Specialties/Interests
History of American archaeology
The ancient Maya
Museum Studies
Current/Future Research
Dr. Elin C. Danien is currently preparing two exhibits, Painted
Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya and (with
co-curator Alessandro Pezzati, Penn Museum Archivist),The Art of
Archaeology: Paintings of M. Louise Baker, both scheduled to open at
Penn Museum in the spring of 2009 and then travel to selected venues
in the United States. She is writing a biography of Baker,
resident artist at Penn Museum from 1908 to 1936, to accompany The
Art of Archaeology.
Dr. Danien's interest in the life of Robert Burkitt, an archaeologist
famous in Guatemalan circles as the man who came to tea and stayed
for thirty years, has resulted in numerous papers; the articles "Send me Mr. Burkitt, Some Whisky and Wine: Early Archaeology in
Central America," Expedition 27(3) (1985); "The Ghost Over My
Shoulder, " The University Museum Newsletter 24 (4) (1986); and "Robert James Burkitt and George Byron Gordon: An End and a
Beginning" in Assembling the Past: Studies in the Professionalization
of Archaeology (1999); in the future she plans a book-length
biography of this eccentric figure in early 20th century Maya
archaeology.
Current/Past Research
The results of some of Dr. Danien's ongoing research into Penn Museum
history can be seen in "George Byron Gordon," biographical entry in
American National Biograph (1999); "Chicken Soup and Canvas Bags:
Advice for the Field" in Expedition 43(3) (2001); "Unsung Visionary:
Sara Yorke Stevenson's Role in the Development of Archaeology in
Philadelphia" (Eleanor King, co-author),in Philadelphia and the
Development of Americanist Archaeology (2003).
As Penn Museum's first Public Programs Coordinator, Dr. Danien
originated and for many years ran the Museum's renowned annual Maya
Weekend. Some of that experience is recounted in "The Schele Icon
and Maya Mania; The Growth of Public Interest in Maya Epigraphy," in
Heart of Creation: The Mesoamerican World and the Legacy of Linda
Schele (2002). She is responsible for the recent refurbishing of the
Mesoamerican gallery, and is the author of the Guide to the
Mesoamerican Gallery (2002), and editor of the recently published
Maya Folk Tales from the Alta Verapaz (2005).
In 1986 she established the Bread Upon the Waters Scholarship for
women over the age of thirty who can only pursue an undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania as part-time students. To
date, 61 "Bread" scholars have graduated, 34 with honors; another 25
are currently taking courses.
Dr. Clark
Erickson
cerickso@sas.upenn.edu Associate Curator, American Section, Penn Museum, and Associate Professor,
Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
Specialties/Interests:
Cultural landscapes
Historical ecology
Applied archaeology
Indigenous knowledge system
Archaeology’s role in the contemporary world
Andean studies
Current/Past Research:
Dr. Erickson is interested in how archaeology can provide a long-term
perspective on environmental change, biodiversity, and sustainable management
to inform historical ecology. Dr. Erickson's Andean and Amazonian research
focuses on the contribution of archaeology to understanding the complex
human history of the environment and cultural activities that have shaped
the Earth. His new book (co-edited with William Balée), Time
and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies from the Neotropical Lowlands,
will be published by Columbia University Press in early 2006. It will
highlight multidisciplinary approaches to understanding the anthropogenic
(human created) landscapes. A recent BBC documentary on the Archaeology
of Amazonia titled The Secret of Eldorado features this research.
While traditional archaeologists study sites and monuments, Dr. Erickson
and colleagues focus on built, engineered, and sacred landscapes between
sites in Bolivia and Peru. In addition to research on complex cultural
patterns embedded in landscapes, he is working with Bolivian colleagues
on proposals to protect, manage, and promote archaeological and living
cultural landscapes. Erickson also recently published on Amazonian Dark
Earths, a widespread and only recently understood organic black soil resulting
from pre-Columbian settlement in lowland South America.
