Magnificent Objects
Edited by Jennifer Quick



Thousands of years of antiquity. Enigmatic cultures past and present. Magnificent objects crafted by people long forgotten. Traditions that have disappeared into the all-encompassing global society of the 21st century. Since the late 19th century hundreds of people, on behalf of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, have searched for what it means to be human cultures. The Museum's extensive collections provide vital clues in this quest.

For the first time curators and Museum staff present more than 220 of the most intriguing and beautiful objects from such sites as Nippur, Thebes, the Amazon, Sitio Conte, Ur of the Chaldees, Borneo—all resonating with an eloquence that recalls the curiosity that drove the Museum and its founders and continues to drive its contemporary researchers after more than 350 international expeditions.

The objects selected—from African to American to Asian, from Babylonian and Near Eastern to Egyptian, Oceanian, and Mediterranean—are important even beyond their immediate, individual aesthetic. The depth of information recovered when they are examined in their original contexts allows experts and lay readers to reconstruct the many stories, large and small, that constitute the shared lives and heritage of humanity.