Search results for ""University of Pennsylvania Museum""

Pseira, a tiny islet near the coast of eastern Crete, has been called a priceless jewel in Crete's archaeological crown. In 1906 and 1907, the American archaeologist Richard Seager unearthed the extensive remains of a Bronze Age village on Pseira. Little was known about this site until a joint Greek-American project directed by Philip P. Betancourt and Costis Davaras returned to the island in 1985. This is the first 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. This volume presents a series of houses whose main period of occupation is Late Minoan IB. The architecture is constructed of stone and remarkably well preserved. The text includes detailed catalog entries, profile drawings, and stone-by-stone architectural plans.

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This third volume in the series is devoted to presenting and interpreting the metallurgical evidence from Ban Chiang, northeast Thailand, in the broader regional context. Because the production of metal artifacts must engage numerous communities in order to acquire and process the raw materials and then create and distribute products, understanding metals in past societies requires a regional perspective. This is the first book to compile, summarize, and synthesize the English-language copper production and exchange evidence available so far from Thailand and Laos in a thorough and systematic manner. Chapters by Vincent C. Pigott and Thomas O. Pryce examine in detail the mining and smelting of copper in several sites, and the lead-isotope evidence for the sourcing of artifacts found in two of the consumption sites included in the study. Another chapter compiles the metal consumption evidence, including results of technical studies on prehistoric metals recovered from more than 35 sites excavated in central and northeast Thailand. This compilation demonstrates important regional variation in chaînes opératoires, allowing explication and synthesis of the technological traditions found in this region during prehistory. The review and compilation sheds new light on the social and economic context for the adoption and development of metallurgy in this part of the world. One key insight is that Thailand presents a case for a "community-driven bronze age," where the choices of peaceful local communities, not elites or centralized political entities, shaped how metal technological systems were implemented in this region. This fresh perspective on the role of metallurgy in ancient societies contributes to an expanded global understanding of how humans have engaged metal technologies, contributing to debunking the conventional paradigm that emphasized a top-down view and a standardized metallurgical sequence, a paradigm that has dominated archeometallurgical studies for the last century or more. Thai Archaeology Monograph Series, 2C University Museum Monograph, 153

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The emergence and adoption of metallurgy is one of the seminal topics of investigation in the history of archaeology, particularly in the history of archaeological research in Southeast Asia. The site of Ban Chiang, Thailand, is a central site in debates surrounding the chronology and significance of early metallurgy in the region. This book is the first in a series of four volumes that review the contributions of Ban Chiang and three related sites in northeast Thailand excavated by the Penn Museum to an understanding early metallurgy in Thailand. As the study of archaeometallurgy is a complex topic that draws on numerous technical and social science disciplines, this introductory volume presents in several chapters the background needed to assess the metal and related evidence presented in the subsequent volumes in this series. A history of perspectives on the role of metals in ancient societies generally and Southeast Asia, specifically, is provided. Other chapters debunk the conventional paradigm for understanding metals and society and provide current theoretical perspectives and new paradigms for the study of ancient metals. The geological basis for the presence and location of metal ore resources in the region is reviewed. The final chapter presents a technical overview of ways material properties of ancient metals may be studied. While providing a background to the study of metals at Ban Chiang, the volume also reviews, synthesizes, and repositions the method and theory for the study of archaeometallurgy generally. Thai Archaeology Monograph Series, 2A; University Museum Monograph, 149

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This third volume in the series of publications on the Minoan site of Pseira focuses on the Plateia building discovered in 1986. This report on the findings includes an introduction to the project, followed by a detailed discussion of the architecture and small finds: pottery, stone tools, terracotta objects, sealstones, shell artefacts, faunal remains, charcoal, lithics, plaster and so on. This database of evidence allows an interpretation of the function of the buildings, the residential, cult and industrial activities, and its relationship to the Plateia itself.

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The foundation of archaeometallurgy is the study of excavated assemblages of metals and related remains. This volume presents in detail how the metals and such remains as crucibles excavated from four sites in northeast Thailand have been studied to understand the place of metal objects and technology in the ancient past of this region. In addition to typological examination, hundreds of technical analyses reveal the technological capabilities, preferences, and styles of metal artifact manufacturers in this part of Thailand. Detailed examination of contexts of recovery of metal remains employing a "life history" approach indicates that metal objects in those societies were used primarily in daily life and, only occasionally, as grave goods. The most surprising find is that casting of copper-base artifacts to final form took place at all these village sites during the metal age period, indicating a decentralized final production stage that may prove to be unusual for metal age societies. These insights are made possible by applying the methods and theories introduced in the first volume of the suite of volumes that study the metal remains from Ban Chiang in regional contest. Thai Archaeology Monograph Series, 2B University Museum Monograph, 150

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The Minoan town at Gournia flourished from the Early Bronze Age until its destruction at the end of the Late Minoan IB period. It was later resettled before being abandoned again in LM IIIB. The town was substantial, with houses arranged in irregular blocks. This book presents the pottery found during Gournia's excavation in 1901, 1903 and 1904. This collection, now in The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, is the largest and most important group of Minoan objects from a single site outside of Europe.