Through the study of historical ecology and cultural landscapes, archaeologists
document past and contemporary knowledge and technology relevant to sustainable
land use, agrodiversity, and other topics, commonly referred to as Indigenous
Knowledge Systems. In some cases, archaeology is the only means to recover
forgotten technologies such as the raised fields and fish weirs in Bolivia
and Peru. Dr. Erickson is consulting with private tour operators and government
officials to explore new ways of promoting and appropriately managing
archaeological and cultural resources.
Dr. Erickson is involved in collaborative research with the Robots Lab
of the Department of Computer and Information Science and the Digital
Media Design Program. Since 2002, the team has been developing an inexpensive
and accurate technique to record pre-Columbian architecture using 3D digital
mapping for archaeologists, art historians, architects, cultural resource
managers, and historic preservationists. The team has spent three summers
recording architecture at the site of Tiwanaku, Bolivia.
Responding to the initiatives of Penn's Deans and the Museum Director
to involve students in hands-on research, Dr. Erickson has recently taught
a number of innovative courses (“Native Peoples and the Environment,”
"Archaeology of the Incas," and "Andean Archaeology")
which involve original undergraduate research on Inca artifacts from the
American Section collections. The students’ descriptions, photographs
and analysis will be available to the public and scholars worldwide on
Penn Museum’s website. In a team taught, studio-seminar in Landscape
Architecture and Regional Planning, students recorded, mapped, and interpreted
a cultural landscape of thousands of ritual roads in highland Bolivia
using Geographic Information Systems. The students also developed plans
and designs to protect, manage and promote the landscape that is available
on a multimedia website in Spanish and English.
Specialties/Interests:
Cultural anthropology
American civilization
Issues of individual identity and group cohesion
Current/Past Research:
As a student of American politics Dr. Hammarberg has written The Indiana
Voter: Historical Dynamics of Party Allegiance during the 1870s. This
book makes clear that psychological identification with political parties
as objects in voters’ perceptual environment is one of the most important
features of the American political system, with roots that reach deep into
the nation’s past.
Understanding this behavioral phenomena has drawn Dr. Hammarberg into a
more general interest in psychological anthropology, and led to his work
on psychological trauma and the human response to situations of extreme
stress such as war and natural disasters. He has taught courses on the American
war in Vietnam and developed the Penn Inventory for Post-traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD), a widely used instrument for measuring the strength
of symptoms of PTSD. These symptomatic responses have a strong biological
basis, implicating cognitive and physiological psychology.
Professor Hammarberg has also addressed issues of personal and social identity,
which likewise include embodiment, linguistic expression, social action,
and elements of material culture. These several different aspects of individual
and group life—cultural, social, biological, psychological, linguistic
and material—come together in Dr. Hammarberg’s curatorial work
and teaching of twentieth century American civilization, the culture and
conquest of the American West, native Indian peoples of North America, cultural
values in modern America, and his courses on coping with threatened identity
and identity and purpose.
His current research involves a theoretically-grounded psycho-ethnography
of the Latter-day Saints, an American religious group now very active on
the world stage. As a consulting curator in Penn Museum, he also teaches
using the Museum’s artifacts as resources, particularly with respect
to Native American cultures.
Dr. Christopher
Jones
Retired Senior Specialist, American Section
Dr. Jones continues his tasks of co-editor of the Tikal Reports (with William
Haviland) and author of the report on excavations in the Acropolis at Quirigua.
Penn Museum excavations at Tikal were among the most extensive in world archaeology.
They revealed the extent and complexity of this, the largest of the Maya
sites, and helped make the ruins a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The investigations
into the smaller Maya site of Quirigua added royal architecture and community
structure to one of the most extensive collections of carved stone monuments
and biographical inscriptions in any Maya city.
