Journey to Egypt

Fall/Winter: JOURNEY TO EGYPT

By Dr. Stephen Phillips, Ed.D.

Dr. Phillips serves as Research Assistant to the Egyptian section of the University of Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The Sphinx That Came to Philadelphia September 6, 2 p.m. (Bradford Movie Theater)

This past June 12th is a date that will live forever in the history of the Penn Museum. On this day, for the first time in nearly a century, the museum’s 12-ton sphinx was lifted from its base and moved to its new home – the redesigned museum entrance hall. To honor this move, we’ll review the history of this, the largest sphinx in the entire Western Hemisphere. We’ll track its journey starting with the discovery and subsequent move to Philadelphia, including a rare look at the engineering and human effort involved in moving an object both monumental and priceless.

I Want My Mummy!

October 4, 2 p.m. (Ashcroft Movie Theater)

Why, exactly, do ancient Egyptian mummies hold such a fascination in our popular culture? We’ll explore this and related questions revolving around the Western world’s interest in and interaction with the world of mummies. We’ll look at how mummification developed over time ... how they are made ... and how mummies still influence our traditions today. Included are unpublished images of the actual mummies uncovered during Dr. Steve’s own archaeological digs in Egypt. Consider it the perfect reference material for this year’s Halloween costume!

Searching for Petra: A City Half as Old as Time November 1, 2 p.m.

(Bradford Movie Theater)

Listed as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, Petra is a 2,000 year-old city nestled deep in the mountains of Jordan. The surviving monumental structures, numbering more than 800, are hand carved in the living rock. Stunning to say the least, which is why the location was chosen as one of the settings for filming Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Petra is also where Dr. Steve spent a summer helping to excavate the Temple of the Winged Lions. We’ll explore the history of this lost city and answer the question, “Is archaeology really like Indiana Jones?”

Space, The Final Frontier of Archaeology? December 6, 2 p.m.

(Ashcroft Movie Theater)

In 2016, the discovery of “a massive new monument hiding in plain sight” in Jordan, made headlines. The sheer size of the find (the size of a football field) was, in and of itself news. But what made the discovery even more newsworthy was how it was uncovered. Dr. Sara Parcak, an Egyptologist at the University of Alabama, used satellite imagery to locate this hidden part of Petra (November lecture). We’ll examine the work of Dr. Parcak, and take a closer look at this new field of satellite archaeology, including trying our hand at identifying hidden sites from space. “Uh Houston, we have a find!”