Does the Museum sponsor archaeological fieldwork?
Yes, and it has done so for the past 80 years. In 1924 Professor Kelsey, after whom the Museum is named, embarked on a series of excavations in the Mediterranean and the Near East. Wooden artifacts, sculpture, basketry, pottery, glass, coins, and textiles excavated from the provincial Graeco-Roman town of Karanis, Egypt, entered the collections in vast numbers. Approximately 45,000 items from Karanis now reside in the Museum. Primarily objects of daily life, they offer an unusual window onto village life in the Roman provinces. Between 1928 and 1937, University excavations at the Hellenistic site of Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, in modern Iraq, yielded 10,000 artifacts, including pottery, coins, terracotta figurines, beads, carved architectural fragments, bronze, bone, and gold items. The preservation and publication of this unique collection of artifacts is an ongoing project that involves professors and graduate students from Michigan and the international scholarly community. The Kelsey h
Yes, and it has done so for the past 80 years. In 1924 Professor Kelsey, after whom the Museum is named, embarked on a series of excavations in the Mediterranean and the Near East. Wooden artifacts, sculpture, basketry, pottery, glass, coins, and textiles excavated from the provincial Graeco-Roman town of Karanis, Egypt, entered the collections in vast numbers. Approximately 45,000 items from Karanis now reside in the Museum. Primarily objects of daily life, they offer an unusual window onto village life in the Roman provinces. Between 1928 and 1937, University excavations at the Hellenistic site of Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, in modern Iraq, yielded 10,000 artifacts, including pottery, coins, terracotta figurines, beads, carved architectural fragments, bronze, bone, and gold items. The preservation and publication of this unique collection of artifacts is an ongoing project that involves professors and graduate students from Michigan and the international scholarly community. The Kelsey h
