On the Cover: Yarn painting by José Benitez Sánchez. From Visions of a Huichol Shaman, by Peter T. Furst.
Photo Credit: Peter T. Furst
By: Alex Pezzati
The old cliché that museums and archives are full of undiscovered treasures is true. Though one works constantly to identify and catalog the materials stored therein, there are items that, until the propitious eye of an outside observer comes along, escape detection and revelation. Dr. Elin Danien, an expert in the archaeology of the ancient Maya and […]
By: James R. Mathieu
Recently I had a chance to read Michael Crichon’s Timeline, a book recommended to me because it combined my interests in archaeology and the medieval world with an adventure similar to the now-famous Jurassic Park. The book was indeed fun to read since it toyed with the concept of time travel and every archaeologist’s fantasy: […]
By: Julia A. Hendon
Unspeakable dignity isolates the diminutive nobleman. Dominating the shelf, his regnant nature ignores the bric-a-brac obstructing his view. With arms folded and head imperially lifted, he waits cross-legged for the next petitioner. Thus Evan Connell in his Novel, The Connoisseut describes a Precolumbian Maya clay figurine sitting in the window of an antique shop. I […]
By: William Wierzbowski
Since 1998, the American Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum has been involved with the National Museum of the American Indian’s Native Artist Fellowship Program. Those native artists selected for the program travel to the east coast to research museum collections in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC The University of Pennsylvania Museum has […]
If you walked by the Museum this last summer, this is what the upper courtyard looked like — a big construction site, full of equipment moving vast quantities of earth, as the area was excavated down some 25 feet below the original garden level. The fishpond and the garden were long gone, and plywood protected […]
By: Jack Murray
Getting to know Jim Marion was as easy as falling off your new two-wheeled bike for the first time, without the pain and embarrassment. Jim was soft spoken with an inner calm that revealed his deep faith in people. His smile was infectious; his eyes were dear signs of confidence. I knew that when he […]
By: Programs Department
A new exhibit at the Museum can come about in one of many ways. In the case of our new exhibit “Mythic Visions: Yarn Paintings of a Huichol Shaman,” it was inspired by the Museum’s recent acquisition of a unique collection of the work of one Nichol shaman artist, Jose Benitez Sanchez. The Huichol Indians […]
By: Deborah I. Olszewski
Some of you know a thing or two about our featured museum curator, Donald White, because of his role in the exhibition, “Worlds Intertwined: Etruscans, Greeks and Romans.” This ambitious project occupied much of his time since 1990, intensifying from 1999 leading up to the opening of the new Etruscan and Roman galleries at the […]
By: Beebe Bahrami
In this issue, we explore the Americas with features that reflect the changes in archaeology and anthropology from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Christine Ward discusses Chacoan-era archaeology in southeastern Utah and how it benefits from an expand‑ ed perspective of Ancestral Puebloans through regional focus, landscape archaeology, and comparative sites. William Wierzbowski brings […]
By: Jeremy A. Sabloff
As I write this column, I can look out my office window and admire the beautiful Stoner Courtyard, now in full bloom. The current scene at the Upper Courtyard, however, is a different story. The whole Warden Garden has been temporarily removed, while construction proceeds on the first phase of the long-term FARE (Future Air […]