By: Howard C. Peterson

A great period for the University Museum has been the 29-year directorship of Froelich Gladstone Rainey from 1947 to 1976. During that period the staff of the Museum trebled in size. Under his leadership the quality of research and scholarship of the Museum was enormously enhanced. He leaves as a fine heritage a curatorial staff […]

By: Tamara Stech Wheeler and Robert Maddin

Archaeological research in Thailand during the past decade has produced evidence of an early bronze metallurgical tradition, the beginnings of which may date to the fourth millennium B.C. Excavations at Non Nok Tha and Ban Chiang have uncovered a wealth of metal artifacts, including ornaments and weapons, and material related to metalwork­ing, such as moulds […]

By: William Schauffler

Human bones, bleached white by the sun or stained black by the soil are scattered about. Large painted pots with strikingly well executed designs and heavy, fused masses of bronze bracelets encircling the wearer’s arm bones are offered for sale. These are some of the unfortunate by-products of the archaeological research in Northeast Thailand that has revolutionized […]

A Mosaic of Impressions from the First Two Years

By: Chester Gorman and Pisit Charoenwongsa

Only a decade ago, Southeast Asia was regarded as a prehistoric cul-de-sac; that it might have been an important area in the development of early civilization was an unthinkable notion. In 1966, two most emi­nent scholars of Southeast Asian cultural history, Coedes and Groslier still accepted the standard theory that early sophisticated stone tools, pottery […]

Introduction

By: James D. Muhly

In this issue of Expedition, designed to be some small tribute to Froelich Rainey for his many years of inspired leadership as director of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, we have the special privilege of publishing three articles dealing with recent archaeological work in northeastern Thailand, especially with material from the sites […]

By: Sir John Pope-Hennessy

This article is based on a talk to the University Museum Fellows on November 6, 1975 by Sir John Pope-Hennessy, erstwhile Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. From the time that curiosities were first assembled, it has been assumed that the purpose of collecting them was to assuage curiosity. When […]