Antiquities Exhibits

Yesterday I finished editing and uploading the last of my images of artifacts in the Egyptian gallery of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) to Wikimedia Commons. Next I'll be working on uploading my images of their Greco-Roman collection. Here are some of my favorites from their Egyptian collection: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Egyptian_antiquities_in_the_University_of_Pennsylvania_Museum Head of King Osorkon II of Egypt excavated at Tunis 874-850 BCE Black Granite Head of a colossal statue of Ramesses II King of Egypt from Abydos 1290-1224 BCE New Kingdom Dynasty 19 Head of a colossal statue of Ramesses II King of Egypt from Abydos 1290-1224 BCE New Kingdom Dynasty 19 Closeup of Bronze statue of a cat with gold leaf Dynasty 22 Egypt 945-712 BCE Basalt Baboon Egypt Dynasty 20 1182-1151 BCE Statue of Ramesses III Limestone Egypt 1187-1156 BCE (Reign of Ramesses III, Dynasty 20) Ka statue of the Royal Acquaintanc...

Historically known as Scythopolis, Beth Shean (Beit She'an) is located at the junction of the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley.   The city was founded in the Late Neolithic or Early Chalcolitic Period (sixth to fifth millennia BCE).  In the Biblical account of the battle of the Israelites against the Philistines on Mount Gilboa, the bodies of King Saul and three of his sons were hung on the walls of Beit She'an.  In Roman times, after Pompey annexed Judea to the Roman Empire,  Beit She'an was refounded and rebuilt by Gabinius. The town center shifted from the summit of the mound, or tell, to its slopes. Thereafter, it became the leading city of the Decapolis, a league of Judean cities, and was the only Decapolis city west of the Jordan River.   The city flourished under the "Pax Romana", as evidenced by high-level urban planning and extensive construction, including the best preserved Roman theatre of ancient Samaria, as well as a hippodrome,...

Yesterday I finished editing and uploading my images of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum)'s Chinese and Japanese Art on display in their Asian galleries to Wikimedia Commons.  These are high resolution images suitable for both print and digital applications and I only require attribution for their use. The Penn Museum's Asian collection ranges from bronze vessels of the Zhou Period (1046-256 BCE) to sculptures of the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1912 CE).  Most objects on display at the time of my visit in 2015 are related to Buddhism in some form. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Asian_art_in_the_University_of_Pennsylvania_Museum_of_Archaeology_and_Anthropology I'm now working on my images of their ancient Egyptian collection and will begin uploading those soon.  Most of my images of their spectacular objects from ancient Mesopotamia including the death pit of Ur have been uploaded from my Flickr account by another Wi...

Egyptian Art at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Penn Museum houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian and Nubian material in the United States, numbering in excess of 42,000 items. Assembled through nearly a century of archaeological research, this collection is unusual in that the vast majority of the objects were obtained through archaeological inv estigations in Egypt and entered the Museum through a division of finds with Egypt's Antiquities Service. Because the Museum has worked at a wide range of sites (provincial and royal cemeteries, palaces, temples, towns, sanctuaries and settlements), the collection spans ancient Egypt's entire history, from the Predynastic Period (circa 4000 BCE) through the Greco-Roman Period and into the Coptic Period (ending in the 7th century CE). It also includes a large number of material categories, such as architecture, statuary, minor arts, domestic artifacts,...

Newly reimagined Mexico and Central America Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to open November 16, 2019. University of Pennsylvania’s work in Mexico and Central America began more than a century ago and In the following decades, Penn archaeologists led excavations at sites such as Piedras Negras, Guatemala and Sitio Conte, Panama, unearthing remnants of the powerful cultures that once dominated these lands including a 1,200-year-old limestone monument dubbed “Stela 14,” which played a key role in the decipherment of Maya glyph writing. The Penn's collection of Maya monuments are considered the largest and finest in the U.S. These sculptures will be accompanied by Aztec and Olmec artifacts on long-term loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a rotating array of 20th-century textiles from Guatemala. The next phase of the Building Transformation Campaign, a complete renovation of the Egypt and Nubia Galleries ha...

The Golden Splendor of the Royal Tombs of Ur ongoing at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The Penn Museum joined with the British Museum to support excavations at Tell al-Muqayyar (ancient Ur), directed by Sir Leonard Woolley, from 1922-1934.   The best known artifacts are from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, a burial ground with more than 2000 internments, including those of the kings and queens who ruled the city-state ca. 2500 BCE. They include the personal jewelry of Puabi, the queen, and the “ram-in-the thicket,” a statuette of a goat rampant in a tree. The “ram-in-the-thicket” is made of shell, lapis lazuli, gold, and copper and typifies early Mesopotamian composite art. Other objects on display include a gilded bull-headed lyre, the remains of a young attendant wearing a gold headdress and jewelry of gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and shell, and electrotype reproductions of a bull-headed harp ornament and soldier's helmet. Soldiers were among the human s...

Ancient Egypt: From Discovery to Display. Opening Saturday, February 23, 2019 at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mummies and artifacts tell archaeologists about what life was like in ancient Egypt, but what happens to an object before it goes on exhibit at a museum? Peel back the curtain for a unique view of more than 200 objects from the Museum's renowned Egyptian collection. This 6,000-square-foot exhibition i ntroduces visitors to the history of ancient Egypt and includes elements of visible artifact storage and active conservation of Museum objects - offering an insider's view into how objects are researched and cared for before they are put on display. Ramesses III Dynasty 20 1187-1156 BCE photographed at the Penn Museum Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Child mummy from the Greco-Roman Period photographed at the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Closing Sunday! Cultures in the Crossfire: Stories from Syria and Iraq, through November 25, 2018, The Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Limestone loculus cover from Palmyra 2nd century CE photographed at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This new exhibition, created in conjunction with the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, sheds light on the ongoing destruction of cultural heritage in the Middle East by showing what’s at stake—the rich history of the region and the diversity of its people—and what’s being done to prevent the loss of this history and cultural identity. Fascinating ancient art and artifacts from the Penn Museum’s extensive Near East collection tell stories of the cultures of Syria and Iraq through time. Contemporary artwork from Issam Kourbaj, a Syrian artist based in Cambridge, UK, provides an art intervention—a modern-day response to the artifacts and themes. The exhibition features the important work ...