Near East

Photo of skeletons in hasanlu

Vol. 60 / No. 1

By: Katherine Burge and Lauren Ristvet

Last Day at Hasanlu: An Iron Age City Frozen in Time

In the summer of 1958, a young archaeologist by the name of Robert H. Dyson, Jr., led a team from […]

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Vol. 60 / No. 1

By: Renata Holod

Locus of Civilization: Cities of the Islamic and Persianate World

Ibn Khaldun, the great 14th-century CE historian and philosopher, stated that without the city (Arabic: madina) there can be no […]

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Vol. 60 / No. 1

By: Brian Spooner

Globalization and The Ancient World

Globalization began in the Middle East. It is the story of larger and larger numbers of people connecting and interacting […]

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Vol. 60 / No. 1

By: Brian Spooner

Nomads in The Middle East

Nomads are mobile tent-dwelling pastoralists in areas of the arid zone (which stretches from Morocco to China, with the area […]

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Vol. 60 / No. 1

By: Lynn Grant

Foundational Work: Conservation and The Middle East Galleries

Conservation is involved very early in the process of creating new Penn Museum galleries and exhibitions. When the curators and […]

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Vol. 60 / No. 1

By: Jessica Bicknell and Ellen Owens

From the First Cities to Our City: Connecting Philadelphians to The Past, One Tablet at a Time

Aspects of our everyday lives as city denizens have been shaped by—and in some cases, stem directly from—the first cities […]

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Vol. 60 / No. 1

By: Marie-Claude Boileau

Analyzing Slipper Coffins from Nippur: In the Labs

The opportunity to analyze, with my students, amazing glazed ceramic coffins from Nippur—some of the iconic objects featured in the […]

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Vol. 59 / No. 2

By: Page Selinsky

Lovers, Friends, or Strangers?: New Thoughts on a Museum Icon

Archaeology is compelling, in part, because it provides a connection to people of times past. It allows us to step […]

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photo of object

Vol. 59 / No. 1

By: William B. Hafford

City of the Moon: New Excavations at Ur

The ancient city of Ur was dedicated to the Sumerian moon god—today it resembles a lunar landscape. From 1922 to […]

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photo of people on hill

Vol. 59 / No. 1

By: Susannah Fishman, Jeyhun Eminli, Lara Fabian and Emil Iskenderov

Report from the Field – In the Mountains, between Empires: Notes From the Lerik in Antiquity Archaeological Project

The first season of the collaborative Azerbaijani-American Lerik in Antiquity Archaeological Project (LAAP), co-directed by Ph.D. student Lara Fabian (Penn […]

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