Penn Museum Blog

Penn students gain a window into current Museum research

By bethvanhorn | Published: February 16, 2012

How many undergrads get to see current archaeological research up close—as in, under a microscope? The 15 Penn undergraduates taking Dr. Marie-Claude Boileau’s new Spring semester course “Archaeology and Science” got to view samples of ceramic and metal objects from Ban Chiang, a site excavated by Penn Museum in Northeast Thailand. One year after the Museum’s Archaeological Ceramics Lab opened, it is bustling with classes, students, and researchers.

Students in Dr. Boileau’s course are looking at ceramics and clays from Ban Chiang in the Museum’s Ceramics Lab. This hands-on experience with thin-section petrography, using the Lab’s transmitted-light microscopes, helps demonstrate if pots were made locally or in another village far away. Petrography is also a powerful tool for technology-related questions, such as how potters processed the raw materials (clays and tempers) and how pots were made and fired.

Annie Chan, a student in the course, is examining hand specimens with matching thin sections from the Ceramics Lab rock collection.

Dr. Elizabeth Hamilton, guest lecturer in the course, shares her knowledge of archaeometallurgy with the undergrads. One of the microscopes in the Ceramics Lab can also be used for metallography, the microscopic observation of metal objects. Here, Dr. Hamilton, the metallurgist for the Ban Chiang Project, is showing students the steps to identify how a metal object was made, using reflected-light microscopy. Analysis of this sort helps to demonstrate how different cultures manufactured metal objects, such as ornaments, tools, and weapons. This study can also show the level of sophistication of past technologies and how metal artifacts were used.

A photomicrograph from a Ban Chiang metal droplet. The large blue shapes show that the object is a droplet of tin bronze, probably splashed out during casting, and was allowed to cool.

About the author: Beth Van Horn has volunteered with the Ban Chiang Project since 2004. She retired from Verizon in 2003, where she was a new product manager in the Marketing department. Beth was responsible for the MMAP 2005 website and the blog that followed the team’s progress. She returned to Laos in 2009 and wrapped up the season by participating in an ambitious exhibit in Luang Prabang that summarized 5 years of MMAP work in Laos.

Posted in Museum, Thailand, University of Pennsylvania | Leave a comment

Employee of the Month, Kevin Schott

By Amy Ellsworth | Published: February 13, 2012

Our reigning Employee of the Month is Kevin Schott, Exhibit Developer. I felt compelled to write a blog post about Kevin because he is one of those rare people who seems to come from another planet – like he’s not as dinged up by the same space junk that makes world weary complainers out of some of us. Kevin is currently working on the development of our upcoming MAYA 2012 exhibition, and he can now tell us everything we’d ever want to know about the Maya long count.

One of the things that make Kevin so fun to work with is that he loves what he does and he’s really good at it. He seems to know everything about everything, but he insinuates his erudition in a way that is always humble, hilarious, and trust-worthy. He’s one of those bright spots on your daily landscape.

He even carves bars of soap into whale shapes and makes his own greek yogurt.

I think this is what everybody loves about Kevin: his life-affirming zeal for creating and learning about everything.

Exhibit developers have the privilege of being generalists. And this gives us the privilege of getting Kevin’s interpretation of so many amazing things through our exhibits. His avid curiosity and his ability to turn a heap of data into an entertaining story makes him perfect for this role. We are lucky to have him on our team. Go Kevin!

Posted in Museum | Tagged employee of the month, exhibit developer | 1 Comment

Conservation of Masks for Maya 2012: Lords of Time

By tessa | Published: February 13, 2012

One of the projects that we’re working on in the conservation lab right now is preparations for the Maya 2012: Lords of Time exhibition (opening on May 5th!). We’re currently examining and treating Guatemalan face masks. A common problem that many of these masks have is flaking paint.

Detail showing flaking and lifting paint

Detail of flaking and lifting paint

This is probably the result of frequent overpainting. The masks would have been repainted several times throughout their lives simply to improve their appearance or change the character depicted by the mask altogether.

