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Penn team expands cultural heritage work in Iraq, backed by new funding
Taq-i Kisra Taq-i Kisra is a vaulted hall near Baghdad that likely dates to the 6th century. After heavy rains in late 2020 caused part of it to collapse, the Penn team was asked to conduct an assessment on the structure. It’s one of the newest projects for the IHSP, funded by the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas.

Penn team expands cultural heritage work in Iraq, backed by new funding

Three big new projects—restoration of a fortification gate, repair of an important landmark, and a survey of historic nonreligious architecture—recently got underway.

Michele W. Berger

Turning an archaeological practice on its head
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.

Turning an archaeological practice on its head

In a new book, Megan Kassabaum challenges the field to take a forward-looking approach, rather than one that looks backward. She does this through the study of a Native American architectural feature called platform mounds.

Michele W. Berger

To improve climate models, an international team turns to archaeological data
map of the united states

The final classification employs an 8x8 kilometer grid scale, large from an archaeological perspective but which allows for consistency. The four maps here show the effect of grid size on data visibility. (Image: Chad Hill, published in PLOS ONE)

To improve climate models, an international team turns to archaeological data

The project, called LandCover6k, offers a new classification system that the researchers hope will improve predictions about the planet’s future and fill in gaps about its past.

Michele W. Berger

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.