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This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

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Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 19

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Three authors from diverse backgrounds contribute essays to this volume of photographs of Native Americans from the archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Noted photographer and author Michael Katakis, Professor of Native American literature and American Book Award winner Gerald Vizenor, and Associate Curator of the American collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum Robert Preucel have contributed very personal and sensitive essays inspired by the portraits in this volume. Listen closely as you look at these arresting images.

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Three authors from diverse backgrounds contribute essays to this volume of photographs of Native Americans from the archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Noted photographer and author Michael Katakis, Professor of Native American literature and American Book Award winner Gerald Vizenor, and Associate Curator of the American collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum Robert Preucel have contributed very personal and sensitive essays inspired by the portraits in this volume. Listen closely as you look at these arresting images.

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A collection of essays put together by colleagues, friends, and students of William M. Sumner to honor his contribution to Iranian archaeology and archaeological field methodology. Topical contributions emphasize the methodological aspects of analysis of survey data, while regional contributions focus on two of the main geographical areas studied by archaeologists in Iran: the southwest and the northwest. This volume is published in association with The American Institute of Iranian Studies and The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

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This book details 18 years of research and conservation work on the wooden furniture and small objects excavated at the site of Gordion, Turkey, by the University of Pennsylvania Museum between 1950 and 1973, uncovering what is now considered to be the most important collection of well-preserved wooden objects surviving from the ancient Near East. Forty-seven pieces of fine furniture and more than 70 wooden sculptures and household objects were recovered from the three largest tombs at Gordion, once considered to be the tombs of King Midas, who ruled the kingdom of Phrygia from Gordion in the eighth century B.C.

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A primary source collection of the Akkadian and Sumerian texts housed at the University of Pennsylvania.Old Sumerian and Old Akkadian Texts in Philadelphia is the third and final volume of published cuneiform texts housed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Presented in parallel transliteration, these 433 unique texts were excavated between 1889 and 1900 and include contemporary Sumerian literature and science. From temple administration documents to ration lists and votive items, this collection of primary materials provides insight into the lives of hundreds of men and women employed at the temple in the city of Ekur and sheds light on various ancient social relationships not otherwise described in previous sources.

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The excavations of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Marsa Matruh on Bates' Island, which is located on the seacoast at the north of Egypt's western desert, uncovered a small site with a metalworking workshop and nearby houses. The pottery found in the excavations indicates that this small Late Bronze Age settlement had links to several cultures: Cyprus, the Aegean, Egypt, the coast of western Asia, and the local Marmarican people. The results of the excavations are published in two volumes. This volume provides an overview of the excavations at the site, the Late Bronze Age and historical period occupations, and an introduction to the environmental morphology and history of the island.

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The Royal Tombs of Ur, dating from approximately 3000–2700 BCE, are among the most famous and impressive archeological discoveries of the twentieth century. Excavated between 1922 and 1934 under the direction of Leonard Woolley, this site is one of the richest sources of information we have about ancient Sumer—however, many mysteries about the society that produced these tombs remain. Based on primary research with the Ur materials at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, and paying particular attention to the iconography found in what Woolley referred to as the “Seal Impression Strata of Ur,” this book works to reconstruct the early history of Sumer. What was this society like? What social structures did this society build? What were its institutions of authority? The answers Petr Charvát proposes are of interest not only to archeologists, but to anyone fascinated by early human history.

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The current volume assembles a series of studies of Middle Kingdom culture gathered around the theme of archaism, change and innovation. The papers had their origin in a symposium the University of Pennsylvania Museum hosted in 2002, and held in memory of the great Middle Kingdom scholar, Oleg Berlev. The Penn Museum organized the conference that received generous support from the Center for Ancient Studies of the University of Pennsylvania and the Marilyn and William Kelly Simpson Endowment in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University. For the publication, the authors revised and augmented their essays, allowing this volume to include up-to-date information. The editors also invited other scholars to contribute additional studies resulting in a volume that deals with the Middle Kingdom in a broader context. The Marilyn and William Kelly Simpson endowment in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University generously provided the funds necessary for the publication of the volume.

