| Associate professor of anthropology Gary Rollefson will accompany this exciting trip—the last opportunity to view these treasures of ancient Egypt before they leave the United States! More than just a weekend in Philly, this Whitman trip will immerse you in the culture of the ancient near east, with a Whitman archaeologist, teacher, and researcher to show the way. |
| The Franklin Institute is the final U.S. venue for this extensive exhibition of more than 130 treasures from the tomb of the celebrated pharaoh Tutankhamun, other Valley of the Kings tombs and additional ancient Egyptian sites. All of the treasures in the exhibition are between 3,300 and 3,500 years old. The show explores the fascinating times in which the young king lived and illustrates how his short reign changed history. |  |
| The Tutankhamun exhibition includes 50 major artifacts excavated from King Tut’s tomb, including the royal diadem — the king's gold crown — and one of the gold and inlaid coffins that contained his mummified remains. More than 70 artifacts from other royal graves of the 18th dynasty (1555 B.C. to 1305 B.C.) are showcased as well. |
 The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology's Egypt exhibit complements the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, showcasing more than 100 artifacts including elegant statues of King Tut, reliefs, jewelry and other personal items owned by the royal family. In the museum's renowned Upper and Lower Egyptian galleries are a wide variety of ancient Egyptian artifacts, from monumental architecture to sculptures, pottery, jewelry and tomb goods, and mummies. A twelve-ton, monumental granite sphinx dominates the Lower Egyptian Gallery. This visit will conclude with a tour of The Egyptian Mummy: Secrets and Science, a popular exhibition that examines the ancient Egyptian beliefs in the afterlife, featuring human and animal mummies, tomb artifacts, and objects and materials used in the mummification process. |
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You will also spend a rare afternoon at the Barnes Foundation, one of the finest private collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early-modern art in the world, located on Philadelphia's fabled Main Line. The Barnes' collection includes 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 46 Picassos and 59 Matisses, in addition to African, American and decorative arts. You will see the collection in its beautiful setting, exactly as its founder Albert Barnes created it, before its move to Philadelphia. |
| And then, on to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the nation's first art school and museum. The Academy holds one of the finest collections of American art in the nation, housed both in its historic 1876 landmark building, designed by Frank Furness and George Hewitt, and its dazzling new Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building. The collection focuses on American art from 1700 to the present. Highlights include Benjamin West's Penn's Treaty with the Indians, Gilbert Stuart's George Washington, as well as works by Thomas Sully, Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, John Sloan, and William Glackens. |  |
 There’s more! The trip will wind up with a private docent-led tour of the renowned Philadelphia Flower Show. The 2007 show, Legends of Ireland, features more than ten acres of breathtaking displays in which some of the world’s best landscape designers and florists present their creations. Enjoy a fantasy-land experience as you visit a Celtic Knot Garden, a mystical maze, Celtic Spiral Water Gardens, the Castle of the Emerald Kingdom—and more! |
| Throughout the program, you will be personally welcomed by the director or a member of the senior staff at the cultural institutions visited. |
| Professor Rollefson's research interests include Prehistoric religion in the Near East (ca. 10,000 – 4,000 BC), the development of agriculture in the Near East (c. 10,000 – 4,000 BC), the consequences of agriculture in the Near East (ca. 7,500 – 6,000 BC), Stone Age hunting societies in the Near East (ca. 1 million years to 40,000 years ago), and reconstructing Paleoclimates in the Near East (ca. 1 million years to 6,000 years ago). He is currently writing papers on prehistoric desert sanctuaries, the religious and social meaning of clay, plaster, and stone figurines from the Near East, the consequences of massive prehistoric immigration into Jordan (9,500 years ago). He is writing a proposal for excavation at a large Neolithic site in Jordan ('Ain Ghazal, 7,300-5,800 BC), summer 2007, and is planning a sabbatical for 2007-2008 to write a book on the excavations at 'Ain Ghazal, 1982-2007. During the past summer, he and Whitman student Taylor Oswald did a one-month walking survey of the NW Rim of the Jafr Basin in Jordan's SE desert, where they located 108 new sites dating back to 300,000 years ago. |
| The cost for this exciting Whitman adventure is: $1050 per person, double occupancy; single supplement is $305. Program only, without hotel, is $715 per person.  Included are three nights (with breakfast) at the historic Inn at Union League in center city Philadelphia, opening night social hour and dinner in an elegant private dining room at the Union League, two exceptional lunches (one in a private home, one at Old Original Bookbinders, a Philadelphia seafood institution), tickets to all venues in the tour, private motorcoach transportation and personal guide during the tour, all gratuities and taxes. For more information and to register for this once in a lifetime experience, contact the Whitman College Alumni Office, at 509-527-5167, 800-835-9448, ext. 1, or email Margaret, hoglund@whitman.edu. Registration deadline is January 15, 2007. No refunds after this date. |
| With exception of the gold King Tut mask, Egyptian images used with permission from the University of Pennsylvania Museum, "Amarna, Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun" exhibit. Other images used with permission from Philadelphia Hospitality, Inc. |