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Research

A Center for Research

CAAM teaching specialists and their students excavating in the field.

We make the ancient past relevant by integrating our research into our galleries, publications, and other channels and connecting it to our communities' experiences.

Our Penn Museum mission—to be a center for inquiry and the ongoing exploration of humanity—is advanced by the research work of 44 faculty-curators, teaching specialists, field project directors, and collections keepers, as well as by graduate and undergraduate students and almost 200 affiliated consulting scholars.

This research takes place not only in fieldwork projects around the world, but in labs, classrooms, collections storerooms, archives, and libraries, and in collaborative work with national and international heritage organizations from UNESCO to community groups.

In 2024 alone, thanks to the generosity of our donors and friends, the Penn Museum was able to provide direct support to 21 research projects in 14 countries over 5 continents through the Director’s Field Fund, as well as additional travel cost assistance to Penn students gaining first-hand experience in the field at some of these and many additional projects.

Research Spotlight

  • Gordion, Türkiye

    This ancient Phrygian capital city ruled by King Midas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, includes the world’s oldest standing wooden building and the best-preserved Iron Age citadel gate in Asia Minor.

    View of excavation at Gordion.

  • Abydos, Egypt

    One of the most important religious centers of ancient Egyptian civilization, Abydos was home to the tombs of Egypt’s first pharaohs and the cult site dedicated to the worship of Osiris.

    View of ruins at Abydos.

  • Brahmagiri, India

    With a 5,000-year-long history of occupation from the beginnings of agriculture to the present day, the site was the location of one of the earliest cities in southern India and has a rich archaeological record.

    Ruins at Brahmagiri.

  • Museums, Missions, & Acquisitions (M2A)

    A first-of-its-kind national study of institutional collecting practices and policies funded by an IMLS National Leadership grant, the M2A project aims to inform an evidence-based framework for the future collecting decisions of U.S. museums.

    An Egyptian artifact in storage.

  • Egyptian Blue Outside Egypt

    Conservators and archaeological scientists collaborate to investigate the origins of first millennium-BCE small objects molded from Egyptian Blue paste unearthed by Penn Museum archaeologists at sites in northwestern Iran.

    An artifact fragment painted in Egyptian Blue.

africansection@pennmuseum.org

  • Vanicléia Silva Santos, Ph.D., Associate Curator
  • Dwaune Latimer, Friendly Keeper of Collections
Consulting Scholars
  • Ali Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.
  • Lee V. Cassanelli, Ph.D.
  • Kathy Curnow, Ph.D.
  • Monique Scott, Ph.D.

americansection@pennmuseum.org

  • Lucy Fowler Williams, Ph.D., Associate Curator-in-Charge; Sabloff Keeper of Collections
  • Megan Kassabaum, Ph.D., Weingarten Associate Curator for North America
  • Richard Leventhal, Ph.D., Curator
  • Simon Martin, Ph.D., Associate Curator
  • Stacey Espenlaub, Ph.D., Manager of Provenance & Repatriation and Euseba & Warren Kamensky NAGPRA Specialist
  • William Wierzbowski, Keeper of Collections
Consulting Scholars
  • Ricardo Antonio Agurcia Fasquelle, Ph.D.
  • Yolanda Alcorta, M.A.
  • Casey Barrier, Ph.D.
  • Austin Bell, Ph.D.
  • Ellen Bell, Ph.D.
  • Judith E. Berman, Ph.D.
  • Lawrence S. Coben, Ph.D.
  • James Davenport, Ph.D.
  • Pamela Geller, Ph.D.
  • Violetta Gutierrez
  • Timothy J. Horsley, Ph.D.
  • Katherine M. Moore, Ph.D.
  • Marilyn Norcini, Ph.D.
  • Ann H. Peters, Ph.D.
  • Justin Reamer, Ph.D.
  • Frauke Sachse, Ph.D.
  • Douglas K. Smit, Ph.D.
  • Anne Tiballi, Ph.D.
  • Loa P. Traxler, Ph.D.
  • Dorothy K. Washburn, Ph.D.
  • Rebecca Yamin, Ph.D.

