Search results for ""University of Pennsylvania Museum""

The 17 figurines published here are but a small sample of the objects excavated more than 100 years ago at the Bronze Age necropolis at the site of Ayia Paraskevi in Cyprus. Vassos Karageorghis introduces the volume with an insightful essay on the significance of the site and one of its early excavators, Max Ohnefalsch-Richter. Terence Brennan contributes information on the history of the Museum's acquisition of these pieces based on a 12-year correspondence between Sara Yorke Stevenson, one of the Museum's early founders, and Ohnefalsch-Richter. The volume contains a detailed catalogue of the 17 figurines, including bibliography and comparanda.

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The University of Pennsylvania owns the largest collection of Minoan artifacts outside of Europe. The objects were acquired legally from the nation of Crete after it became independent from the Ottoman Empire and before its request was accepted to become a part of Greece, whose laws forbade such gifts to institutions that had sponsored archaeological expeditions. This third volume about the Cretan Collection in the Penn Museum presents the Minoan metal artifacts. They provide primary evidence for the early history of metallurgy in southeastern Europe during the second millennium B.C. This is a rich and varied assemblage of objects, with a large number of different classes. It is especially rich in items from the preliminary stages of metalwork (including oxhide ingot fragments, cut preliminary strips, and small cast strips used as early stages in the manufacture of artifacts). The study using modern techniques of examination-including scientific analyses-both documents the museum's holdings and provides new information on Minoan metalworking. Two important metallurgical techniques are documented: eutectic bonding of silver-capped rivets on daggers and "casting on" repairs to an existing object, which has not been noted previously in Minoan metalwork. The assemblage is remarkable for the light its objects shed on the history of technology.

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The University Museum's classical collections are among the largest, most diverse, and most systematically collected of those of any museum in the United States. Of particular importance is the Etruscan material, spanning the entire history of the Etruscan peoples, from the ninth to the second centuries B.C. The strengths of the Roman collection are its glass, coins, sculpture, and the excavated objects from the Italian sites of Colonia Minturnae and the Sanctuary of Diana at Nemi. The Guide covers religion, daily life, language, commerce and trade, and death and burial among the Etruscans and Romans, and the legacy of the classical world in Western culture. It celebrates the completion of a suite of galleries at the University Museum—Worlds Intertwined: Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans—and is a companion guide to The Ancient Greek World (1995).

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Hilprecht's collection is important because it was put together at the turn of the century by one of the great names in Near Eastern archaeology, because he had documented the provenance and nature of the pieces, and because so many of the objects were from Anatolia, thus providing evidence for provincial bronze production of a type that is not well known or published. The Hilprecht collection is not well known, yet it forms a cohesive group which this publication now makes available, taking advantage of the recent strides in the study of classical bronzes. University Museum Monograph, 98

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Totaling approximately 40,000 objects, the University Museum's ethnographic holdings represent native peoples from ten North American culture areas—the Arctic, Subarctic, Northwest Coast, California, Plateau, Great Basin, Southwest, Great Plains, Northeast, and the Southeast. This guide highlights the strength of the collections and demonstrates how objects are tied to history and people living within different cultural and social contexts. It also underscores that objects have different multiple meanings. Some objects illustrate intertribal relations; others best reflect collecting attitudes at the turn of the century when much of the Museum's collections was acquired. Visitors and off-site readers will learn about such related archival resources as documentation and photographs, past and present Museum exhibitions, current research, repatriation, and contemporary collections development.

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Since 1887 the University Museum has been one of the leading archaeology and anthropology museums in the world and has sponsored field research in every corner of the globe. A key outcome, from its first expedition to Nippur, in modern-day Iraq, through more than 300 expeditions in the past century, to its research in fifteen different countries today, has been a wealth of primary photographs capturing both expeditions and excavations and also images of modern peoples on every inhabited continent of our planet. These vintage photographs, carefully selected from hundreds of thousands, range from mundane record-keeping pictures to glorious aesthetic treats, and they are in demand by international scholars and students and researchers worldwide. One of the most powerful of media to convey information about—and to advance understanding of—foreign peoples and places is photography. Soldiers, missionaries, merchants, and other travelers carried out early anthropological photography in distant lands. Field photography was extremely difficult when the Museum began its research program in the late 1880s, requiring the transport of a complete dark room and other heavy equipment. The Museum's intrepid adventurers sought scientific accuracy, with no artifice that may have obscured the realism of the image. An engaging narrative essay highlighting the Museum's fieldwork explains the contexts of the range of photographs from the Museum's Archives and the role of photography in studying human cultures.

