Museum Mosaic – Summer 2011

摘要

On March 19, 2011, the Penn Museum held a public symposium, Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity. This was the first major event in over 15 years to focus on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archaeological discoveries and scholarly advances have been made, creating a need to critically reshape the very idea of the a??Silk Road.a?? Major topics of discussion included ancient transportation and economies, the origins of early westerners??in Central Asia, the excavations of textiles in Xinjiang, and a reinvestigation of the Tarim Basin mummies. The program was supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and the University of Pennsylvaniaa??s Center for Ancient Studies. Publication of papers presented at the Symposium is planned.