Penn Museum, National Science Foundation, Surviving: The Body of Evidence exhibit, A Memoir

Enduring metaphors – “Surviving: The Body of Evidence” traveling NSF exhibition at the Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA. These are but a few impressions from an archeology visitor’s travel photojournal.

The local attendant we encountered at the entryway to this  archeology ‘village within a village’ was both helpful and enthusiastic.

The well thought out Rosetta Multilingual Visitor Guide did decode most of the three exhibition floors of the museum. However, the otherwise excellent paper version of this ‘map’, proffered by the local ‘greeter guide’,  did not detail the  “Gentleman” exhibit shown below.

Here is evidence of evolution on display in the Penn U. Museum. This exhibit, unassumingly titled “Gentleman”, takes on the topic from a unique perspective. Several stages of evolution are depicted in this ‘living’ diorama. As with many such sites between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Piedmont, layered remnants of decaying infrastructure may be seen. Note that some of the stratified layers are still being dated, though. Archeology should always be considered a work-in-progress, eh?

Three members of Homo Erectus bowed down in supplication while lighting the ‘Light of Learning’ as they prepare to pass down their hard-earned folklore to the next generation of visitors to their Penn University village museum exhibition. I felt humbled merely to be allowed to witness, let alone photograph, this ancient rite of passing the knowledge along to the village young (Note: youths not included).

The passing of generational knowledge can only be achieved when the initiates are arrayed in the traditional two rows of the buddy system.

Not every member of the tribe is worthy of carrying the lore to subsequent generations. Note the symbolically removed arms.

Large rolls of ritual swathing await the impending anointment of the next archeologist or anthropologist of the tribe, and that honored person’s mummification, into these hallowed halls of lore.

I misunderstood the significance of this monument at first. I had mistakenly attributed it as a shrine to the region’s descendants, and to their survivors’ eating rites. The reader will hopefully forgive me for initailly attributing this great stone work to the faceless memory of purveyors, and consumers, of the edible (but rarely ‘digestible’) local delicacies;  ‘Scrapple’ and ‘cheese steak’. I was soon set right about its true purpose, and import. I recall now the sense of awe I then felt when standing queasily before it.

Behold. Former ‘Head Curator’ Ramses ll came prepared to survive, and thus carried his royal fan into the afterlife. Such a great personage would always be entombed with devices and accessories for sustaining or ‘surviving’ with a royally befitting future. Even a pharaoh can’t be ‘too cool’ for comfort in this humid subtropical climate zone afterlife.

Here, I finally came to the inner hestia (“hearth”) of the Temple of Apollo, the famed “Oracle at Delphia”, affectionately referred to as ‘Philly’. The name Delphois begins with the same four Greek letters as delphus, meaning “womb” and may indicate ancient reverence for Gaia, Grandcurator of Earth, and the Earth Goddess at this oracle museum site. Apollo is often hailed by his name Delphinios, “the Delphinian.”

His name is connected with dolphins in the Hymn to Apollo by the early travel guide writer, Homer.
recounting the legend of how Apollo first came to {Phila}Delphi in the shape of a dolphin, carrying Cretan archeologists on his back. Sadly, while I could almost hear the faint sounds of dolphins, I was unable to decipher the many rumblings of the mysterious oracle. Alas.

I must put in a word for the Penn Museum Gift shop bazaar: It’s one of the best of its breed; A warren of interesting items at reasonable prices (be sure to check with your local guide for the current trading rates). It looks like it’d be good for schoolchildren, and their teachers. And what a trove for people like us, who require little tokens of our journeys! We were able to acquire needed things for our important gifting rituals and for those behavioral reward exchanges so common in human societies.

The museum staff, at the front desk, guards, gift shop, curators, etc. were all very nice and helpful to curious travelers such as ourselves. If our investigative ventures take us into this challenging Delaware river region again, I hope to glean further artifacts and enlightenments.

I leave you now, to your own journeys, with a salutation I learned on the Chestnut Hill of Philadelphia:

With a triumphal cry, I bid you “Ad Nauseam!”

Ken Storch