Mr. Martin's research concentrates on Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions produced
between approximately AD 250 and 1697, in what is today southern Mexico,
Guatemala, Belize,
western Honduras and El Salvador. During the most florescent periods of
Maya civilization sizeable settlements developed across this region, displaying
a sophisticated intellectual and material culture. Hieroglyphic texts,
he notes, are a significant resource in understanding the emic perspective
of this society, most especially aspects of political authority, history,
and ideology. In combination with other data, they illuminate past ideas
and practices, building a fuller and more nuanced picture of an ancient
American world.
Mr.
Martin currently conducts fieldwork in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico, within
a project directed by Ramón Carrasco. Their goal is to understand
the complex history of the extensive ancient city, and to place it within
the wider context of ancient Maya political culture.
Simon Martin was a scholarly consultant to the major exhibition "Courtly Art
of the Ancient Maya," held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC,
and the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, in 2004-2005. In addition,
he was an advisory board member of a second show, "Lords of Creation:
The Origins of Maya Sacred Kingship" held at the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York in 2005-2006.
His
books published to date are: Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens:
Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya (with Nikolai
Grube), Thames and Hudson 2000; and Courtly Art of the Ancient
Maya (with Mary Miller), Thames and Hudson 2004.
Special Interests: Ojibwe, Cherokee, and Lenape cultures, American Studies
Current / Past Research:
Dr. Tim Powell is the first Director of the Penn Museum’s Digital Partnerships with Native American Communities program. Dedicated to imagining new possibilities for how digital technology can empower Native American communities, he has co-directed numerous large-scale grant projects.
Dr. Powell currently works on an NEH sponsored project, entitled “Gi Bugadin-a-maa Goom (Ojibwe, ‘To Sanction, To Give Authority, To Bring to Life’),” to build a digital archive of museum artifacts, oral histories, maps, and historical documents for Ojibwe communities in northern Minnesota. The project joins in partnership: the Penn Museum, White Earth Tribal and Community College, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, Itasca Community College, and the University of Minnesota, Duluth. The site will provide curriculum for the Anishinaabe Quiz Bowl program, utilized by Ojibwe high school and tribal college students throughout northern Minnesota to strengthen language preservation and cultural revitalization.
Dr. has worked closely with the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians for many years, making historical materials (such as the Cherokee Phoenix) available to students on the reservations of western North Carolina. Dr. Powell also collaborates with leading members of the Lenape Nation in Pennsylvania to archive historical documents, to protect sacred sites, and to enhance language programs designed by the tribe.
The author of numerous books and articles, Tim’s latest works include “A Digital Partnership between the Penn Museum and Ojibwe Tribal Historians,” Expedition: The Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (fall 2007). “Native/American Digital Storytelling: Situating the Cherokee Oral Tradition within American Literary History,” Literature Compass, v. 4 no. 1 (January 2007) and “A Drum Awakens: Partnership to Create a Digital Archive based on Traditional Ojibwe Knowledge Systems,” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage (2007).
Gregory Annenberg Weingarten Curator, American Section, and Professor, Department of Anthropology
Dr. Preucel is particularly interested in archaeological theory and practice
with a special focus on the new field of indigenous archaeology. Over the
past six years his research has focused on the archaeology of the Pueblo
Revolt. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 is sometimes termed the "first"
American revolution since it was the time when the Pueblo Indian peoples
of New Mexico and Arizona and their Navajo and Apache allies rose up against
their Spanish oppressors to take control of their destiny. While there is
substantial historical documentation of this event, there has been little
attention paid to how it impacted the social configurations and lifeways
that emerged following the Revolt.
Dr. Preucel’s research has three
ongoing projects. The first is a collaboration with the Pueblo of Cochiti
addressing Kotyiti, an ancestral Revolt-period Cochiti village. The second,
with T. J. Ferguson (Arizona State Museum), is a survey of Revolt period
settlement pattern and village architecture. The third, with Patricia Capone
(Peabody Museum, Harvard), is a study of Revolt Period ceramic production
and exchange. This research is made possible in part through grants from
the American Philosophical Society, the University Research Foundation,
the University of Pennsylvania Museum, and generous contributions by Annette
Merle-Smith and Douglas Walker.
