Underground at the Penn Museum

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Love to Color? 

Check out these original coloring pages created from objects in the Penn Museum’s collection. 

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Coloring Page adapted from terra cotta tile

Museum Object Number: 29-93-46

Download the pdf here

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Write your name in Hieroglyphs! 

Use this online translator to create your own royal cartouche.  

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Coffee Preparation, Lebanon, 1969 (no sound)

#nationalcoffeeday

Full Video

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Angolan Wood Fetish 

This statuette of a woman with pursed lips, seated in a contemplative pose, is attributed to the Ngala people, known for their figures representing primordial ancestors. 

Museum Object Number: 29-59-11

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King Nectanebo II Statue

Quartzite (or indurated limestone) head of King Nectanebo II wearing the Blue Crown (khepesh). The crown is adorned with a uraeus formed into a symmetrical double loop, the tail rising up over the crown.

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On this day in history...August 24, 79 CE

Mount Vesuvius is traditionally thought* to have erupted destroying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum on this day 1936 years ago.  This 1930s travelogue features a visit to the sit of Pompeii in the shadow of Vesuvius. 

*Scholars continue to debate this date today, with many arguing that the actual eruption occurred on October 24, 79 CE. 

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Today in History

Hand Mirror, Canino, Italy Museum Object Number: MS2316

The Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is destroyed by a fire. This mirror shows Artemis (on the right), a Greek Goddess, with two male attendants and a dog. 

(second image inverted to show detail) 

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Figurine, Gulf Coast, Mexico

More recently discovered than the Maya and of greater antiquity, the ancient Olmecs are far less well understood than their famous successors. From a tropical heartland along the coast of the gulf of Mexico, they spread their resources, products and probably their ideas far across the Mesoamerican landscape. Consummate artisans in all kinds of stonework, they must also have been skilled traders–the materials (such as basal, jade, serpentine, magnetite, and obsidian) had to be imported from afar. They were masters of several forms of representational carving. A number of striking and obviously symbolic motifs charged with an unknown meaning also run through their sculpture. Prominent among these are composite human-jaguar figures, and human figures such as  hunchbacks. Heads are frequently shown deformed as if bound in infancy, and teeth may be filed or missing. These small figures echo many important Olmec motifs in their elongated skull shape, slanting eyes, thick lips with down-turned corners, and general stance. Their earlobes and nasal septums were pierced for attaching ornaments. 

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Happy 4th of July America!

Uncle Sam, Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico

Museum Object Number: 99-9-5

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Qudshu/Qadesh Plaque Woman

Late Bronze Age, Beth Shemesh, Israel

Syro-Palestinian plaques depicting nude females vividly illustrate the complexity of artistic interrelationships in this region. Representations of nude females standing on the backs of lions occur in nearby Mesopotamia from the late third millennium onward. These figures often wear either two spiral locks of hair or a feather headdress, the latter a sign of divinity. During the Late Bronze Age in Palestine and Syria, a similar motif is found, but the lion is usually omitted, and the woman may wear a wig in the style of the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Her hands, extended to either side, may hold serpents, lotus blossoms or stalks of papyrus, the latter also indicating divinity. A short time after the first appearance of these “hybrid” plaques in Syria-Palestine, Egyptian workshops began to produce similar pieces inscribed with the names of various goddesses, especially “Qudshu” or “Qadesh.”

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Head of a Goddess

White Marble, 2nd century BCE Museum Object Number: 30-7-1

The over-life size of this head, the cutting in the back to relieve the weight, and the elaborate hairstyle suggest it may have belonged to a cult image. Although the coiffure resembles a common Greek fashion, it is in fact quite unusual, especially for the wings of hair behind the ears and the long locks over the nape. Because the head was formerly in an English collection, it probably comes from Italy, at one time the country the English most frequently visited for classical antiquities. It is therefore likely to be one of the several cult images known to have been commissioned by the Romans from Greek masters during the Late Republican period. Their expansion into the Mediterranean basin at that time brought the Romans into close contact with Greek and Hellenistic art; it was also a time when Athenian sculptors were reviving forms of their own classical past. Thus the goddess resembles both 5th and 4th century prototypes. The whole statue may have represented Juno, Demeter or any other of the matronly Roman goddesses. 

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Furniture Fragments from Nimrud 

(top) Relief Plaque 

(middle) Engraved and inlayed Wadjet Eye

(bottom) Two Winged Griffins 

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Body pArts: Leg

Rhyton, Etruscan, ca. 600-580 BCE Museum Object Number: MS2254

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Body pArts: Hand

Andean Ceramic Figure Fragment, ca. 600-1000 CE Museum Object Number: 26788

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Stone Horns of Consecration

Grounia, Crete  Late Minoan I (ca. 1590-1450 BCE) Museum Object Number: MS4171

Among the religious symbols of the Minoan period of Bronze Age Crete, horned objects called “horns of consecration” occupy a special position. Sealstones and wall paintings show them used on shrines, atop altars, as bases for leafy branches or double axes, and even in rows about the cornices of special buildings. Actual examples are rare, perhaps they were usually of wood. While the exact meaning is not known, a plausible theory is that the symbol represents the horns of a sacrificed bull, rendered in a stylized way. The design does not vary; it consists of a rectangular block with the center carved out to create a pair of vertical horns. This stone example was found at Gournia, a town located in eastern Crete near the Gulf of Mirabello. 

Learn More: 

Bulls and Bull-leaping in the Minoan World

Ceramic Stands: A Group of Domestic and Ritual Objects from Crete and the Near East

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“Nirvana of Buddha” Relief

India, Gandara ca. 2nd-3rd centuries CE Museum Object Number: 29-64-223

This beautiful relief from the northwestern region of Gandhara displays three different scenes from top to bottom. At the top stands the Buddha adored by two attendants, while in the center the Buddha is seated as he receives the adoration of four devotees. At the bottom is a fine and characteristic rendering of the 'great passing away' of the Buddha from his earthly existence. Lying on a bed, he is surrounded by his disciples who express the tremendous anguish they feel at the loss of their spiritual leader. To the right of the Buddha's feet is Ananda, his favorite disciple, to whom he has just delivered his last teaching. The Gandhara style is best understood as a provincial expression of the late antique style of Rome. This 'classical' influence is evident in the treatment of the figures, the robes they wear, and in the line of acanthus leaves used to separate the bottom scene from the middle one. Originally, this carved fragment was part of a stone revetment of a Buddhist stupa (reliquary mound) positioned so that worshippers who came to honor the Buddha would see the events of his life and learn of his spiritual accomplishments.