Pot coding at the Ban Chiang Lab, Penn Museum, 2010-11. Photos by Bounheuang Bouasisengpaseuth and Sureeratana Bubpha
Continued from, From Pen, Thailand to University of Penn, Part 1
Finally, we arrived at Penn!
Fall 2010, twelve years later, finally I am here at Penn. I am now a participant of the Ban Chiang Project. Director, Dr. Joyce C. White, has designated the academic year 2010-11 as the Year of Ceramics (YOC), with activities to advance the scholarly study of the famous ceramics of Ban Chiang. These ceramics have been on loan to the University of Pennsylvania from the Thai government since the 1970s. Concerning the project’s goals, the Year of Ceramics includes coursework, new staff appointments, an international workshop, a new teaching lab, and international internships, all supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania.
Here at Penn, Mr. Bounheuang Bouasisengpaseuth (Deputy Director of the Lao National Museum in Vientiane, Laos) and I are visiting research scholars for the Ban Chiang Project. We will be staying in Philadelphia for two semesters, starting from Fall 2010 to Spring 2011. At the Ban Chiang Lab, we are focusing specifically on the more than 500 vessels excavated at Ban Chiang and nearby sites by FAD-Penn during 1974-75, as well as petrographic analysis at the Ceramics Lab. This is our great opportunity and will lead to excellent experiences at Penn. Bounheuang and I would like to express our deep thanks to the Henry Luce Foundation and Dr. Joyce C. White for their great support and this possibility for our training at Penn Museum. Since September 2010, we have studied two courses of archaeological ceramics and Ban Chiang ceramics under the supervision and help of Joyce, Dr. Marie-Claude Boileau, Professor Thomas Tartaron, Dr. Elizabeth Hamilton, as well as Ardeth Abrams.
Click here for the Thai translation of this blog.