University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Athropology

Volume 28 / Issue 1
(1986)

Issue Cover

On the cover: Iroquois beaded pouch and moccasin, with an illustration of Caroline Parker wearing a traditional Seneca costume from L. H. Morgan's League of the Iroquois.
Pouch: Collection Object Number: 30-1-12
Moccassin: Collection Object Number: 41-24-12
Photo by Fred Schoch.


Excavations at Khirbet Iskander, Jordan

A Glimpse at Settled Life during the "Dark Age" in Palestinian Archaeology

By: Suzanne Richard

The site of Khirbet Iskander lies in central Jordan on the Plateau, just north of the famed biblical Plains of Moab (Fig. 2). Fifty-six kilometers to the north is the capital city of Amman’ Like a majority of Early Bronze (EB) IV settlement sites in ancient Trans-jordan, it is located near a peren­nial stream, the […]


University Museum Research Projects

Sumerian Dictionary Project Director: Dr. Ake W. Sjöberg (Babylonian Section, University Museum) Sponsors: University Museum, National Endowment for the Humanities, Phoebe T. Haas Trust The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project Bas initiated in 1976. The aim of the Project is to produce the first comprehensive dictionary of the world’s first written language, Sumerian. This Dictionay will […]


Fabrics of the Iroquois

The Lewis H. Morgan Collection for the New York State Museum

By: Elisabeth Tooker

In The University Museum are a number of Iroquois manufac­tures collected at various times in various places in New York State and Canada. There are similar collections, some larger, some smaller, in other museums. Some objects obtained from Indians in the 17th and 18th centuries have found their way into European mu­seums. But the most […]


Basket Makers of the Highlands

The Dou Wawo of Bima, Sumbawa

By: Michael Hitchcock

The varied terrain of the Island of Sumbawa is best appreciated from the air. During the wet monsoon one only catches a glimpse of it when the plane descends from the thick cloud cover to land near one of the three major towns, engendering an impression of lush rice fields sepa­rated by miles of emptiness—a […]


Ill-Understood Relics

A Group of Early Anglo-Saxon Artifacts in The University Museum

By: Genevieve Fisher

It was the labour of four long days to cut entirely through the barrow, but we who were not absolutely diggers contrived to pass our time to the full satisfaction of all the party. A plentiful supply of provisions had been procured for pic nicking on the bill, and we remained by the barrow all day. […]


Acculturation in an Urban Setting

The Archaeology of a Black Philadelphia Cemetery

By: Michael Parrington and Janet Wideman

Archaeologists have traditionally been interested in the excavation of cemeteries, an interest spurred by the rich grave goods found in many burial sites. Grave goods represent an expres­sion of the feelings of the living at the time of death, and also the burial customs prevalent in a par­ticular society. Interpretation of the significance of burial […]


Rouletting and Chattering

Decoration on Ancient and Present-Day Pottery in India

By: Vimala Begley

As the Periplus of the Erythracau Sea and other Classical accounts tell us, there was a thriving sea trade between the ports of the Red Sea and south India during the 1st century A. D. Unfortunately, we know very little about when this trade first began or who the earlier traders might have been, since […]


Sampans, Belangs, and Junkos

The Pearling Boats of the Aru Islands

By: Graeme Henderson and Ian Crawford

The authors of this article had questions to ask about Indonesian boats and boatbuilding Ian Crawford was interested in early Indonesian contact with Australia, and in traditional Indonesian craft. Graeme Henderson was following the development of the Australian pearling lugger as a boatbuilding form and wanted to know about any Indonesian influence on design developments in […]