Overall image of 48-4-14

Detail showing the paint layers of 48-4-14

Because these masks will be going on display here at the Penn Museum and will be travelling to other museums for this exhibit, it’s important to stabilize sensitive areas and prevent any further flaking. For this task, we’re using sturgeon glue (also known as isinglass). The glue is made from swim bladders (so called because they enable fish to swim) of the Russian beluga sturgeon that lives in the fresh waters of the Caspian and Black seas. Check out the size of these fish!: http ://www .youtube .com /watch ?v =DUY 1_i 9 DD 4 E . Ah, the conservator’s toolkit is full of fun things!

Internal Fish Anatomy from: http://www.iowas.co.uk/fish%20anatomy.html

In addition to treating these masks, we have also enjoyed looking at how they were used. As a single mask, or even as a group, it is easy to forget that these were part of a much larger whole, a costume, a dance, and a performance.

Dancers in Antigua Guatemala on New Years Eve 2004/05

These dances and masks are connected to local folk lore and history. When examining the masks we found labels on the backs that often identified them as characters or as figures from history. For example, one mask is labeled as being Pedro de Alvarado, a Spanish conquistador who was involved in the conquest of Guatemala, while others are princes, and even sorcerers. We also have a mask labeled Tecun Uman, a Maya prince who fought against and was ultimately defeated by Pedro de Alvarado.

Three masks of Pedro de Alvarado (left), a Prince (center), and a sorcerer (right)

This video shows the dance of the conquest performed in Chichicastenango Guatemala, and also has interesting interviews (in Spanish) about the dance.

http ://www .youtube .com /watch ?v =g 8 xM 10 JF 7 Ck &feature =related

This video shows the dance of the conquest as well as the dance of the deer in Saquija Cahabon Guatemala.

http ://www .youtube .com /watch ?v =M 0 unnC 49 cak &feature =related

Posted in Conservation, Exhibits, Maya, Museum, University of Pennsylvania | Tagged anthropology, art, Conservation, Dance, Maya 2012 | Leave a comment

A Little Light Reading for the Troops

By Amy Ellsworth | Published: February 10, 2012

Jane Hickman, Editor of Expedition magazine and Maureen Goldsmith, from the Director’s Office at the Penn Museum, recently sent a stack of past issues of Expedition magazine to Staten Island Project Homefront. The magazines are being sent to troops stationed abroad, including Afghanistan.

Sending Expedition magazines to the Troops

Jane Hickman (left) and Maureen Goldsmith (right) get ready to send a stack of Expedition magazines to Staten Island project Homefront.

Staten Island Project Homefront is a non-profit organization that supports the families of deployed military troops from all branches of service, enlisted or officer. The project sends care packages to our military in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. We hope they enjoy reading about some of our excavations at Ur, modern-day Iraq, as well as articles about the Museum’s collaboration with the State Department to coordinate cultural heritage preservation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read the latest issue: Expedition Volume 53, Number 2 Summer 2011

Posted in Afghanistan, Museum | Tagged afghanistan, expedition magazine, Iraq, magazine, military, troops | Leave a comment

Meow! Ancient Peruvian Textile

By fran | Published: February 10, 2012

As I mentioned in my staff introduction, I am working at the University Of Pennsylvania Museum Of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) on a IMLS funded post-graduate conservation fellowship. During this one year fellowship, my responsibilities include conducting a conservation assessment of approximately 2900 archeological textiles from Max Uhle’s excavation at Pachacamac, Peru. The overarching goals of the project are to document the current condition, improve the collections storage solutions and increase research accessibility.

Here’s a brief history of the collection to bring you up to speed. Pachacamac is recognized as the most important pre-Columbian ceremonial center in South America that drew pilgrims and worshipers from ethnically diverse communities across the Andes Mountains. Between 1986 – 1899, Max Uhle, a professional archeologist, mapped and excavated Pachacamac for the Penn Museum. The resulting excavated material is important for many reasons. For one, Max Uhle took meticulous notes, including maps of the locations and object lists, providing a unique situation where this large collection has known provenience and contextual data. Additionally, since Max Uhle collected everything, the resulting sheer number and range of textiles (approximately 2900) provides an extraordinary glance at the wide range of weaving and dyeing techniques used on the Central Coast of Peru and other regions of the Andes over a period of nearly two millennia! These textiles are associated with funerary rituals and found in “mummy bundles” or “mummy bales”. Burials in the coastal sand dunes have helped preserve these fragile textiles which range in date from pre-Inca to Inca period up to the Conquest, with the most concentration of material from the Late Intermediate Period (1000 – 1476 CE).

