Douglas G Lovell, Jr Annual Reports From the Field December 2, 2010

Richard Hodges, the Museum's Williams Director, and Janet Monge, Curator, Physical Anthropology joined by Penn students active in two current projects-share the stage and share their newest findings at this popular annual event, an insider's perspective on current work from the field. San Pietro d'Asso, a small hilltop monastery (ca 7th to 10th centuries) located in modern-day Tuscany, Italy just west of a key pilgrimage route from France to Rome, was the focal point of research activity for a group of undergraduate Penn students on a summer field course led by Dr. Hodges. Closer to home, Dr. Monge, working closely with Penn undergraduate student Samantha Cox, has made international headlines on CNN news and beyond, studying bones of Irish laborer immigrants of the 1830s. Recently excavated at a mass grave by "Duffy's Cut" in Malvern, Pennsylvania, the bones-the first of many the Duffy's Cut Project researchers are hoping to uncover-are beginning to answer questions about the lives, and once-mysterious deaths, of these immigrants.