Virtual lecture series in which experts examine the human stories behind artifacts from around the world, with the first lecture on Khipus.
The Penn Museum is continuing its Artifacts in Action lecture series, with the next session coming up on Wednesday, Nov 4. It's a virtual series, so you can tune in from home rather than heading to the museum in person. The whole thing runs on the first Wednesday of the month from October 2026 through June 2027, so if you miss this one, there are plenty more to follow.
The Nov 4 lecture is titled Khipus, Information Technology of the Ancient Andes. Khipus were the knotted string records used by the Inca and other Andean cultures to store data—essentially a tactile filing system of knots and colors. After that, the series keeps moving across the map: Dec 2 looks at the Fish-skin Robe of the Amur River, and Jan 6 focuses on the Life-sized Luohan Sculptures of China. Each session takes one specific object and spends the hour unpacking the human story behind it.
What makes this different from a standard lecture is the VXP (Visual Experience Platform) the museum uses, which was developed by the Barnes Foundation. Instead of just watching a slide show, you can zoom in on painted surfaces, trace hand-sewn stitches, pan 360-degree views of archaeological sites, and rotate objects in three dimensions. It's designed for people who want to slow down and look closely at the things that connect us across time, going well beyond what a gallery label can tell you. The lectures are recorded, and everyone who registers gets a link within a week, so you can rewatch it later.
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Tickets are $15, but if you're a Penn Museum member, you get free access to every lecture in the series plus year-round admission to the museum. The Nov 4 session runs from 7 PM to 8:30 PM ET.