Two mummy bales and a workman from Max Uhle's excavation at Pachacamac, Peru. Penn Museum Image 140697.

I will occasionally be posting glimpses into this collection of ancient Andean textiles as I go along. Since I am not only a conservator, but also a craftsman and seamstress, I can’t help but be influenced by these beautiful and historic pieces. Every day, I am amazed at the weaving and dyeing techniques, craftsmanship, and the complex ancient Andean aesthetic. I am constantly blown away by the bold compositions, geometric forms and expressive systems.

Yesterday, I came across this lovely little fragment. Notice the six-headed cat as a design element! Thus…my first blog post should really just be titled “MEOW”!

Detail of textile fragment #29894.

Posted in Conservation, Museum | Tagged Andean, archaeology, Conservation, Pachacamac, peru, Survey, textiles | 1 Comment

Team Pachacamac

By ainslie | Published: February 1, 2012

During the Pachacamac project Fran Baas and myself will move, survey, photograph, and rehouse 2800 textiles and 1000 pots (stay tuned for more about the survey process!). In order to complete this immense amount of work, we will be relying on our team of wonderful interns, volunteers, and work studies. While they come from different backgrounds, each of them is interested in some aspect of museum work. Here is a little bit about each member of our team:

Kelsey Wingel and Jacob Bridy photographing ceramics

Jacob Bridy works at the Penn Museum as a work-study employee, meaning that this is part of his education as a student at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in paleobiology. Jacob has been working with Ainslie and Fran on the Pachacamac project since October 2011, mainly helping to photograph and remount the textiles and ceramics from the site. He hopes to someday work in a museum much like this one and is enjoying his experience here.

Kelsey Wingel is a sophomore at the University of Delaware, double-majoring in art conservation and art history. Art conservation first caught her interest in high school when she was assigned a research paper on the Shroud of Turin. Her classes in art history only added to this initial interest. While she has already started honing her treatment skills and learning about preventive conservation in this internship, Kelsey hopes to gain further experience interning over her summer and winter breaks with the final goal of continuing her art conservation education at the graduate level.

Elissa Meyers vacuuming ceramics

Elissa Meyers, a Minnesota native, has her Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from The University of the Arts. For the past year and a half she has been working with natural dyes and teaching various workshops on growing and using natural dyes. Her interest in the chemistry and design of objects has given her a deep appreciation for work done in the conservation field. She currently is working to gain the experience necessary to get into a graduate school program for art conservation. Not only is she interning with us on the Pachacamac project, she is also assisting a local conservator in private practice, and the curatorial department at the Franklin Institute.

Natalie Kendall moving ceramics

Natalie Kendall is a University of Delaware student (transferring in the fall of 2012 to another University) working towards an undergraduate degree in Anthropology. After attending an archaeological field school on Catalina Island, Natalie’s interest in prehistoric archaeology became a passion and she is now working towards the goal of becoming an archaeologist. She is volunteering at the Penn Museum to gain hands on experience with artifacts and to learn about the conservation and care they receive after leaving the field.

Posted in Conservation, Museum | Tagged Andean, archaeology, ceramics, Conservation, interns, Pachacamac, peru, Survey, textiles, Volunteers, Work Study | Leave a comment

Hip Hop Artists Draw Inspiration from Penn Museum

By Gabrielle Niu | Published: January 11, 2012

On Monday, January 9th, local hip hop artists visited the African, Egyptian, and Imagine Africa galleries. The artists, selected by local hip hop radio DJ, Zachariah Hardin, were at the Penn Museum to draw inspiration for their music from the African art and artifacts.

WHYY’s Newsworks.org reported on the event in their article At Penn museum, art of Africa resonates with musicians.