asiansection@pennmuseum.org

  • Kathleen Morrison, Ph.D., Curator-in-Charge
  • Lynn Meskell, Ph.D., Curator
  • Adam Smith, Ph.D., Assistant Curator
  • Nancy Steinhardt, Ph.D., Curator
  • Elizabeth Hamilton, Ph.D., Research Coordinator, Ban Chiang
  • Stephen Lang, Lyons Keeper of Collections
Consulting Scholars
  • Christopher Atwood, Ph.D.
  • Marcus Bingenheimer, Ph.D.
  • Frank Chance, Ph.D.
  • Julie N. Davis, Ph.D.
  • Susan Dine, Ph.D.
  • Derek Gillman, M.A.
  • Elizabeth Hamilton, Ph.D.
  • H. M. Agnes Hsu-Tang, Ph.D.
  • Mark T. Lycett, Ph.D.
  • Justin McDaniel, Ph.D.
  • Bryan Miller, Ph.D.
  • Vincent C. Pigott, Ph.D.
  • Anne Lisa Seastrand, Ph.D.
  • Ambily Sreedharan, Ph.D.
  • Joyce White, Ph.D.
  • Xiuqin Zhou, Ph.D.

babyloniansection@pennmuseum.org

  • Stephen J. Tinney, Ph.D., Associate Curator-in-Charge
  • Philip Jones, Ph.D., Associate Curator and Keeper of Collections
  • Robert Bryant, Programmer, Early Mesopotamia and the Gulf
Consulting Scholars
  • Grant Frame, Ph.D.
  • Anna Glenn, Ph.D.
  • Ann Kessler Guinan, Ph.D.
  • Joshua Jeffers, Ph.D.
  • Nancy W. Leinwand, Ph.D.
  • Jamie Novotny, Ph.D.
  • Karen Sonik, Ph.D.
  • Ilona Zsolnay, Ph.D.

biologicalanthropologysection@pennmuseum.org

  • Rachel Watkins, Ph.D., Visiting Associate Curator
  • Alex Denning, Biological Anthropology Collections Manager
Consulting Scholars
  • Sheela Athreya, Ph.D.
  • Michael Blakey, Ph.D.
  • Anna Dhody, M.F.S.
  • Felicia Fricke, Ph.D.
  • Michelle M. Glantz, Ph.D.
  • Neha Gupta, Ph.D.
  • Dominic Hall, M.A.
  • Caroline Jones, Ph.D.
  • Alex Jones, Ph.D.
  • Ann Kakaliouras, Ph.D.
  • Peggy King Jorde, M.A.
  • Myra Laird, Ph.D.
  • Aja Lans, Ph.D.
  • Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, Ph.D.
  • Elizabeth Meade, Ph.D.
  • Shannon Novak, Ph.D.
  • Lexi O'Donell, Ph.D.
  • Davorka Radovčić, Ph.D.
  • Kathryn Sabella, Ph.D.
  • Mallika Sarma, Ph.D.
  • Theodore Schurr, Ph.D.
  • Page Selinsky, Ph.D.
  • Sabrina Sholts, Ph.D.
  • Sean Tallman, Ph.D.
  • Alanna Warner Smith, Ph.D.

egyptiansection@pennmuseum.org

  • David Silverman, Ph.D., Curator-in-Charge
  • Kevin Cahail, Ph.D., Offsite Collections Manager
  • Jennifer Houser Wegner, Ph.D., Associate Curator
  • Josef Wegner, Ph.D., Curator
  • Stephen Phillips, Ph.D., Curatorial Research Coordinator
Consulting Scholars
  • Shelby Justl, Ph.D.
  • Joshua Roberson, Ph.D.
  • Deborah Vischak, Ph.D.

europeanarchaeologysection@pennmuseum.org

Consulting Scholars
  • Carolyn Corinne Barshay-Szmidt, Ph.D.
  • W. Flint Dibble, Ph.D.
  • James R. Mathieu, Ph.D.
  • Deborah Olszewski, Ph.D.
  • Zeljko Rezek, Ph.D.

historicalarcheaologysection@pennmuseum.org

Consulting Scholars
  • Jed Levin, M.A.
  • Richard Veit, Ph.D.

