WHERE: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, 3260 South St., Philadelphia

WHAT: "Archaeology and Anthropology in a Network-Rich World," Penn Museum's program and gala reception during the Internet2 Fall 2005 Member Meeting, will feature a live demonstration of how next-generation Internet technologies are changing the way archeologists and anthropologists collaborate and investigate.

WHEN: 6:30-9:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 21

WHO:Museum Director Richard M. Leventhal will welcome attendees at 7 p.m and 8 p.m. sessions and present live discussions with Museum experts.  He also plans to announce the formation of a Special Interest Group in Archaeology and Anthropology, which he and Gregory D. Palmer, executive director of MAGPI, part of Penn's Information Systems and Computing division, will co-chair.

DEMONSTRATIONS   

Internet2 coordinators in Delaware, Alaska and Egypt will facilitate participation by the University of Delaware scholars and students, Tlingit fiber artists at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and faculty from Cairo University in Egypt.

From their Anchorage hookup, master craftswomen who have revived old styles of indigenous Northwest coast weaving will link via a high-speed network connection to the Museum's collection of 100-year-old Tlingit textiles and baskets.

Internet2's advanced network will allow scholars from Penn, Delaware and the Croatian Natural History Museum, Zagreb, to compare bones and fossils not physically in the same room for a discussion of fossil human evolutionary studies.  Also, students interested in human evolution at the Delaware site will participate.  

Two on-going demonstration stations will be located in the galleries. 

In the Upper Egyptian Gallery, CT scanning of mummies will be demonstrated, and a virtual archive of major skeletal collections will be presented.  

In the Chinese Rotunda, 3D archaeological structures from subsurface surveying will be presented.

ABOUT INTERNET2

Led by more than 200 U.S. universities, including Penn, working with industry and government, Internet2 develops and deploys advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among academia, industry and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy.  More information on Internet2 is available at www.internet2.edu.