In a free concert at the Imagine Africa Community Night on March 28, the artists, including godHead The General, Magnum O, Darian The Great, KNomadz, Afloe, Urban Shaman, DJ Soul Buck and Host I-Be 4ever, will put on a performance of songs written in response to the African galleries. Watch the video below to see how the artistic process begins:

Posted in Africa, Imagine Africa, Museum | Leave a comment

A true translation: Updates on Matto Grosso (1931), and The Hoax (1932)

By Kate Pourshariati | Published: January 4, 2012

A little boy holding a slate or chip chart to identify a scene ( # 27414)

Regular readers of the Penn Museum blog may recall a post about an exciting film re-identification and discovery, in which we realized that the film that we thought was The Kid was really called The Hoax (1932) and that a copy was in the collections of the Smithsonian.

By way of University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. Greg Urban this year we made contact with an anthropologist in Brazil, Dr. Sylvia Caiuby Novaes, who had worked over many years with São Lourenço Bororo people in the area proximate to where both The Hoax and Matto Grosso, the Great Brazilian Wilderness (1931), were made.

We were hoping to take the films back to the area to get true translations of the Bororo language (Boe Wadáru) to Portuguese and English, and to see what people felt was interesting or useful about the films. Just a few weeks ago, we received copies from Dr. Novaes, with the new subtitles burned in. It is thrilling to see the Portuguese and Boe Wadaru directly translated to English, giving a more direct experience to what the people in the films are saying.

To our knowledge, this film was and remained the only documentary film in which non- European people speak, from the advent of sound recording for film until about 1965. Our scholarship on this will be published in an article in 2012, together with an article about the experience of returning the films, to be published by Dr. Novaes after a conference presentation in Brazil in 2012.

Dr. Novaes reports that the people of the Tadarimana village were delighted to watch the films and asked for copies, she was able to leave ten copies there. We appreciate the work of Dr. Novaes and her Bororo partner, Beatriz in getting the films translated. In all of this it seems ends of a larger circle come together.

Posted in Archival Practice, Cultural Heritage Preservation, Museum | Tagged Archival films, Archives, Films, Mato Grosso Brazil, Mato Grosso Expedition | 1 Comment

Miss Kim’s Class Gets a Loan Box

By Amy Ellsworth | Published: December 14, 2011

Studenst from the Community Partnership School in Philadelphia get to hold objects from the Native American Loan Box.

Erin Jensen, from our Community Education Department, sent me a few photos to post on the Loan Box webpage and I couldn’t resist giving these two young gentlemen a place of honor on the blog. Erin said their teacher, Ms. Kim, often brings her class to the Museum and is an enthusiastic supporter of the education programs here. I can tell by the looks on these kids’ faces that she does a great job transmitting her enthusiasm through to her students. I’m sure most kids are more than happy to hold a bone axe, but they also seem genuinely eager to learn about them.

The basket that Mr. Tymair is holding is an example of the baskets woven by the Makah people who reside on the Olympic peninsula of Washington state. They typically have a light background with small, brightly colored designs.

The Loan Box Program at the Museum has a collection of almost 2,000 objects that are available to area schools to borrow for a small fee. It allows students to have a personal connection with an object (actually experience how the materials feel, the weight, etc.) and see examples of many of the things that are found within their textbooks.

Posted in Community Engagement, Museum | Tagged loan box, Native American, students | Leave a comment

“Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat…”

By Eric Schnittke | Published: December 13, 2011

The holiday season is fast approaching and mailmen and women across the country will be taking to the streets to deliver packages. They are known for delivering through even the harshest of weather and in Point Barrow, Alaska that is no exception. This image from 1897 depicts a US mailman and his sled dog team traversing the snow covered landscape of Alaska to make deliveries.

Caption from the image: George Tilden, 1st Mate, who brought the mail 4000 miles overland; five months en route

The photograph was taken by Edward Avery McIlhenny, an ornithologist who ventured to North Alaska in 1897. His main goal was to collect birds and mammals at Point Barrow for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, but he also made collections for the Penn Museum. He deposited 1589 ethnographic and archaeological objects at the University of Pennsylvania, for which he received payment of $3,500. He also gave the museum his artifact ledger, in which he recorded each object, its ‘artifacts provenience’, English and native name, and descriptions of how it was made or used. The Penn Museum Archives currently houses McIlhenny’s photographs from the trip, as well as letters and his ledger.