s Benin Kingdom, a living society whose history dates back over 900 years. At the Penn Museum, we hope our physical distance provides at least one vantage point for museum-goers to appreciate not only Benin’s […]
Prehistoric Abydos
Africa's Gateway to the World
By: Harold L. Dibble and Shannon P. McPherron and Deborah I. Olszewski and Jennifer R. Smith and Utsav Schurmans and Laurent Chiotti
Most Expedition readers will be familiar with the Museum’s longstanding Egyptian research project at Abydos, which focuses on Abydos’s ancient yet historically known past, and was most recently presented in a special issue of Expedition in 2006 (vol. 48-2). In contrast, the following research focuses on Abydos’s far more distant and prehistoric past. The origin […]
The Samuel George Morton Cranial Collection
Historical Significance and New Research
By: Emily S. Renschler and Janet Monge
Update on the Morton collection For updates on the Museum’s work towards the repatriation and burial of the Morton Collection, please refer to this page. Although few visitors to the Museum would know this, the Samuel George Morton cranial collection at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is one of the most […]
