From the Editor

By: Jane Hickman

Our Winter issue includes stories of the ancient and modern world. We begin with an amazing archaeological site in southeastern Turkey. Göbekli Tepe, excavated by the German Archaeological Institute, is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world. Dating to the 10th and early 9th millennia BCE—about 11,000 years ago—this site may be […]

From the Director

By: Julian Siggers

On November 1, we marked the kickoff of our Building Transformation project with a groundbreaking—or, rather, seat removal— event in the Museum’s Harrison Auditorium. (For more on this very special occasion, turn the page to “The New Penn Museum.”) It was held in the Auditorium not only because that is our largest public space—indeed, it […]

The New Penn Museum

Recently, you might have noticed some new signs around the Museum, featuring our famous Sphinx in a new role: on a hard hat. These signal that “big changes are underway”—and they truly are. On November 1, 2017, we celebrated the start of our extensive building renovations with a kickoff event in the Harrison Auditorium. Joined […]

Gallery Sneak Peek

Though Leonard Woolley’s excavations at Ur are his most famous, this is not the only site he explored during his expeditions to Iraq. In 1923–24, Woolley excavated the nearby site of Tell al-‘Ubaid, where he uncovered the remains of an Early Dynastic IIIB temple (2400–2350 BCE) dedicated to the goddess Ninhursag. It was adorned with […]

Funerary Stone Sculpture in China

By: Adam Smith and Qin Zhongpei

The two winged lions that confront each other across the span of the Rotunda are the oldest and most massive Chinese sculptures at the Penn Museum. Carved around 200 CE, as the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) was disintegrating, they predate all the stone monuments surrounding them in the gallery, and represent the first flourishing […]

The Photographs of John Henry Haynes

By: Robert Ousterhout

“We pitched our tent by the little sun temple,” wrote John Henry Haynes, as his party arrived at Palmyra in April 1885, “setting our table within its sacred precincts.” Nearing the end of their journey, Haynes and his companions had spent the previous months traversing Mesopotamia, looking for a suitable site for an American excavation—this […]

A View from Göbekli Tepe

By: Oliver Dietrich and Laura Dietrich and Jens Notroff

As we arrive at the site in the mountians of southeastern Turkey, a pale moon still hangs in a sky shifting from black to blue. Groups of local workers have arrived minutes before by tractor from a village down the hill. Still dressed in coats and cardigans against the morning chill, they wait for the […]

Four Days in West Kingston

By: Deborah A. Thomas

The new Penn Museum exhibition Bearing Witness had its genesis in a disturbing event that took place in Jamaica in 2010. Over the course of four days, at least 75 residents of a community were killed in a confrontation with local authorities. Professor Deborah A. Thomas and her colleagues Junior “Gabu” Wedderburn and Dr. Deanne […]

In the Labs

For this issue of “In the Labs,” two undergraduate students enrolled in CAAM’s Minor in Archaeological Science write on the research they conducted in the field last summer. Recording of a Burial Mound, Gordion (Turkey) By Braden Cordivari C18 My senior research project in the Department of Classical Studies concerns summer fieldwork at the site […]

Celebrating Peace at the Penn Museum What is it like to leave the only place you have ever called home? During Peace Day Philly, local high school students learned about refugees from around the world through a special Museum program, presented in partnership with the World Affairs Council. On September 20, 2017, 40 local students, […]