August 06, 2015
Penn Museum/for PhillyVoice
An ancient clay tablet in Sumerian cuneiform from the site of Nippur in Mesopotamia (now in Iraq), circa 1650 BCE, contains the earliest version of the Mesopotamian flood story.
As the city prepares for the pope's September visit, many local cultural institutions are preparing themed exhibits to attract visitors. The Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has prepared "Sacred Writings: Extraordinary Texts of the Biblical World" in advance of the papal visit. It opens Saturday, Aug. 15, and will be on view through Saturday, Nov. 7.
The exhibit will focus specifically on Near East, Egypt and the Bible Lands in a display of rare artifacts from the university's collection. These artifacts include one of the world's oldest pieces of the gospel of Saint Matthew from the Third century CE, two folios from an illuminated Quran from 1164, an illuminated Latin Bible from the late 13th century and the first complete Bible printed in the New World from 1663.
In addition to these displays of rare artifacts, the Museum also has many galleries of art, large-scale photos and artifacts from the Biblical era and region. This includes the Egypt gallery, "Amarna, Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun," "Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery," "Canaan and Ancient Israel" and "Sacred Spaces: The Photography of Ahmet Ertug."
