Senior Research Scientist, Mediterranean Section; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of the History of Art
Specialties/Interests:
Greek art and archaeology
Greek vase-painting, particularly Archaic Corinthian and Attic black-figure
History of the Museum and its building
History of museums
Etruscan fakes and forgeries
Current/Past
Dr. Brownlee is continuing the study of the Attic black- and red -figure pottery from 19th century excavations at Orvieto, Italy. The Museum’s own collection of Attic vases from these excavations was the original focus of the project, but it has now been expanded to include the creation of a database of the Attic pottery from Orvieto that is scattered among some 30 museums in Europe and the United States. Dr. Brownlee’s collaborator in this project is Valentina Follo, graduate student in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World program. They will present a paper on the Orvieto project at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Chicago in early 2008.
She is also co-curator of an exhibition on the Museum building, “University of Pennsylvania Museum: Architecture and Institution,” to open in 2008. The exhibition was developed by the students in a Halpern-Rogath Curatorial Seminar in Department of the History of Art which she co-taught with David Brownlee in the fall of 2006. The exhibition will incorporate some aspects of the Museum’s recently completed Historic Structure Report. Dr. Brownlee worked with Shawn Evans, of Atkin Olshin Lawson-Bell Architects, and Jeffrey Cohen, Bryn Mawr College, on the report, which documents the history of the Museum’s extraordinary building as well as providing a preservation plan for the stewardship of the building. The project was supported by a grant from the Heritage Philadelphia Program of the Pew Charitable Trusts administered by the University of the Arts.
She is also working on a group of 19th-century Etruscan forgeries, including several in the Museum’s collection, in preparation for a planned exhibition and symposium that will consider these artifacts within the context of the Italian antiquities market in the late 19th century. This is a collaborative project with Valentina Follo, graduate student in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World program (who received Getty Research Institute Library Study Grant for the project), and Jean MacIntosh Turfa, Research Associate in the Mediterranean Section
Dr. Brownlee is co-director of the Museum’s Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum project, she will continue editing and preparing for publication two volumes in the series. An adjunct professor in the History of Art, she will be teaching a course this year on Greek vase-painting. The course will meet regularly in the Museum, using its extensive collection of Greek vases. She is also preparing a study of the Archaic Corinthian pottery from the so-called Potters’ Quarter at the site of Ancient Corinth.
Dr. Barbara J. Hayden
Senior Research Scientist, Mediterranean Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum
Specialties/Interests: Landscape archaeologysettlement systems
Urbanization
Exchange systems and emporia
Technology
Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age in southern Aegean
Current/Past Research: During the summer of 2005, Dr. Hayden began a new excavation of the coastal Bronze Age and historical site of Priniatikos Pyrgos, located in the Vrokastro Survey region, Gulf of Mirabello, eastern Crete. A brief excavation of this site was undertaken in 1912 by Edith Hall of Penn Museum, after her excavation of the large Late Bronze and Early Iron Age settlement of Vrokastro, on a mountain peak near the coastal zone. The project is being undertaken through a permit
obtained by the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies with the cooperation of the
K-D Ephoreia.
The Vrokastro Survey Project (published in three volumes, the Vrokastro Reports) identified Priniatikos Pyrgos as the template for understanding the political and economic development of the west-central Mirabello region in both the prehistoric and historical epochs. This conclusion was based on its size, complexity, chronological range, and its function as the primary harbor or 'gateway' community for the Vrokastro area. Remote sensing conducted in 2002 also verified its function as a large industrial site (in ceramics and iron-working) that spans millennia. Excavation of the industrial site and well-preserved Neolithic through Roman phases of the settlement will produce a more detailed understanding of the cultural development of the region, including the earliest settlement of the west-central Gulf of Mirabello, trade connections of Neolithic through Roman date in the southern Aegean, and the development of technologies in ceramics and iron.
The archaeological and environmental context of this primary harbor town has been investigated through intensive and systematic survey (1986-95, Vrokastro Reports), and is currently being explored through a geoarchaeological program initiated in 2002 in collaboration with the Demokritos Geology and Archaeometry Laboratory, Athens, and The Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Rethymnon. Fieldwork for this geoarchaeological project consists of exploration of the geology and geomorphology of the coastal zone, remote sensing undertaken on Priniatikos Pyrgos and other ancient sites, and analyses of techniques and resources for the local industries in ceramics, metal, and stone. These industries formed part of the economic base of the region and helped sustain long-term settlement. These fieldwork projects have been supported by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the American Philosophical Society, and Penn Museum.
Link: Vrokastro Archaeological Survey Project Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete: Volume 1: Catalogue of Pottery from the Settlement of Vrokastro Volume 2: The Settlement History of the Vrokastro Area and Related Studies
Photo: Barbara Hayden reviewing pottery collected from a site during the Vrokastro Archaeological Survey, 1990.
