2013–2014 Annual Report Inside 3 EXECUTIVE MESSAGE 5 A STRATEGIC VISION 7 THE YEAR IN REVIEW 8 PENN MUSEUM 2013–2014: BY THE NUMBERS 12 PENN MUSEUM 2013–2014: BY THE MONTH 28 PENN MUSEUM 2013–2014: BY THE GEOGRAPHY 29 Teaching and Research: Student, Curator, and Consulting Scholar Field Projects 31 Gordion Archaeological Project (Turkey) — Historical Landscape Preservation at Gordion — Gordion Heritage Educational Project 33 Rowanduz Archaeological Program (Iraqi Kurdistan) 35 Naxçivan Archaeological Project (Azerbaijan) 37 Defining the Early Kings of the Abydos Dynasty (Egypt) 38 Decoding the Swahili (Coastal Kenya) 2013–2014 Annual Report 39 Silver Reef Project (Utah, U.S.) 40 On the Wampum Trail: Restorative Research in North American Museums (North America) 41 The Caste War of the Yucatan: The Tihosuco Community Preservation and Development Project (Mexico) 42 Collections: New Acquisitions 46 Collections: Traveling Exhibitions and Outgoing Loans 49 SUPPORTING THE MISSION 50 Statement of Fiscal Year Activity 52 Leadership Gifts 58 Building Transformation Gifts 60 Gifts in Support of Scholarly Programs Objects on the cover, inside 62 Gifts in Support of Visitor Programs cover, and at right are currently on or slated for future display in 64 Loren Eiseley Society the exhibition Native American 66 The Expedition Circle Voices: The People—Here 68 The Annual Fund and Adopt-an-Artifact and Now, opened March 1, 2014. On the Cover: Basket, 70 Corporate, Foundation, and Government Agency Supporters Object Number NA8264, 72 Sara Yorke Stevenson Legacy Circle Pomo, California. At right: Bowl Fragment, Object Number 75 THE GIFT OF TIME 22982, Mesa Verde, CO, ca. 76 Exhibition Advisors and Contributors 1200–1300 CE. Information 78 Penn Museum Volunteers on the objects at left, and all objects in the exhibition, can be 80 The Women’s Committee found at www.penn.museum/ 82 Board of Overseers sites/nativeamericanvoices/ 84 Director’s Council Penn Museum, 85 Penn Museum Advisory Board 3260 South Street, 86 Young Friends Board of the Penn Museum Philadelphia, PA 19104-6324 87 In Memoriam ©2015 University of Pennsylvania. 88 Curatorial Sections and Museum Centers All rights reserved. 90 Penn Museum Departmental Staff 2013-2014 Executive Message LIKE THE UNIVERSITY of Pennsylvania as a whole, information on the ground or trying to safeguard collections. the Penn Museum is a place of continual discovery. The We hope to continue to offer training and guidance about challenge confronting authors of an annual report such the treatment of museum collections in emergency situations as this is not so much the labor required to seek out in concert with those most immediately impacted. discoveries—everywhere they are evident—but rather to Closer to home, the Penn Museum embarked on a curate them in a way that conveys the extraordinary range of unique and exciting partnership with the School District of research, teaching, exhibitions, publications, and programs Philadelphia, the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), and that take place. In the pages that follow, we hope you enjoy Mastery Charter School called Unpacking the Past. With the reading about the Penn Museum “by the numbers,” “by the support of a GRoW Annenberg Foundation challenge grant geography,” and “by the month”—all useful rubrics with and the ambition of reaching every seventh-grade student Mike Kowalski and which to organize a tremendous quantity of detail about the in the School District of Philadelphia, this FREE three-year Julian Siggers in the past year’s activities. By nearly any quantitative or qualitative program connects classrooms studying ancient Egypt or Rotunda, with one of a pair measure, it was a tremendous year for the Penn Museum. Rome with the world-renowned collections and teaching of colossal stone qilins, The following examples are presented to illustrate the resources of the Penn Museum. Unpacking the Past takes a object number C657, from breadth of our progress across our strategic priorities and comprehensive approach to ensure that the experiences of Henan Province, China, whet your appetite for what follows; as you will discover both the students and the teachers are academically enriching 4th or 5th century CE. by reading this annual report, they are by no means an and connected to the School District’s Scope and Sequence, exhaustive list. Common Core curriculum, and 21st-century skills. The exhibition Native American Voices: The People—Here Thanks to a magnificent gift from Bruce and Peggy and Now opened in March 2014, following years of content Mainwaring, this year also marked the renovation and development in close collaboration with more than 80 complete refitting of our conservation labs and a new Native American advisors and contributors. Through old suite of teaching labs, while a faculty steering committee and new objects, video and audio recordings, and digital guided the development of the new Center for the interactive opportunities, this exhibition allows visitors to Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM), a joint develop a new understanding of the original inhabitants