The Penn Museum (from February 5-June 5, 2011) is the last U.S. stop for "Secrets of the Silk Road," a traveling Chinese interactive exhibit of artifacts from the silk road. Central to the exhibit is an almost 4000-year-old mummy, "Beauty of Xiaohe" who was found in Central Asia's Tarim Basin desert, in 2003. The exhibit was organized by the Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, California, in association with the Archaeological Institute of Xinjiang and the Urumqi Museum. Other stops in the U.S. have included the Bowers Museum (March 27 to July 25, 2010) and the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences (August 28, 2010 to January 2, 2011).
According to the University of Pennsylvania press release on the exhibit, Victor Mair (Penn Museum consulting scholar and professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, and "Secrets of the Silk Road" catalog editor/curatorial consultant), "This traveling exhibition of materials from half-way around the world is opening new doors—providing visitors with an unparalleled opportunity to come face to face, literally, with life in East Central Asia, both before and after the formation of the fabled Silk Routes that began more than 2,000 years ago...."
In this photo gallery about the exhibit, you can see captioned highlights, including two mummies, and metal, wooden, bone, and textile artifacts.
- Graphic Index
- Text Index
