Invisible Beauty

Even the smallest artifacts and specimens are packed with hidden information about the past—we just need the right technology to see it.

When people imagine archaeologists, they often picture someone working in the field, but new discoveries are constantly happening in the laboratory. Using instruments to reveal the microscopic and hidden world, archaeologists and anthropologists extract information from artifacts, specimens, and landscapes—metallurgical textures, colorful crystals, and cellular structures—and answer questions related to technology, use, trade, diet, health, and the environment. This unseen world is also astoundingly beautiful and inspires a sense of wonder.

Invisible Beauty also highlights the important role of research in archaeological discovery—from undergraduate student research opportunities at the University of Pennsylvania to the professionals leading cutting-edge work inside Museum’s Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM).

Exhibition Curators

Marie-Claude Boileau, Ph.D. Director of the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM) and Adjunct Associate Professor of Classical Studies Graduate Group in the Art & Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

Sarah Linn, Ph.D. Research Liaison