of endeavor between the Penn Museum and the University this land, as told through their own voices. of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) now This past year’s fieldwork led to some exciting discoveries, based in the completed labs. CAAM offers the facilities, including the tomb of the previously unknown pharaoh, materials, equipment, and expert personnel to teach and king Woseribre-Senebkay (ca. 1650 BCE), unearthed in mentor students in a range of scientific techniques crucial Abydos, Egypt. No doubt more surprises like the discovery to archaeologists and other scholars as they seek to interpret of Senebkay are in store from our researchers’ work the past in an interdisciplinary context that links the natural around the globe, but sometimes the best archaeological sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. discoveries aren’t made in the field. The Penn Museum We are delighted to acknowledge the significant progress made international news this past summer when scientists that we have made in all four areas of our mandate— “re-discovered” an important find in our collections research, teaching, collections stewardship, and public storage—a complete human skeleton about 6,500 years engagement. But lest we dally too long, we should not forget old. The mystery skeleton had been stored for 85 years, all that the next discovery may be right around the corner, trace of its identifying documentation gone. A grant-funded or just over the horizon, or taking place in our galleries or 2 project to digitize old records from Sir Leonard Woolley’s classrooms at this very moment. We hope you are as excited 3 Ur excavations brought that documentation, and the history as we are to see what lies in store for the year to come. And of the skeleton, back to light. Visitors were invited to see we deeply appreciate your many contributions of time, the skeleton undergo conservation in our In the Artifact Lab talent, and financial resources that have brought us this far. exhibition, and more discoveries await. From the archives to conflict zones, the Penn Museum plays an important role in protecting cultural heritage in some of the world’s most dangerous places. When a Syrian scholar recently fled to the United States and asked for help Michael J. Kowalski Julian Siggers, Ph.D. protecting her country’s cultural heritage, the Penn Cultural Chairman Williams Director Heritage Center worked with other partnering organizations to create an emergency program. The collaborators’ first effort was to develop a workshop in southern Turkey, bringing together individuals from Syria who were collecting A Strategic Vision FEW INSTITUTIONS in the world possess collections as signature galleries are fundamental to fulfilling our obligation significant as those of the Penn Museum, collections that to diffuse knowledge to the varied and diverse communities span nearly all of human existence. These physical resources that we serve. These communities include, but are not are matched by an equally illustrious history of outstanding limited to the University’s academic community; indeed, they research and scholarship that spans more than 127 years, reach far beyond our ivy-covered walls. We must strive, like and the benefits that come with being a part of one of the the University as a whole, to be innovative, impactful, and world’s great universities. As inheritors of this legacy, it is our inclusive. mandate to steward our extraordinary assets for the benefit As we undertake the renovation and reinstallation of our of the public that we serve and for future generations. signature Egyptian, Near Eastern, and Asian galleries our It is perhaps difficult to envision the Penn Museum at its physical transformation will be quite evident. Much loved founding in 1887, when as a nascent organization so much installations will give way to new interpretive strategies. of its promise was the unrealized ambition of a community Well-trod paths through the galleries will be re-envisioned of dedicated scholars and supporters. Nearly coincident with the Penn Museum’s GRoW Annenberg genesis, the then-Assistant Secretary of the The museum of the future must stand side by side with Program Educator Smithsonian Institution, G. Brown Goode, the library and the laboratory, as a part of the teaching Jenny Leibert uses challenged the international museum the iconic sphinx of community with his influential lecture equipment of the college and university… as one of the Ramses II in the lower “Museums of the Future” in 1891: principal agencies for the enlightenment of people. of the Penn Museum’s “The museum of the past must be set Egyptian Galleries to aside, reconstructed, transformed from a bring ancient Egypt cemetery of bric-a-brac into a nursery of living thoughts. with improved access by means of ramps and new elevators. alive for students of The museum of the future must stand side by side with It is entirely reasonable to ask, what is the end goal of all this the John Story Jenks the library and the laboratory, as a part of the teaching destructive, expensive, and no doubt dusty, transformation? School, May 2014.