See his chapter "Learning
from the Elders" in Excavating Voices: Listening to Photographs
of Native Americans
Dr. Jeremy A. Sabloff
jsabloff@sas.upenn.edu
Curator of Mesoamerican Archaeology, American Section; Williams Director
Emeritus; and Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Anthropology
Specialties/Interests:
Archaeological theory and method
History of American archaeology
Ancient civilizations
Pre-industrial urbanism
Use of settlement pattern studies
The ancient Maya
Current/Past Research:
Dr. Sabloff’s field research in Mexico and Guatemala has focused on
the Maya lowlands and particularly on the transition from Classic to Postclassic
civilization and the development and nature of the Postclassic Maya. He
co-directed the major field project at the Puuc region site of Sayil, Yucatan,
in the 1980s before turning to administration and a ten-year term as the
Williams Director of the Museum (1994-2004).
Academic History/Publications:
Dr. Sabloff (B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1964; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1969) has previously taught at Harvard University, the University of Utah, the University of New Mexico (where he was Chair of the Department), and the University of Pittsburgh (where he also was Chair) and was an Overseas Visiting Fellow at St. John's College, Cambridge, England. He was the Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum from 1994-2004 (and Interim Director, 2006-2007). He also is a past President of the Society for American Archaeology, a past Chair of Section H (Anthropology) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and past Editor of American Antiquity. He is an Associate Editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and currently sits on several scholarly editorial boards, including Journal of Anthropological Research and Archaeology Magazine. He served as Chair of the Smithsonian Science Commission and currently is a member of the Visiting Committee for the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Kolb Foundation (of which he was President from 1994-2004 and 2006-2007). He also serves on the Board of Managers of the School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe, NM. (of which he was Chair from 2006-2007).
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected in 1994) and the American Philosophical Society (elected in 1996 and currently a member of its Council), and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected in 1999). Furthermore, he is a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries, London, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Sabloff is the author of Excavations at Seibal; Ceramics (1975), The Cities of Ancient Mexico (1989; 2nd ed., 1997), The New Archaeology and the Ancient Maya (1990), and Archaeology Matters (2008) and the co-author of A History of American Archaeology (1974; 2nd ed., 1980; 3rd ed., 1993), A Reconnaissance of Cancuen, Peten, Guatemala (1978), Ancient Civilizations: The Near East and Mesoamerica (1979; 2nd ed. 1995), Cozumel: Late Maya Settlement Patterns (1984), and The Ancient Maya City of Sayil (1991). His books have appeared in Spanish, Russian, German, Japanese, and Dutch translations. He also has edited or co-edited 12 books, the most recent of which are two volumes from the SAR Press: Tikal: Dynasties, Foreigners, and Affairs of State (2003) and (with Joyce Marcus) The Ancient City (in press); and he has published more than 130 articles, book chapters, and reviews.
Photo: Dr. Jeremy Sabloff at the
Puuc region site of Sayil, Yucatan.
Dr. Theodore
G. Schurr
Consulting Curator, Physical Anthropology & American
Sections; Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Specialties/Interests:
Molecular anthropology, modern human evolution, human biological variation,
biomedical genetics, ancient DNA.
Geographic Areas: Siberia, Americas, Southeast Asia, South and Central
Asia, Australia, Melanesia, Africa.
Current/Past Research:
As Director of Penn's Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology, Dr. Schurr
and his colleagues work on a wide variety of projects. Through the Baikal
Archaeology Project, he and his colleagues were able to genetically characterize
Neolithic populations (3000-9000 ybp) from the Cis-Baikal region, and
develop a more nuanced view of the prehistory of Siberia. They also analyzed
the genetic diversity of Melanesian populations, and elaborated the colonization
history of that region relative to Australia and Papua New Guinea. In
addition, the team completed anaylsis of mtDNA variation in indigenous
Altaians and Altaian Kazakhs to elucidate the prehistory of South-Central
Siberia. They will continue genetic studies of both Alatain and Slavic
populations, focusing on Y-chromosome and autosomal variation. Related
work with Old Believer and ethnic Russian populations from Siberia are
helping them to clarify aspects of Slavic and Russian history.
