The Museum Bulletin
Originally published from 1930–1958, the Museum Bulletin includes articles which may not reflect the current views and values of the Penn Museum.
The editor has now determined ... to issue The University Museum Bulletin, published monthly from November to May, which will include short accounts of the current excavations, descriptions of recent acquisitions to the collections, and the activities of the Museum that are of general interest.
Cyprus Expedition
The ancient city kingdom of Kourion, on the south coast of Cyprus, has been the focus of archaeological investigation for nearly 150 years. Its location and natural resources attracted the earliest settlers to the island, and its prominence has continued into modern times. Kourion, where several sites belonging to different periods, from Neolithic to Roman times, formed one extensive settlement. B. H. Hill excavated the Bronze and Iron Age cemetery at Lapithos in 1931, beginning a focus on the Classical sites of Cyprus that continued for 20 years at the Penn Museum.
View ArticlesTell Billa & Tepe Gawra Expeditions
Tepe Gawra is located about 18 miles northeast of Mosul in the piedmont zone adjoining the Assyrian Plains in northeastern Iraq. It lies between the Tigris River and the first foothills of the Zagros Mountains, by the entrance to one of the few historically documented passes onto the Iranian plateau through the Jebel Maqlub. Gawra was certainly a transport link in trade for lapis lazuli and for other exotic goods from the Zagros highlands and from the Upper Tigris basin into Mesopotamia proper.
View Articles14 Eyes in a Museum Storeroom
The Storeroom Show was a 1952 exhibition at the Museum, curated by a selection of non-anthropologists. The Museum invited a director, a collector, a painter, a sculptor, a designer, a producer of ballet and a cartoonist to select, without suggestion, anything they considered of artistic merit or otherwise of interest. To the anthropologist, accustomed to evaluate materials on non-aesthetic grounds, the reasons for selection were novel, often even startling.
View CatalogueThe Chinese Collections
The Chinese Collections owe their growth to gifts and purchases rather than to excavations or expeditions. In 1915-16, however, a reconnaissance expedition undertaken by Carl W. Bishop discovered several important early Buddhist sites and thoroughly explored others previously reported. Thus a collection of outstanding quality that has grown to have an international reputation was brought together.
View CatalogueThe American Collections
The American Halls contain one of the world’s best collections of objects produced by the ancient Maya civilization in Guatemala and adjacent regions, and by some of the other advanced cultures of Middle America. Especially noteworthy are the collection of Maya ceramics, the great Maya stone sculptures from Piedras Negras in Guatemala, the gold and pottery collections from Coclé and Chiriquí in Panama.
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