Dr. David Gilman Romano
dromano@sas.upenn.edu Senior Research Scientist, Mediterranean Section; Adjunct Professor of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania
During the summer of 2004 Dr. Romano began a new excavation and survey project at the Sanctuary of Zeus on Mt. Lykaion, Arcadia, Greece. A total of ten faculty and students from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Arizona worked at Mt. Lykaion during July 2004. This site is a famous Pan-Arcadian and Pan-Hellenic sanctuary that held fascination for the ancient Greeks and has continued to be important for modern-day scholars of archaeology, classics, and Greek religion. The sanctuary was ranked high among the Pan-Hellenic athletic festivals, meaning that athletes, dignitaries and visitors often came from all parts of the Greek world to the mountain-top site in Arcadia for the festival, held once every four years. The other famous Pan-Hellenic festival sites included Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia and Nemea. There are many similarities between the Sanctuary of Zeus at Mt. Lykaion and its more famous neighbor, only 17 miles away at Olympia. The presence at Mt. Lykaion of several unique architectural structures, including the only hippodrome that can be visualized in the entire Greek world, the only stadium that is situated within a hippodrome, and several well preserved 4 th century buildings, as well as the rumors of mysterious and secret rituals, possibly involving human sacrifice, suggests the importance of the site. The program of work at the site continues through 2008.
Dr. Romano continues to work on two other mapping projects. The first is Mapping Augustan Rome, a joint project with 12 colleagues and students, published in 2002 by the Journal of Roman Archaeology. The current effort is towards converting the book and paper maps into a digital format.
He is also working towards final publication of the Corinth Computer Project, a long-term study, 1988-present, of the city and landscape of Roman Corinth.
Public Outreach: With the Modern Olympic Games being held in Athens in the Summer of 2004, there were numerous opportunities for Dr. Romano to connect the ancient with the modern games. He updated the Museum's award-winning website, The Real Story of the Ancient Olympic Games, highlighting specific historical events and famous athletes. During the course of the summer, he was interviewed by approximately 50 reporters from all over the world concerning aspects of the ancient Olympic Games and resulting in hundreds of newspaper articles. Together with his family he attended the Olympic Games in Athens and wrote a web journal for the Museum.
On June 9, 2004, the University of Pennsylvania Museum was the host for the First Day of Issue Ceremony for the US Postal Service Olympic Stamp. Dr. Romano consulted with the artist concerning the design of the stamp, which was based on an object in the Greek Gallery, MS 739, and participated in the First Day of Issue ceremony to the Museum.
roseb@sas.upenn.edu James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology and Curator-in-Charge, Mediterranean Section
Specialties/Interests:
Archaeology of Anatolia and the Roman provinces
Early Imperial Rome
Greek and Roman numismatics and sculpture
Current/Past Research: Dr. Rose has focused his research on the Troad, in northwestern Turkey, for the last two decades. In 1988 he began the Troy Excavation Project in collaboration with Manfred Korfmann of the University of Tübingen, and has overseen Greek, Roman, and Byzantine (ca. 1000 B.C.-1500 A.D.) excavations and research at Troy since that time. Excavation thus far has clarified the rise in the city's fortunes after Alexander the Great, its reconstruction by Augustus and his Julio-Claudian successors, and the manipulation of its legendary heritage.
One of his and Prof. Korfmann's principal goals at the beginning of the Troy project was to set a new standard for rapid, comprehensive publication of the new excavation results, and to this end they founded an annual excavation journal entitled Studia Troica, of which fourteen volumes have appeared thus far. Their discoveries at Troy have been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, and on National Public Radio and the BBC.
In 2004 he began a new multi-year project (The Granicus River Valley Archaeological Survey Project) focused on an area of northwestern Turkey that was controlled by both Greeks and Persians during the first millennium B.C. Looting there has become increasingly rampant due to the gold and silver objects still preserved in many of the tombs, and the new survey represents the first attempt to record and map both the settlements and burial mounds in this region. The majority of the tombs are being explored with remote sensing (magnetometry and/or radar), while geophysical investigations (core-sampling) are being conducted around the Granicus River, where Alexander the Great launched a major battle against the Persian army in 334 B.C.
Most of the tombs date from the late Archaic to the early Hellenistic period; one of them yielded the earliest stone sarcophagus with figural scenes to have been found in the eastern Mediterranean, and another within the same tomb contained the body of a child surrounded by gold jewellery and silver symposium implements. A third sarcophagus (ca. 400-375 B.C.), with its paint still intact, contains a biographical narrative of the deceased, showing him victorious in the hunt and on the battlefield. These are Graeco-Persian products, carved primarily by Greek artists for Persian patrons. He has also recently been named co-director of the Gordion excavations, and is focusing on remote sensing in Gordion's Lower Town.
Since 1994 Dr. Rose has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Research Institute in Turkey, and as Vice President since 1999. He is also a trustee of the American Academy in Rome, a member of the Board of Directors of CAORC (the Council of American Overseas Research Centers), and President of the Archaeological Institute of America.
Dr. Kenneth G. Sams
Director of the Gordion Archaeological Project in Turkey;Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr. Sams has worked at Gordion for many years. He oversees and coordinates teams for object conservation; architectural conservation and restoration; and installation of the greatly expanded Gordion Museum, which was officially opened by the Turkish Minister of Culture in October 1999.
Curator Emeritus, Mediterranean Section, Penn Museum, and Professor Emeritus, Department of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania; Chief Curator of "Worlds Intertwined," the Museum's Etruscan, Greek, and Roman galleries, which opened to the public on March 16, 2003. Author of six books and ca. 80 articles and reviews, he is currently working on his last volume on the Extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Cyrene: "The Final Years of the Sanctuary's Occupation, 31 BC to AD 365." He is also hoping for a thaw in US-Libyan relations in order to resume the museum's work in eastern Libya.
Dr. Ann Blair Brownlee
Dr. Barbara J. Hayden 
Dr. David Gilman Romano 
Dr. C. Brian Rose