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The University Museum has been involved in Mesoamerican archaeology for more than a century. Its collections include material from northern Mexico to Costa Rica and represent all of the major cultures of the region. This guide allows the visitor to gain on-site understanding and the off-site reader to grasp how the Museum's collections fit into current archaeological theory. The text underscores some of the pan-Mesoamerican aspects of pre-Columbian peoples and the way each group interpreted underlying similarities to create individual customs and beliefs, burials and caches, beauty and adornment. The guide focuses on the unique aspects of the collection, much of it stemming from the Museum's own excavations, including eight large carved limestone monuments from its historic early excavations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (1931-39) and Caracol, Belize (1951-53), the only group of original Maya monuments on display in an American museum. The inscriptions on these monuments are reproduced in detail, accompanied by translations and explanations drawing on the latest epigraphic research. Also included are important pieces from the Guatemala highlands; figurines and carvings collected in the early nineteenth century by the U.S. ambassador to Mexico; as well as significant material from Central America, including the famous carved alabaster vases from the Uloa Valley in Honduras.

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The University Museum has been involved in Mesoamerican archaeology for more than a century. Its collections include material from northern Mexico to Costa Rica and represent all of the major cultures of the region. This guide allows the visitor to gain on-site understanding and the off-site reader to grasp how the Museum's collections fit into current archaeological theory. The text underscores some of the pan-Mesoamerican aspects of pre-Columbian peoples and the way each group interpreted underlying similarities to create individual customs and beliefs, burials and caches, beauty and adornment. The guide focuses on the unique aspects of the collection, much of it stemming from the Museum's own excavations, including eight large carved limestone monuments from its historic early excavations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala (1931-39) and Caracol, Belize (1951-53), the only group of original Maya monuments on display in an American museum. The inscriptions on these monuments are reproduced in detail, accompanied by translations and explanations drawing on the latest epigraphic research. Also included are important pieces from the Guatemala highlands; figurines and carvings collected in the early nineteenth century by the U.S. ambassador to Mexico; as well as significant material from Central America, including the famous carved alabaster vases from the Uloa Valley in Honduras.

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Combining a guide for the Museum visitor with scholarly discussions of all objects on display, this catalogue provides background on the society, history, technology, and commerce of the Etruscan and Faliscan cultures from the ninth through the first centuries B.C. Several groups of material illustrate social, historical, and technological phenomena currently at the forefront of scholarly debate and study, such as the crucial period of the turnover from Iron Age hut villages to the fully urbanized princely Etruscan cities, the development and extent of ancient literacy, and the position of women and children in ancient societies. Many special objects seldom found or generally inaccessible in the United States include Faliscan tomb groups, Etruscan inscriptions, helmets, and trade goods. The catalogue presents and analyzes objects of warfare, weaving, animals, religious beliefs, architectural and terracotta roofing ornaments, Etruscan bronze-working for utensils, weapons, and artwork, and fine, generic portraiture. It discusses the symbolic meaning of such objects deposited in tombs as a chariot buried with a Faliscan lady at Narce, a senator's folding stool buried in a later tomb at Chiusi, and a pair of horse bits with the teeth of a chariot team still adhering to them where the teeth fell when sacrificed for a funeral in the fifth-century necropolis at Tarquinia—much later than the horse sacrifice was previously known in Etruria.

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Totaling approximately 40,000 objects, the University Museum's ethnographic holdings represent native peoples from ten North American culture areas—the Arctic, Subarctic, Northwest Coast, California, Plateau, Great Basin, Southwest, Great Plains, Northeast, and the Southeast. This guide highlights the strength of the collections and demonstrates how objects are tied to history and people living within different cultural and social contexts. It also underscores that objects have different multiple meanings. Some objects illustrate intertribal relations; others best reflect collecting attitudes at the turn of the century when much of the Museum's collections was acquired. Visitors and off-site readers will learn about such related archival resources as documentation and photographs, past and present Museum exhibitions, current research, repatriation, and contemporary collections development.