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This is the climactic volume on the archaeological and architectural history from ca. 31 B.C. to A.D. 365 of the extramural sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Cyrene, Libya. It deals with the impact of Christianity on the cult and the causes of its decline, with particular emphasis on the largest body of evidence recorded anywhere for iconoclastic damage, presumably by Christian populations, to sculpted images of worshippers and twin goddesses. The volume traces the characteristics of major Demeter sanctuaries elsewhere (e.g., Eleusis, Corinth, Pergamon, Acragas, and Selinus) and places Cyrene's sanctuary within the context of this development. The volume also presents the sanctuary's important lapidary and lead inscriptions as analyzed by Joyce Reyonlds. It is the eighth volume in the final reports series for the excavations conducted for the University of Michigan, and subsequently the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, between 1969 and 1981. University Museum Monograph, 134

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G. M. FitzGerald's Deep Cut at Beth Shan, a large-scale research project in the southern Levant, is a window to the earliest civilization at this major tell, documenting human activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. In 1933, his last season excavating at Beth Shan, FitzGerald gave us a preliminary picture of a series of late prehistoric events that reflects the chronological progression of cultures within the region. His pioneering research effort left us with a tantalizing but incomplete story. In 1998, Eliot Braun researched FitzGerald's field notes at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and reveals in this final excavation report some of the mound's earliest secrets, including chrono-cultural and historical-stratigraphic phasing. He has integrated his work with FitzGerald's original publications, reinterpreting the data and synthetic studies of the site's major features for a more comprehensive story. Copious illustrations such as field photos and documents give the reader the aura of the 1933 excavation and a view of Beth Shan as its deepest levels were probed. Braun reviews architectural remains and stratigraphy and includes broad typological comparisons of material remains, with reference to those of other regional sites and ceramic sequences. Two appendices offer one of the earliest archaeobotanical studies in the Near East and raw data derived from FitzGerald's field notes. University Museum Monograph, 121

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The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has had a long-standing interest in the archaeology of Iran. In 1956, Robert H. Dyson, Jr., began excavations south of Lake Urmia at the large mounded site of Hasanlu. Although the results of these excavations await final publication, the Hasanlu Special Studies series—of which this monograph is the fourth volume—describes and analyzes specific aspects of technology, style, and iconography. This volume describes a group of ongoing research projects, most of which provide new information on Iron Age technology. A theme that runs through these studies is the degree to which ancient workers varied the composition of their products to create desirable colors and textures. The book begins with a description of the wooden furniture fragments along with fittings and decorative elements for furniture. It presents the first detailed description of the charred textiles, and places these textiles in their archaeological contexts, suggesting the roles that textiles may have played in daily life. Later chapters assess the significance of Hasanlu in the history of glassmaking, describe the archaeometallurgy of the Hasanlu IVB bronzes, and present a catalog of the bladed weapons. Also, the book presents the evidence for deliberate violence against individuals as indicated by their skeletal injuries and the results of a project undertaken to determine whether DNA could be used to obtain a better understanding of the population history at Hasanlu. Content of the book's DVD-ROM may be found online at this location: http://core.tdar.org/project/375174. University Museum Monograph, 132

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Ur-Nammu was king of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia (southern Iraq) around 2000 B.C. In 1925 a joint expedition from the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the British Museum discovered dozens of fragments of a monument in honor of Ur-Nammu. Because such works have rarely survived, the stela became one of the most famous examples of Near Eastern art, a status it retains today. The stela had been ten feet high with registers in relief of scenes of religious practices on both front and back. By 1927 the best pieces had been restored in Philadelphia into an imagined version of the stela, with plaster filling the gaps. But more than twice as many small or worn pieces were omitted from the restoration and dutifully stored in boxes at the Museum. Jeanny Vorys Canby realized that the early reconstruction had been too hasty, and her meticulous, painstaking reexamination reveals a wealth of new scenes that revise our understanding of the monument. This book includes the justification of the reconstructions, description of the scenes, speculation on the ancient fate of the stela, as well as a description of each piece with photograph and drawing. These vigorous, innovative scenes contradict the long-held view from the old reconstruction that the monument was dull and repetitive. In fact, it is fresh and vibrant, with dynamic scenes peopled by beautifully sculpted actors. Entirely new evidence is presented here in scientific detail, including appendices from Steven Tinney, of the Museum's Babylonian Section, and Tamsen Fuller, conservationist. The book's conclusions will be of major significance to historians, archaeologists, art historians, biblical scholars, and anthropologists working in the ancient Near East and to scholars concerned with institutions of kinship, religion, and everyday life. University Museum Monograph, 110

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In the third millennium B.C.E., the Oman Peninsula was the site of an important kingdom known in Akkadian texts as "Magan," which traded extensively with the Indus Civilization, southern Iran, the Persian Gulf states, and southern Mesopotamia. Excavations have been carried out in this region since the 1970s, although the majority of studies have focused on mortuary monuments at the expense of settlement archaeology. While domestic structures of the Bronze Age have been found and are the focus of current research at Bat, most settlements dating from the third millennium B.C.E. in Oman and the U.A.E. are defined by the presence of large, circular monuments made of mudbrick or stone that are traditionally called "towers." Whether these so-called towers are defensive, agricultural, political, or ritual structures has long been debated, but very few comprehensive studies of these monuments have been attempted. Between 2007 and 2012, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology conducted excavations at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bat in the Sultanate of Oman under the direction of the late Gregory L. Possehl. The focus of these years was on the monumental stone towers of the third millennium B.C.E., looking at the when, how, and why of their construction through large-scale excavation, GIS-aided survey, and the application of radiocarbon dates. This has been the most comprehensive study of nonmortuary Bronze Age monuments ever conducted on the Oman Peninsula, and the results provide new insight into the formation and function of these impressive structures that surely formed the social and political nexus of Magan's kingdom.

