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Penn Museum awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grant
Main entrance of Penn Museum with brick wall and door open showing arched passageway with Sphinx in the doorway in the very back of the view.

The front entrance to the Penn Museum with a view of the Sphinx that was moved to the main entrance in 2019 as part of the major Building Transformation project. The Museum was just awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to support the transformation’s next phase, renovation of the Egyptian Wing.

Penn Museum awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grant

The Penn Museum has been awarded a $750,000 Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.The grant will help catalyze fundraising for the renovation of the Museum’s Egyptian Wing, part of its major Building Transformation project.
From preserving mummies to practicing medicine
Charlotte Tisch wearing a white medical coat and stethoscope standing next to a fresco of a mummy.

From preserving mummies to practicing medicine

Physician-in-training Charlotte Tisch draws on her background in archaeological artifacts for her medical training, even reaching out to museums for PPE during the pandemic.

From Penn Medicine News

Uncovered burial ground reveals history of 36 enslaved Africans in 18th-century Charleston
Two people looking at documents, with one person explaining them to the other. More people stand in the background.

At a community engagement event in 2019, Theodore Schurr of the Department of Anthropology explains DNA test results to Regina Scott, one of the participants involved in the research project. (Pre-pandemic image: Lauren Petracca/Post & Courier)

Uncovered burial ground reveals history of 36 enslaved Africans in 18th-century Charleston

According to the research, many of these individuals originated in sub-Saharan Africa, in line with historical accounts of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This work, the largest DNA study of its kind to date, was co-led by anthropologist Theodore Schurr and conducted with support from and at the request of the local community.

Michele W. Berger

Southeast Asian megadrought dating back 5,000 years discovered in Laos cave
A group of archaeologists and excavators standing and sitting at the entrance of a cave.

Penn archaeologist Joyce White (center) has been working in Laos since 2001 with teams like the one shown here. Discovering evidence of a 1,000-year drought in a Laos cave was unexpected, she says, but does answer some questions about the Middle Holocene, a period she’d previously described as the “missing millennia.” (Pre-pandemic image: Courtesy of Joyce White)

  • Q&A

    • Southeast Asian megadrought dating back 5,000 years discovered in Laos cave

    In a Q&A, Penn archaeologist Joyce White discusses the partnership with paleoclimatologists that led to the finding, plus possible implications of such a dramatic climate change for societies at that time.

    Michele W. Berger

    Cave discovery holds clues to earliest Homo sapiens in Europe
    People squatting in a cave with face masks on, digging through dirt and clay.

    Excavations in Initial Upper Paleolithic Layer I at Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria. Four Homo sapiens bones were recovered from this layer, along with a rich stone tool assemblage, animal bones, bone tools, and pendants. (Pre-pandemic image: Tsenka Tsanova, MPI EVA Leipzig, License: CC-BY-SA 2.0)

    Cave discovery holds clues to earliest Homo sapiens in Europe

    Ancient DNA from 46,000-year-old bone fragments and a tooth reveals this group likely overlapped with Neanderthals for thousands of years.

    Michele W. Berger

    Additional challenges in bringing research online
    researching working in simons observatory

    The Devlin lab are working on creating an extremely cold environment (nearly -460 degrees Fahrenheit) so that the new Simons Observatory can detect cosmic microwave background (CMB), the residual radiation left behind by the Big Bang. Work done at the High Bay is essential for keeping the project from falling further behind after shutdown delays.

    nocred

    Additional challenges in bringing research online

    As research on campus slowly restarts, those whose work requires field surveys, large-scale collaborations, or travel face additional challenges in bringing their research back online.

    Erica K. Brockmeier

    Juan Castrillón’s ‘Re-Covering the Ney Collection’
    Glass display case of ney flutes, part of Juan Castrillón’s exhibit.

    Ney flutes on view in Juan Castrillón’s exhibit, “Re-Covering the Ney Collection.” (Image: Pennsylvania Gazette)

    Juan Castrillón’s ‘Re-Covering the Ney Collection’

    Juan Castrillón, a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology, had pre-planned an online version of his exhibit “Re-Covering the Ney Collection,” which is proving valuable now that museumgoers are staying home.

    The curious case of ancient bear bones at a Mississippi dig site
    A person standing outside in front of a brick building, hands in the pockets of a gray swearing, over a black shirt and purple necklace.

    Megan Kassabaum is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and the Weingarten Assistant Curator for North America at the Penn Museum.

    The curious case of ancient bear bones at a Mississippi dig site

    Penn and UNC Chapel Hill researchers theorize that the considerable black bear remains indicate an animal that was a food source and considered close kin to the people who lived there 1,300 years ago.

    Michele W. Berger

    Nourishing the brain with conversations about food
    Two people standing next to a marble staircase, with stands and a sphinx blurry in the background.

    Penn archaeologist Megan Kassabaum (left) and biocultural anthropologist Morgan Hoke organized the series on food taking place at the Penn Museum on Mondays. During the fall semester, academics from nine institutions spoke on a range of topics, from food as life sustaining to how pizza and sushi gained their prominence. Spring semester, the talks have turned inward, focusing on the research happening across the University.

    Nourishing the brain with conversations about food

    A yearlong colloquium from Penn Anthropology offers a steady diet of research perspectives, delving into how this facet of culture affects modern health and practices, and broadens our historical outlook.

    Michele W. Berger

    A unique fellowship for Middle Eastern languages
    Five people sit along ancient mud walls at an archeological dig in Iraq.

    Katherine Burge, second from right, sits with coworkers at an archeological dig in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2017 .

    A unique fellowship for Middle Eastern languages

    Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Foreign Language and Area Studies Program (FLAS) offers undergraduate and graduate-level academic year and summer fellowships to Penn students studying Middle Eastern languages.

    Kristen de Groot