The Penn Museum has announced it will award the prestigious Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal to SFI President Jerry Sabloff during a special dinner on April 25 in Philadelphia.
On the same evening, the Society for American Archaeology will award Sabloff its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2014. More about the SAA's Lifetime Achievement Award here.
“We celebrate Jeremy Sabloff, past Williams Director, for his significant achievements in the field of Maya studies, with the Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal," said Julian Siggers, the Penn Museum's Williams Director.
Established in 1889, the Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal is given “for achievement in excavation or publication of archaeological work during the five years preceding the date of the award.” It was first awarded in 1903 to W.M. Flinders Petrie for work in Egypt, and most recently in 2010 to George F. Bass for work in Underwater Archaeology. Previous recipients for work in Mesoamerican Studies or Mexico include J. Eric S. Thompson (1962), Richard Stockton McNeish (1966), Ignacio Bernal y García Pimentel (1971), Gordon Randolph Willey (1981), and William R. Coe (1991).
Sabloff’s award recognizes his work in Maya archaeology on some of the key scientific themes that have animated and advanced the field of Maya studies since the 1960s. Sabloff was the Williams Director of the Penn Museum from 1994–2004 and its Interim Director from 2006–2007, as well as the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. More about Jerry Sabloff.
John R. Rockwell will receive the Museum's Marian Angell Godfrey Boyer Medal at the dinner, as well.
“We are thrilled to be able to recognize two extraordinary people, both of whom have served the Penn Museum generously and have been wonderful ambassadors for all we do,” said Siggers.
Read the Penn Museum's news release (March 25, 2014)
Read the article (in Spanish) about the award in Al Dia (April 16, 2014)