University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

The Akhenaten Temple Project was the first computer project assumed by the University of Pennsylvania Museum. It was proposed in 1965 by Ray Winfield Smith, and in 1966 he began the project with the aid of IBM’s nascent computer technology. The IBM computer was abandoned in 1976. This collection spans Ray Winfield Smith’s entire involvement as director of the project 1968-1971, and begins the career of Dr. Donald B. Redford who acted as a consultant in 1971 and has been director since 1972. The records contain papers and photographs relating to the foundation of the Akhenaten Temple Project, and are divided into seven series: Financial; Correspondence and Reports; Publications and Publicity; Project Negatives; Photographs; Drawings; Misc.

From January 28 to March 9, 1915 Clarence Stanley Fisher (1876-1941) conducted excavations at Giza, assisted mainly by Ashton Sanborn, but also by H. Lyman Story and Alan Rowe. Bechari Mahfud was the field photographer. Fisher had worked as expedition architect at Giza with George Andrew Reisner in 1908-1910. A graduate from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Architecture, Fisher began his career as an archaeologist during the University Museum’s Fourth Expedition at Nippur (modern Iraq) in 1899-1900. The Records of the Clarence S. Fisher Giza Expedition are housed in two archival boxes of field notes and publication materials, one box of photographs and maps and drawings filed in the manuscript case.

Clarence S. Fisher was born in Philadelphia in 1876 and attended the University of Pennsylvania, attaining a degree in architecture in 1897 but devoting his entire life to archaeology. His first archaeology field experience was as the architect for the initial Babylonian expedition to Nippur from 1898 to 1900. This was followed by a research fellowship in Babylonian archaeology at the University Museum. Fisher also gained experience as an assistant to Harvard Archaeologist, George Andrew Reisner in Egypt and Samaria. From Reisner, Fisher learned archaeological techniques and the methods of meticulous record keeping he would use in his later work. Fisher was appointed a curator of the Egyptian section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum by George B. Gordon in 1914. He spent the next nine years in the field collecting data in Dendereh, Giza, Memphis, and Dra Abu el-Naga. The Clarence S. Fisher Memphis excavation records consist of six archival boxes of correspondence, notes, field cards, diaries, catalogues and photographs. In addition there is a card file with object notes. Oversize drawings, maps, plans, watercolors and financial records complete the collection.

The Eckley B. Coxe Jr. Expedition to Nubia was among those Egyptian trips financed by Coxe during his short life. The expedition was headed by David Randall-MacIver of the University Museum and C. Leonard Woolley of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Ancient Nubia, located in a corridor linking continental Africa and the Mediterranean, was rich in natural resources, especially gold. The northern part is now located under the Aswan Dam. The southernmost part is in modern day Sudan. Its people were culturally and linguistically different from the Egyptians and strong cultural interactions occurred in the ancient history of the region. Randall-MacIver and Woolley dug at Anibeh, Nasr Ibrim, Ma'am, Buhen, Areika and Karanog from 1907 to 1911. The records of the Nubia expedition include correspondence, notes, an object register, account books, photographs and oversize items that fill two archival boxes with additional oversize material in the map and print cases.

Eugene Alexandrovich Golomshtok was an emigre from Russia who arrived in the U.S. in the wake of the revolution in Russia at the age of 20. He had been a student at Kazan University and graduated from the University of California. He became affiliated with the Penn Museum under the championship of Horace Jayne then the Director. Golomshtok opened doors to archaeology in Russia and participated in two expeditions before being refused a visa in 1934 for a third. The Golomshtok Papers consist primarily of correspondence between Horace H. F. Jayne (Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum) and Golomshtok, and between the University of Pennsylvania Museum (in the person of Golomshtok and/or Jayne) and Russian authorities and institutions concerning the expeditions (1931, 1933, "1934") and other related matters (1930-1944).

The Gordion Project collection documents the University of Pennsylvania survey and excavation of the ancient site of Gordion in central Turkey from 1947 until 2008. Collection series include excavation and conservation records under the authority of project directors Rodney S. Young (1950-1974), Keith R. DeVries (1975-1987) and G. Kenneth Sams (1988-2008) as well as fundraising and publication records during this period. Significant gaps and omissions in documentation occur after about 1990. The textual records are followed by photographs from the excavation site taken mostly between 1950 and 1975. Additional graphic material and field notebooks remain to be added to this collection.

The Joint Expedition to Nippur was conducted by the University of Chicago Oriental Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. The collaboration lasted for three seasons until Penn withdrew in 1952. The collection consists of four archival boxes organized into four series.

In 1931, Bert Hodge Hill was commissioned to direct the excavation on Cyprus. He surveyed the site in May and June of that year, beginning formal excavations in September 1931. Dorothy H. Cox assisted him. Excavations needed to cease in 1932 due to financial difficulties. Despite this, analysis of the vast amounts of pottery unearthed and publication of the initial findings was begun by Virginia Grace of the Penn Museum. in the Spring of 1934, Hill traveled to Kourion with George H. McFadden as a contributing researcher. Excavations continued there until 1953, when McFadden passed away. The important sites included Sotira, Bamboula, Kaloriziki and Kourion. The Lapithos, Cyprus expedition records consist of correspondnece, field notes and notebooks, reports, catalogues, inventories, maps, drawings and photographs.

Alan Rowe, born in Hornchurch, Essex, England in 1891, spent his life not only in his homeland but in Australia, Egypt, Palestine and Libya in pursuit of the study of Egyptology. He excavated with C.S. Fisher at Beth Shan and George Reisner at Giza before serving as Field Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum Expedition to Meydum, Egypt. The Meydum, Egypt Expedition records consist of eight archival boxes of records plus photographs and plans housed separately. The object registers are placed with the oversized materials.