Upcoming Research:
Dr. Schurr was recently appointed Director of the North American Regional
Center for the Genographic Project, an ambitious initiative to collect
and analyze over 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations worldwide.
This project, which seeks to trace migration patterns of the world's peoples
from their African origins some 60,000 years ago, involves ten global
centers, and is funded by the National Geographic Society, IBM and the
Waitt Foundation Family. Over the next five (or more) years, Dr. Schurr's
team hopes to work with a number of indigenous communities across North
America.
In addition to this work, Dr. Schurr's lab is also engaged a several new
projects. These include a population history study in Afghanistan with
colleagues from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UK, and a genetic epidemiology
project with collaborators in Argentina. In addition, the team will continue
their study of mitochondrial diseases in Russia and the Ukraine with physicians
and researchers in those countries, and extend their analysis of prostate
cancer in African and African-American men with researchers at Penn.
Curator in Charge, American Section; Sally and Alvin Shoemaker Professor
in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania
Specialties/Interests:
Archaeology
Maya civilization
Origins
of ancient states,
Evolution of human societies
Current/Past Research:
Dr. Robert J. Sharer received his Ph.D. from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1968 and he has
taught in the anthropology department at Penn for
over 30 years. He is a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of
Antiquaries of London, and a member of the
American Anthropological Association and the
Society for American Archaeology. He has
conducted research in Central America for over 40
years, directing long-term multidisciplinary
archaeological projects at Chalchuapa, El
Salvador (1966-70), in the Salama Valley,
Guatemala (1971-74), at Quirigua, Guatemala
(1974-79), and at Copán, Honduras (1988-2002). He
has also studied a contemporary Maya community in
the northwest highlands of Guatemala, and
conducted archaeological surveys and excavations
of Late Preclassic settlement at El Mirador,
Guatemala, and on the north coast of Honduras. In
his most recent research he directed the Early
Copán Acropolis Program for Penn Museum and the
Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia,
excavating the royal Acropolis of the lowland
Maya site of Copan, Honduras. This project
combined archaeological and historical data to
reveal the origin and development of the Copán
state between 400 and 650 AD.
He has published over 100 scholarly articles, and
is co-author of two archaeology textbooks and
several monographs reporting the results of his
archaeological research, including a three volume
Chalchuapa report (1978), and a one volume
Verapaz report (1987). He is general editor of
the Quirigua Reports, with four volumes published
(1979, 1983, 1993, and 2007), and general editor
of the forthcoming Early Classic Copan Acropolis
Reports. He has co-edited five books, including
Regional Perspectives on the Olmec (1989) and
Understanding Early Classic Copán (2004), and is
the author of Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center and
Its Sculpture (1990), Everyday Life in Maya
Civilization (1996), and two previous editions of
The Ancient Maya (1983 and 1994). A completely
revised and expanded edition of The Ancient Maya,
published in 2005, combines a 2500-year history
of Maya society with discussions of the central
roles played by economic, sociopolitical, and
ideological factors in the growth and development
of this extraordinary civilization. By
illuminating the Maya past The Ancient Maya
offers a more complete context for understanding
the Maya people of today and their continuing
struggle to restore their cultural heritage and
attain their rightful standing in the
contemporary world.
Dr. Elin C. Danien
Dr. Clark
Erickson
Dr. Melvyn
Hammarberg
Simon
Martin
Dr. Timothy B. Powell
Dr. Jeremy A. Sabloff 
Dr. Theodore
G. Schurr
Dr.
Robert J. Sharer