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In 1950, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology began excavations at the ancient Phrygian capital of Gordion in central Turkey. The Museum's Gordion Project continues today, with researchers from many disciplines and with many specializations contributing to a growing—and sometimes changing—body of information and understanding about this complex and multifaceted site, inhabited by peoples and diverse civilizations for millennia. In this volume of Gordion Special Studies, Lynn E. Roller focuses on a series of stone blocks with incised figural and abstract drawings recovered from early Phrygian structures at Gordion. The great majority of the incised stones come from a single structure within the Early Phrygian citadel at Gordion known as Megaron 2, a stone building with several remarkable features and a likely candidate for the citadel's temple. The volume begins with a description of the excavation of the stones and a discussion of Megaron 2. Next is an analysis of the subject matter of the drawings by type, describing scenes of human figures, animals, architectural drawings, geometric patterns, and formless marks. A discussion follows of the sources from which the drawings could have been taken and of parallels with similar scenes and designs on objects in other media from Gordion and other contemporary sites in Anatolia. The fourth section proposes an explanatory hypothesis on the origin of the drawings, and considers who could have made them and why. Parallels with comparable drawings from Anatolia and the Near East are discussed here. The final section summarizes the contribution of the drawings to our understanding of the development of the Early Phrygian material at Gordion. University Museum Monograph, 130

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The pre-Columbian city we call Tikal was abandoned by its Maya residents during the tenth century A.D. and succumbed to the Guatemalan rain forest. It was not until 1848 that it was brought to the attention of the outside world. For the next century Tikal, remote and isolated, received a surprisingly large number of visitors. Public officials, explorers, academics, military personnel, settlers, petroleum engineers, chicle gatherers, and archaeologists came and went, sometimes leaving behind material traces of their visits. A short-lived hamlet was established among the ancient ruins in the late 1870s. In 1956 the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology initiated its fourteen-year-long Tikal Project. This report chronicles documented visits to Tikal during the century following its modern discovery, and presents the post-Conquest material culture recovered by the Tikal Project in the course of its investigation of the pre-Columbian city. Further research on the nineteenth-century settlement was carried out in 1998 in its southern part by the Lacandon Archaeological Project (LAP) under the direction of Joel W. Palka of the University of Illinois at Chicago. The material culture recovered by the LAP supplements the Tikal Project collection and is referenced here. Historical Archaeology at Tikal, Guatemala is intended as a contribution to nineteenth and early twentieth century Lowland Mesoamerican research. It is rounded out with several appendices that will be of interest to historians and historical archaeologists. The printed volume includes many black and white photographs and drawings. A gallery of color photographs, several from Palka's 1998 excavations, is included on the accompanying CD-ROM. Content of the book's CD-ROM may be found online at this location: http://core.tdar.org/document/376606. University Museum Monograph, 135

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Some of the most dramatic new discoveries in Asia Minor have been made at Gordion, the Phrygian capital that controlled much of central Asia Minor for close to two centuries. The most famous ruler of the kingdom was Midas, who regularly negotiated with Greeks in the west and Assyrians in the east during his reign. Excavations have been conducted at Gordion over the course of the last 60 years, all under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In spite of the economic and political importance of Gordion and the Phrygians, the site is consistently omitted from courses in Old World archaeology, primarily because Gordion lies too far to the west for many Near Eastern archaeologists, and too far to the east for classical archaeologists. Moreover, there is no book that offers a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the material culture of Gordion during the Phrygian period, a gap that will be filled by this volume. The chapters cover all aspects of Gordion's Phrygian settlement topography from the arrival of the Phrygians in the tenth century B.C. through the arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 B.C., focusing on the site's changing topography and the consistently fluctuating interaction between the inhabitants and the landscape. A reexamination of the material culture of Phrygian Gordion is particularly timely, given the dramatic recent changes in the site's chronology, wherein the dates of many discoveries have changed by as much as a century. The authors are among the leading experts in Near Eastern archaeology, historic preservation, paleobotany, and ancient furniture, and their articles highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the Gordion project. A significant component of the book is a new color phase plan of the site that succinctly presents the topography in diachronic perspective. University Museum Monograph, 136

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