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The University Museum's classical collections are among the largest, most diverse, and most systematically collected of those of any museum in the United States. Of particular importance is the Etruscan material, spanning the entire history of the Etruscan peoples, from the ninth to the second centuries B.C. The strengths of the Roman collection are its glass, coins, sculpture, and the excavated objects from the Italian sites of Colonia Minturnae and the Sanctuary of Diana at Nemi. The Guide covers religion, daily life, language, commerce and trade, and death and burial among the Etruscans and Romans, and the legacy of the classical world in Western culture. It celebrates the completion of a suite of galleries at the University Museum—Worlds Intertwined: Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans—and is a companion guide to The Ancient Greek World (1995).

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This first complete published catalogue of one of the most important classical sculpture collections in the United States includes 154 works from Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Asia Minor, North Africa, Roman Syria and Palestine, Egypt, and Babylonia, ranging in date from the late seventh century B.C. to the fourth century A.D. Each piece receives a complete description with measurements and report of condition, a list of the previous published sources, and a commentary reflecting the most recent scholarship, along with extensive photographic documentation. Various audiences will appreciate the accessibility of the scholarship presented here—students may engage in further study on some of topics raised by individual pieces or groups of sculptures, and the scholarly community will welcome a work that provides an up-to-date and comprehensive examination of a significant classical sculpture collection in one of the world's great archaeology museums. University Museum Monograph, 125

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An easy-to-read guide based on excavations conducted under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The book includes contributions by D. Buitron, D. Christou, M. Loulloupis, A. H. S. Megaw, A. Papgeorhiou, S. Sinos and D. Soren. Also included are drawings maps, full-color photographs, and a bibliography. University Museum Monograph, 42

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Proceedings of a symposium held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in January 1987. The primary objective of this symposium was to examine the diversity in data, methodologies, and interpretive models that have emerged from recent fieldwork. The volume is divided into three main parts: the first contains articles devoted to the excavation and interpretation of individual sites, the second focuses on papers dealing with issues concerning the Middle Paleolithic, and the third deals with aspects of variability in the Upper Paleolithic. An extensive bibliography is included. Symposium Series I University Museum Monograph, 54

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This publication present an overview of the author's 20 years of excavation at the Etruscan site of Murlo. Phillips offers his perspective on the site and theories about its functions. The introduction by David and Francesca Ridgway places this important site in the perspective of our current knowledge of the Etruscans. Ingrid Edlund-Berry and the author have compiled an extensive annotated bibliography for the site. This volume will be invaluable to scholars and of interest to anyone intrigued by the mystery of the Etruscans.

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Any consideration of the Iranian plateau must include the important site of Hasanlu in northern Iran. The Museum carried out excavations from 1956 through 1977. A major aspect of the research focused on the Iron Age settlement. This fortified town was attacked around 800 B.C. The attack and accompanying fire caused the rapid collapse of public buildings. Thus, the site provides a unique opportunity to examine a wide range of objects and materials still in the contexts in which they were stored. University Museum Monograph, 50

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A careful examination of the collection of textiles from this famous Peruvian site. The author examines categories of textiles by their possible use and technique of manufacture, as well as reexamines the field notes of Uhle's expedition. Extensive attention to weaving and sewing techniques. University Museum Monograph, 30

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Any consideration of the Iranian plateau must include the important site of Hasanlu in northern Iran. The Museum carried out excavations from 1956 through 1977. A major aspect of the research focused on the Iron Age settlement. This fortified town was attacked around 800 B.C. The attack and accompanying fire caused the rapid collapse of public buildings. Thus, the site provides a unique opportunity to examine a wide range of objects and materials still in the contexts in which they were stored. University Museum Monograph, 40

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This volume includes descriptive catalogues for several classes of small finds from the site including many photographs and drawings. A useful section of the conservation of the material is useful for field conservationists and excavators. The Extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Cyrene, Libya, III University Museum Monograph, 66

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Rodney S. Young directed excavations for the Museum at the site of Gordion on the central plateau in Anatolia (modern Turkey) in alternate years from 1950 to 1973. Traces of occupation as early as the Early Bronze Age have been identified, but Gordion flourished in the time of the historic King Midas, toward the end of the eighth century B.C. The three huge tumuli-covered wooden burial chambers detailed here contained a wealth of bronze vessels, fine wooden furniture, and pottery. University Museum Monograph, 43

