Volume 41 : Articles

Research Notes

By: Josef Wegner

For 1000 miles, from the Mediterranean Sea south into Nubia, the Nile Valley is dense with the great buildings of three millennia of Pharaonic civilization. Egypt is famous for its ancient stone monu­ments: imposing tombs and temples dedicated to gods and kings. In contrast, early Egyptian towns and cities have been much less visible. Constructed predominantly of mud-brick […]

People, Places, Projects

The University of Pennsylvania Museum received a grant of $30,000 from the Trust for Mutual Understanding to facilitate AN EXCHANGE OF MUSEUM PROFESSIONALS between the UPM and the National Museum of Mongolian History (NMMH) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The exchange will enable the museums to continue planning a traveling exhibit on 20th century Mongolia. and to […]

An African American Festival on South Street, Philadelphia

By: Helen Schenck

Thomas B. Morton has been attending and photographing ODUNDE since 1976. An exhibi­tion of 30 of his black and white photographs is on display at the University of Pennsylvania Museum until January 16, 2000. It was orga­nized by the Philadelphia Folklore Project, in collaboration with ODUNDE, Inc., as part of their effort to document African […]

By: Fredrik T. Hiebert

Driving westward from Tashkent (the modern capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan) to the ancient city of Samarkand, way station on the so-called Silk Road, is an amazing experience for any archaeologist who has heard about the fabled route. Samarkand is located on thick bluffs of fine loess silt along the Zarafshan River, and appears […]

By: Dan Penny

Over the past 30 years or so, a genteel battle has raged over the prehistory of northeast Thailand. Despite a long history of international archaeological research in the area, little has been resolved since the earthshakingdiscoverythat bronze technology was known in Southeast Asia at least 1000 years earlier than traditionally thought. Research conducted by the […]

By: Richard Veit

The history of archaeology is populated by a varied cast of scholars. showmen, adventurers. and charlatans. This article exam­ines the career of a little-known pioneer of American archaeology. Montroville Wilson Dickeson (1810-1882). Dickeson, a Philadel­phia physician, conducted extensive excavations of archaeological sites in Louisiana and Mis­sissippi in the 1840s (Figs. 1. 2), amassing a collection […]

What in the World

By: Lucy Fowler Williams and Robert Preucel

How are contemporary Pueblo people interpreting their rich cultural heritage and how is this affecting their traditional arts? These, and related questions, are informing the American Section’s strategy for collecting modern Southwestern material culture. The Section has recently purchased two pottery vessels made by Diego Romero, a ceramic  artist from Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico. “Home on the […]

Survival of a Weaving Tradition in New Guinea

By: Michael C. Howard and Naffi Sanggenafa

Traditional dress in Irian Jaya, in the Pacific archipelago nation of Indonesia, is usually associated with penis gourds, string bags, and grass skirts. The province (which occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea) has universally had the reputation among textile spe­cialists of a place “where weaving is not practiced” (Gitlow 1992:15). It […]

From the Archives

By: Alex Pezzati

J. Alden Mason wrote this unabashed paean to the American Section’s Linton Sat­terthwaite when he was excavating at Sitio Conte, on the Pacific Coast of Panama, in 1940. Mason was ebullient about his exciting finds of gold objects in an elaborate burial. He led a team from the University of Pennsylvania Museum that excavated at […]

By: Donald White

What with a total replacement of its fire safety and security system and the imminent addition of the new Mainwaring wing. the Museum is a busy place these days. This makes us all the more pleased that the Mediterranean Section is adding to the cre­ative confusion by implementing a major renovation of its Etruscan and […]