Grants Received
By the Educational Department from the Philadelphia Foundation, the Ludwick Institute and the Seybert Foundation to present a new program for the Philadelphia schools—”The World, Ancient and Modern.”
By MASCA and the Egyptian Section of $137,064. from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the preparation and installation of an exhibition on Egyptian mummification and its scientific study.
By the African Section of $23,232. from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the planning of an exhibition of the Arts of Benin.
Oliver C. Colburn, Ph.D.
Oliver C. Colburn, a member of the Board of Managers of The University Museum since 1968 and a Research Associate in MASCA died December 6. Dr. Colburn had been on the staff of several Museum expeditions in the Mediterranean area, notably at Gordion and in the Search for Sybaris. He was Associate Field Director of the expedition to Torre del Mordillo in southern Italy. With the late Mrs. Colburn, he contributed generously to these and other Museum expeditions. After his retirement from a successful business career, Oliver Colburn was able to devote all his time to the archaeology which had previously been only a hobby, and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, the subject of his dissertation being “The Quest for Thurii 1965-1967.”
The Shadow Catcher: E. S. Curtis
This exhibition, open until August 1, 1980 in the William Pepper Hall of the Museum, is of photographs from Edward Sheriff Curtis’ The North American Indian and of related ethnographic material from the American Section’s collections. The North American Indian, published in 1907-30 is the result of Curtis’ thirty-seven years photographing native Americans west of the Mississippi, and documenting and reconstructing their life as he believed it to have been before the arrival of the white man. The Catalogue gives an account of Curtis and his work, and descriptions of the photographs.
A New Book
By Carleton S. Coon, Ph.D., Research Curator of General Anthropology at the University Museum.
A North African Story is the diary written by Dr. Coon in 1942-43 when he undertook intelligence work for the United States Department of State in North Africa. His first-hand report of wartime operations in an area which he already knew well from his anthropological expeditions provides fascinating information on the native peoples, the armed forces, and the leaders and other individuals involved in the shifting fortunes of the war in that theater of operations.
Editorial matter (in a different type) has been added to the original text to give the historical and geographical setting and to identify some of the many people mentioned.
The book is published by Gambit, Ipswich, Mass., 1980; the price $11.95. Copies may be ordered from the publisher.
The Egyptian Section
David O’Connor, Associate Curator and co-director with Professor William Kelly Simpson of Yale of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt, directed a fifth season (September—early December, 1979) at Abydos. The detailed planning of the unique Middle Kingdom cenotaphs (Expedition 21.2, 48-49) continued and two further, unusually large examples were excavated, as were further areas of the Ramesses II temple forecourt. Of major importance was the exposure of several stratified sections and parts of the plan of a very extensive Old Kingdom—First Intermediate Period (ca. 2600-2100 B.C.) town in an area never previously excavated; this discovery promises to contribute importantly to our growing knowledge of the urban history of ancient Egypt.
Donald Redford, Professor in the Near Eastern Studies Department of Toronto University and Research Associate of the Museum’s Egyptian Section, directed the excavations of the University Museum-Toronto University expedition on the site of the temple of Akhenaten at Karnak in Luxor from May to June, 1979. The savagery of the demolition suffered by the temple after the heretic pharaoh’s death was further documented, and more important urban remains, of the Middle Kingdom and the Late Period respectively, were excavated. The second volume on the Akhenaten Temple Project is now almost ready to go to press.
Assistant Curator David Silverman’s book, Interrogative Constructions with In and Jn-Jw in Old and Middle Kingdom Egyptian, appeared in February.
William K. Simpson, director of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to the nobles’ tombs at Giza, reports that Giza Mastabas Volume IV: Mastabas of the Western Cemetery Part I, published in collaboration with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, has been sent to the press.
Journey to Asia Minor and the Cyclades, September 22 to October 10
Sponsored jointly by The University Museum and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. If you ever wanted to make an Aegean Odyssey, here is your chance. Our privately chartered motor yacht “Cavo D’oro” will visit Greek islands and sites along the coast of Asia Minor. Accompanied by Professor Donald White and Dr. Cynthia Jones Eiseman, you will explore a range of sites from Neolithic villages to Greek temples, from Roman theaters to early Christian churches. You will see Minoan frescoes in Athens and restored shipwrecks in Bodrum. You will enjoy cool breezes, starry skies, and whitewashed towns, all at their best in early fall.
Visit to Scandinavia May 14 to 29
Have you ever been curious about the homeland of the Norsemen who were the first Europeans to visit America? To see something of the variety of their land, come with us to Denmark with its lush green country side, to the towering snow-clad mountains and magnificent fjords of Norway, and to the mountains and picturesque lake country of Sweden. In Copenhagen, we’ll visit the Rosenberg Castle to see the crown jewels, and the Amalienborg Palace, residence of the queen. Then to the Danish National Museum whose collections span the millennia from the Ice Age to the Middle Ages. On another day we’ll visit the Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde. Before leaving Denmark, we’ll drive to a Stone Age village, to Hamlet’s Kronborg Castle at Elsinore, and to Odense, the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen.
After arriving in Gothenberg, Sweden, across the Kattegat Sea, we’ll drive north through Norway to Oslo, passing many Viking landmarks. In Oslo, we’ll visit the Viking ships, the Kon Tiki raft and Ra and also see the Polar ship, Fram. Then continuing north through the fjord country to Bergen, we’ll see rural homes perched on the hillsides and will visit a couple of stave churches. A cruise on the Sogne Fjord and a drive along the Hardanger Fjord are highlights of the trip. In Trollhaugen we’ll visit the home of Edvard Grieg.
From Bergen we’ll fly to Stockholm, a Renaissance city of canals and bridges. We’ll tour the city, visit the king’s palace at Drottingholm, and journey to Uppsala to view the royal mounds and the 12th century church. After a gala dinner at Stockholm’s Operakallaren Restaurant, we’ll board an SAS flight for home. From the first sight of the Little Mermaid near Copenhagen to that final dinner, your only regret will be that the tour is so short.