Near East

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 […]

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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 tells us, in southern Mesopotamia. Beyond such received knowledge, archaeologists and anthropologists have thought long […]

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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 […]

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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. […]

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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 […]

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Vol. 64 / No. 1

Rotating Displays: Deer Dancer and African Textiles

The 2013 Native American Voices exhibition includes many of the most spectacular textiles in the Penn Museum’s North American collections. […]

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Vol. 63 / No. 3

Deinstalling a Gallery: BEHIND THE SCENES WITH A MUSEUM KEEPER

On November 19, 2022, the Penn Museum will unveil our newest gallery, replacing the Canaan and Ancient Israel Gallery installed […]

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Vol. 63 / No. 3

By: C. Brian Rose

Repairing Damage Inflicted by the Persians 2,500 Years Ago: Summer 2021 Architectural Conservation Work at Gordion, Turkey

Fieldwork at Gordion in 2021 focused on architectural conservation, object conservation, and research for a wide variety of manuscripts dealing […]

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Vol. 63 / No. 3

By: Sajjad Alibaigi, Alireza Moradi-Bisotuni and Nourollah Karimi

What Can a Door Socket Tell Us?: Intriguing Discoveries at Quwākh Tapeh

In 1992, the accidental discovery of a ceramic vessel at Quwākh Tapeh, a historical key site along the Silk Road […]

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Vol. 63 / No. 2

Artifact Perspective: Seeing Baghdad in Queen Puabi

Yaroub Al-Obaidi, Global Guide for the Middle East Galleries, drew inspiration from Queen Puabi’s burial headdress and jewelry to create […]

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