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The Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum is a highly regarded international series that serves as a vital research aid in the study of Greek pottery. This first fascicule of the CVA from the University Museum includes 101 South Italian vases. Among these are Apulian Red-Figure, Apulian Gnathia, Apulian Black-Glaze, and four classes of native (non-Greek) wares—Daunian, Peucetian, Messapian, and Canosan—dating from the Archaic to early Hellenistic periods. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, I (U.S.A. 22) University Museum Fascicule I

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The findings from the excavations (1964-1966) at a prominent mound in the central Jordan Valley are described by the excavator. Strata of occupation extend from the late ninth century B.C. through the Roman period. Each is described in terms of its architecture, pottery, and other artifacts. University Museum Monograph, 60

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A critical transition period in the archaeology and history of Palestine—the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age—is described in detail from the perspective of a group of sites in the Baq'ah Valley. A major emphasis is on how scientific techniques, including magnetic location of undisturbed burial deposits and analytical reconstruction of very early industries, can be effectively integrated into an archaeological project. Contrary to traditional views, the evidence supports a relatively peaceful development within a single cultural tradition rather than the intrusion of a new people or segment of the existing population, by invasion, migration, or revolt. University Museum Monograph, 65

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According to Herodotus, Cyrene was colonized by settlers from the island of Thera, later joined by other colonists from Crete, Samos, Laconia, and Rhodes. Traditionally the foundation date has been set at 631 B.C. The sanctuary began to develop within a generation of the establishment of the colony and continued in use until its destruction by an earthquake in A.D. 262. In this volume, the excavator presents the background of the site, the history of its excavation, and an overall view of the current project. University Museum Monograph, 52

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The publication of this book finally places the exquisitely carved but little known monuments of Caracol with those of Quirigua, Copan, and Tikal. New breakthroughs in the decipherment of Maya text have enabled the graceful hieroglyphic inscriptions to be translated. University Museum Monograph, 45

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Scholars of ancient metallurgy gain insights from individual artifacts as well as from synthetic overviews because debates can turn on details of particular objects from particular contexts. Therefore, it is important for archaeometallurgical studies to provide comprehensive catalogs that specify the attributes of individual objects as well as contexts and the technical studies undertaken on those objects. This fourth volume in the series is devoted to presenting the metallurgical evidence from Ban Chiang, Ban Tong, Ban Phak Top, and Don Klang in northeast Thailand in the form of detailed catalogs organized by sites, periods, and artifact types. All metal artifacts, metallic by-products, and crucibles from the four-site study are included. A catalog of analyzed prills is also included. The catalogs summarize all the contextual, metric, and analytical data from metallographic, elemental, and microhardness analyses. Illustrations and photomicrographs provide visual evidence for the study collection. These kinds of detailed catalogs form the raw material of technical and archaeological interpretation, enabling comparisons with other collections as well as allowing scholars to form their own conclusions independently of the interpretations of the authors.

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These nonverbal marks do not form identifiable words but provide clues to the literacy and daily life at Gordion from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Period. The corpus is presented by type with description, interpretation, and functions of the various categories. University Museum Monograph, 63

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An account of the discovery of the winery and systems of defense at Gibeon and the results of three soundings that supplied the best evidence for the history of the occupation of the site. University Museum Monograph, 26

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The ancient remains at Haft Tepe (the ancient name of the site is unknown) lie on the plain of Khuzistan in southwestern Iran close to the ruins of ancient Susa. Excavations under the directorship of Ezat Negahban and under the auspices of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Art were conducted from 1969 through 1979. This volume contains extensive information one excavation and the architectural remains, and includes a catalogue of the artifacts. Of special interest are the many seal impressions. University Museum Monograph, 70

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Excavations on the City Mound of Gordion in 1961 and 1962 reached to levels containing remnants of Bronze Age structures. The author provides a detailed stratigraphical presentation of the pottery and small finds from these strata. Bronze Age Gordion is placed in the historical and cultural context of the Anatolian Bronze Age. Professor Machteld J. Mellink has supplied a cross-section of the Bronze Age City Mound and a brief discussion of the stratigraphy. University Museum Monograph, 73

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Although Quiriguá and its magnificent carved monuments have been recorded and studied by scholars over the past century, little archaeological data were available until recently. From 1973 through 1979, the University Museum sponsored investigations at this major lowland Maya site in eastern Guatemala. The aims of the work were to document a basic chronology, to determine the nature and pattern of structures, and to test hypotheses concerning the origins, location, and demise of Quiriguá. University Museum Monograph, 49

