Penn Museum

Kathleen Morrison on biodiversity and climate change

The faculty director of the Environmental Innovations Initiative, her research spans anthropology, archaeology, and paleoecology, involving the study of historic climates and environments, with a focus on South Asia.

From the Environmental Innovations Initiative

Dedicating time to side gigs for good in the community

The 11th piece in this series highlights a museum educator who also teaches people through an Afrocentric storytelling group, a research coordinator volunteering with an LGBTQ+ band, a nurse collecting children’s books, and a Spanish lecturer picking up trash.

Erica Moser



In the News


Philadelphia Inquirer

A burial for 19 Black Philadelphians, 200 years in the making

Penn Museum Director Christopher Woods says that the interment of 19 Black Philadelphians at Eden Cemetery represents a reckoning with the Museum’s colonial past and an act of reconciliation with the local community.

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ARS Technica

Mummified baboons point to the direction of the fabled land of Punt

Josef Wegner of the School of Arts & Sciences and Penn Museum says that archaeologists have long entertained theories on the locale of ancient Egyptian trading partner Punt, despite the lack of precise directions.

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Philadelphia Magazine

This new wellness series at Penn Museum will be the best thing you do all winter

Penn Medicine and the Penn Museum have partnered to provide a happy healthy hour this winter, turning the Museum’s galleries into self-care sanctuaries with a rotating schedule of holistic health services.

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Philadelphia Business Journal

Penn Museum to start work on $54M Ancient Egypt and Nubia galleries project, the largest renovation in its history

The Penn Museum plans to begin renovation on its $54 million Ancient Egypt and Nubia galleries this fall, with remarks from Christopher Woods.

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USA Today

Is alcohol a stimulant or depressant? Here’s how it affects your body.

A collaborative study including researchers with the Penn Museum is referenced, in which the earliest trace of alcohol residue was found in pottery from 7000–6600 BC. The pottery was from Jiahu, which was a Neolithic village in China.

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WHYY (Philadelphia)

Penn Museum shows what ancient worlds tasted like

Katherine Moore of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses the Penn Museum’s new “Ancient Food and Flavor” exhibition, which focuses on three archaeological sites that provided unusual amounts of food artifacts.

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