mediterraneansection@pennmuseum.org

  • C. Brian Rose, Ph.D., Ferry Curator-in-Charge
  • Thomas Tartaron, Ph.D., Curator
  • Gareth Darbyshire, Ph.D., Gordion Archivist
  • Ayşe Gürsan-Salzmann, Ph.D., Director, Gordion Cultural Heritage Education Program
  • Lynn Makowsky, DeVries Keeper of Collections
Consulting Scholars
  • Maxwell Anderson, Ph.D.
  • Philip P. Betancourt, Ph.D.
  • Kimberly Bowes, Ph.D.
  • Kimberly "Max" Brown, Ph.D.
  • Ann Brownlee, Ph.D.
  • Alexis Q. Castor, Ph.D.
  • Reyhan Durmaz, Ph.D.
  • Elizabeth Barringer Fentress, Ph.D.
  • Susan Ferrence, Ph.D.
  • Andrew L. Goldman, Ph.D.
  • Campbell Grey, Ph.D.
  • Ayşe Gursan-Salzmann, Ph.D.
  • Sebastian Heath, Ph.D.
  • Jane Hickman, Ph.D.
  • Richard Hodges, Ph.D.
  • Kostis Kourelis, Ph.D.
  • Ann L. Kuttner, Ph.D.
  • Margaret L. Laird, Ph.D.
  • Justin Leidwanger, Ph.D.
  • Richard F. Liebhart, Ph.D.
  • Sarah Linn, Ph.D.
  • Camilla MacKay, Ph.D.
  • Linda Meiberg, Ph.D.
  • Joseph Nigro, Ph.D.
  • Marie (Nikki) Pareja, Ph.D.
  • Elizabeth Simpson, Ph.D.
  • Joanna S. Smith, Ph.D.
  • Robert F. Sutton, Jr., Ph.D.
  • Jean Turfa, Ph.D.
  • Mary Voigt, Ph.D.
  • Gregory P. Warden, Ph.D.
  • Charles K. Williams II, Ph.D.
  • Asil Yaman, Ph.D.
  • Mantha Zarmakoupi, D.Phil.

neareastsection@pennmuseum.org

  • Richard Zettler, Ph.D., Associate Curator-in-Charge
  • Lynn Meskell, Ph.D., Curator
  • Holly Pittman, Ph.D., Curator
  • Lauren Ristvet, Ph.D., Dyson Associate Curator
  • William Hafford, Ph.D., Ur Excavation Field Director
  • Paul Zimmerman, Ph.D., Senior Research Coordinator, Lagash Excavation Project
  • Zaid Alrawi, Ph.D., Project Manager, Lagash and Ur Excavation Projects
  • Katy Blanchard, Fowler/Van Santvoord Keeper of Collections
Consulting Scholars
  • Aubrey Baadsgaard Poffenberger, Ph.D.
  • Janice Barrabee, Ph.D.
  • Eliot Braun, Ph.D.
  • Katherine Burge, Ph.D.
  • Megan Cifarelli, Ph.D.
  • Michael Danti, Ph.D.
  • Lara Fabian, Ph.D.
  • Liviu Giosan, Ph.D.
  • Reed Goodman, Ph.D.
  • Simcha Gross, Ph.D.
  • Gretchen H. Hall, Ph.D.
  • Timothy P. Harrison, Ph.D.
  • Andreas Michael Hauptmann, Ph.D.
  • Fredrik T. Hiebert, Ph.D.
  • Sabine Klein, Ph.D.
  • Hannah Lau, Ph.D.
  • Michelle I. Marcus, Ph.D.
  • Patrick McGovern, Ph.D.
  • Naomi Miller, Ph.D.
  • James Muhly, Ph.D.
  • Brian L. Peasnall, Ph.D.
  • Dan Rahimi
  • Yelena Z. Rakic, Ph.D.
  • Steve Renette, Ph.D.
  • Yael Rotem, Ph.D.
  • Mitchell S. Rothman, Ph.D.
  • Bruce Routledge, Ph.D.
  • Karen Rubinson, Ph.D.
  • Jennifer L. Swerida, Ph.D.
  • Christopher P. Thornton, Ph.D.
  • Jill Weber, Ph.D.

View Our Projects From Around the World

A grid of excavation sections at a site.

All Research Projects

A group of three surveying cliff carvings.

African Section

A group of people ascending the Emerald Mound.

American Section

An excavation team working in a pit in the jungle.

Asian Section

Cuneiform on a tablet.

Babylonian Section

A reconstruction of a Neanderthal head.

Biological Anthroplogy Section

A person photographing ancient Egyptian murals.

Egyptian Section

A person measuring something lodged in the ground.

European Archaeology Section

A person doing a geophysical survey at a site.

Historical Archaeology Section

A person clearing small pebbles from around a sherd.

Mediterranean Section

The sun setting over an archaeological site.

Near East Section