The new Eastern Mediterranean Gallery has opened at the Penn Museum—the latest step in the transformation and modernization of the 1899 building.
Penn-o-rama
A celebration of all things Penn
Spring/Summer 2023
Highlighting the creativity of a region that stands at the crossroads of diverse cultures, the new gallery features 400 objects spanning 4,000 years—most discovered during the Museum’s own archaeological expeditions. The Eastern Mediterranean Gallery has been made possible by the lead support of the Giorgi Family Foundation and other generous donors. You can explore some of the gallery’s collection in the photos below.
For more than 4,000 years, the Eastern Mediterranean has been a crossroads of cultural exchange between diverse peoples. The Eastern Mediterranean Gallery tells the region’s story through more than 400 artifacts from the Penn Museum’s own excavations, ranging from the Middle Bronze Age to the 1800s.
At left, objects from the burial assemblage of a woman of high status illustrate the fine materials available to those in positions of power; these were uncovered in Tall As-Sa’idiyya, Jordan, during an expedition led by Penn Museum archaeologist James Pritchard. In the background, a model of a ship incorporates various types of items found in shipwrecks from antiquity, conveying the ever-present perils of traveling at sea.
The ship’s cargo hold is modeled after a wrecked 14th-century BCE Mediterranean ship, filled with pottery vessels and objects of bronze, copper, faience, glass, and ivory—a nod to the international trade and exchange of ideas that characterized the region in ancient times.
Fundamental concepts from everyday life take shape in the Eastern Mediterranean Gallery, with objects from different cultures showing the region’s variety of materials and artistic styles.
A limestone portrait preserves the likeness of a man who lived in ancient Palmyra, a desert oasis in present-day Syria. The inscription beside the sculpture’s head, written in the Palmyrene dialect of Aramaic, reads: “Ma’an, son of Bar’a, son of Zabd’ateh. Alas!” This object came into the Penn Museum’s collection in 1890 through the second Babylonian Expedition, one of the institution’s earliest field projects.