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Although Quiriguá and its magnificent carved monuments have been recorded and studied by scholars over the past century, little archaeological data were available until recently. From 1973 through 1979, the University Museum sponsored investigations at this major lowland Maya site in eastern Guatemala. The aims of the work were to document a basic chronology, to determine the nature and pattern of structures, and to test hypotheses concerning the origins, location, and demise of Quiriguá. University Museum Monograph, 37

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The excavations at the Bronze Age site of Altyn-Depe in southwest Soviet Central Asia (Turkmenistan) have revealed an urban community dating to the Middle Bronze Age. The region of Turkmenistan forms a natural crossroads between Eastern Iran and Central Asia, and between Siberia and southern Russia and the Indus Valley. Altyn-Depe was important not only for its development as a cultural center in its own right but as a link between the various Bronze Age cultures of Eurasia. The volume is a translation of the 1981 Soviet publication with the addition of several plates representing the earliest strata at the site. The book will be of interest to scholars of the ancient Near East, and more particularly of the Bronze Age and development of urbanization. University Museum Monograph, 55

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This volume in the Cyrene series contains sections on the assorted small finds (bronzes, iron, etc.), the glass, and the faunal remains. All add interesting information into the uses and ritual practices at the Sanctuary. University Museum Monograph, 67

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The magnetism of the man known as Alexander the Great, along with that of his father, Philip of Macedon, is almost tangible, felt by people in all times since that brilliant young conqueror moved through the world more than two thousand years ago. Scholars whose fields touch that power continue to be intrigued by these two men and the ways in which their actions altered or contributed significantly to Western culture. Contributors discuss the fourth century B.C. from the point of view of the historical significance of Philip (A. J. Graham and A. J. N. W. Prag), the foundations of Alexander's empire in Egypt (Murray C. McClellan), the ancient Olympic games (David Gilman Romano), religion (Irene Bald Romano), and Alexander's last great battle in India (Gregory L. Possehl).

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The pottery of Mohenjo-dara, one of the two major urban centers of the Indus Valley civilization (2500-2000 B.C.) is described and documented. The authors survey Harappan ceramic technology and style, and develop an important and unique approach to vessel form analysis and terminology. Included is Leslie Alcock's account of the pottery from the 1950 excavations by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. University Museum Monograph, 53

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This volume includes a detailed illustrated catalogue of the East Greek, Island, and Laconian pottery from the sanctuary. The author uses the data to help establish the chronology for the founding and early development of this important Greek colony. University Museum Monograph, 56

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Domestic architecture at the site of Mycenae was systematically explored for the first time in a series of investigations sponsored by the Archaeological Society of Athens and Washington University in St. Louis between 1962 and 1966 and again in 1977. The work revealed a block of houses in the area north of the Treasury of Atreus, the so-called Panagia Houses. The author describes the artifacts and reconstructed floor plans, and draws comparisons with other Bronze Age sites. University Museum Monograph, 68

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Text in Sumerian; prefatory material in English and Turkish.

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Any consideration of the Iranian plateau must include the important site of Hasanlu in northern Iran. The Museum carried out excavations from 1956 through 1977. A major aspect of the research focused on the Iron Age settlement. This fortified town was attacked around 800 B.C. The attack and accompanying fire caused the rapid collapse of public buildings. Thus, the site provides a unique opportunity to examine a wide range of objects and materials still in the contexts in which they were stored. University Museum Monograph, 39

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This is the fourth volume in a series of final publications on the joint American-Greek archaeological excavations at Pseira in northeast Crete. The site is a seaport dating from the end of the Final Neolithic until the Late Minoan period. Pseira IV publishes the architecture and associated finds from 39 locations in Areas B, C, D, and F in the Minoan town of Pseira. The Bronze Age settlement is located on Pseira Island, off the coast of Crete in the Gulf of Mirabello.

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Pseira, in northeast Crete, was a port dating from the end of the Neolithic until the Late Minoan. This, the second volume on the recent joint American-Greek archaeological excavations, reports on the new researches on building AC, the Late Minoan I shrine, first excavated in 1907, but badly recorded and then studied only for its beautiful reliefs, not its architecture. The recent excavations have paid particular attention to the architecture including the reconstruction of the wall paintings, and the textile patterns from stucco reliefs, which are reported in full in this volume.

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Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 18

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Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 17

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