Rise of the City: Great Lecture Series
What is a city? How do religion, politics, and environments effect the growth and development of cities? Throughout history some cities have thrived while others have perished. Join the Penn Museum on the first Wednesday evening of each month, October through June, for our popular "Great Lecture Series: Great Rise of the City". Explore what makes a city a city in diverse regions of the world, from Greece to Mexico to China to the Middle East and even your own backyard.
Length: 1:03:07
Rise of the City: The Greek Polis: Imagining the Ideal City
Dr. Peter Struck, Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. For 2017-2018, the Penn Museum’s popular monthly Great Lectures Series, first Wednesday evenings October through June, focuses on the Rise of the City. P...
Length: 1:08:29
Rise of the City: The Urbanized Jungle: Ancient Maya Garden Cities
Dr. Simon Martin, Associate Curator, American Section, Penn Museum. By at least 1000 BCE the ancient Maya were building massive temple platforms in the midst of dispersed settlements, an approach to urbanism that persisted for almost two millennia. ...
Length: 1:07:30
Rise of the City: How the great god Marduk built the city of Babylon
Dr. Steve Tinney, Associate Curator, Babylonian Section, Penn Museum. The great Babylonian myth "When on high …", often called the Babylonian Epic of Creation, traces the history of Babylon from the very beginning of time itself. Swallowing many...
Length: 1:19:46
Rise of the City: The Lost Cities of Ancient Egypt
Dr. Josef Wegner, Associate Curator, Egyptian Section, Penn Museum, and Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania. Some of the earliest cities in the world arose along the banks of the ...
Length: 1:09:30
Rise of the City: India’s ‘City of Victory
*Please excuse the technical difficulties. Sound quality improves at 6m 30s. Dr. Kathleen D. Morrison, Curator, Asian Section, Penn Museum. The city of Vijayanagara, now a UNESCO World Heritage site popularly known as Hampi, was one of the larges...
Length: 1:07:51
Rise of the City: The Forbidden City
Dr. Nancy Steinhart, Professor of East Asian Art, Curator, Asian Section, Penn Museum. For 1100 years, the Forbidden City has been the residence of China's emperors and the center of imperial ritual. This lecture explores the lives of China's most ...
Length: 51:49
Rise of the City: Rome, the Eternal City
Dr. Brian Rose, Curator-in-Charge, Mediterranean Section, Penn Museum. Often referred to as “the Eternal City,” Rome was both a city and an empire, already exercising dominion over the Mediterranean by the second century BCE and continuing as a ...
Length: 1:07:12
City in the Islamic World: Theory, Plan, Law, and Use
Dr. Renata Holod, Curator, Near East Section, Penn Museum. This lecture will explore the concepts, design, organization, laws and customs that shaped two cities on the Iranian Plateau, Rayy and Isfahan It will consider the role of streets from par...
Length: 1:06:21
Philadelphia: Colonial City to Modern Metropolis
Jeffrey Ray, former Senior Curator of the Philadelphia History Museum, talks about the history and development of Philadelphia from its founding through the 1930s. He currently teaches at the University of the Arts, Drexel University, and St. Joseph...