Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge

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Museum of Archeology and Anthropology

Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Cambridge
Location	Cambridge
Coordinates	52°12′09.63″N 0°07′15.05″E / 52.2026750°N 0.1208472°E / 52.2026750; 0.1208472
Type	University Museum
Collections	local antiquities, together with archaeological and ethnographic artefacts from around the world
Visitors	76,669 (2019)[1]
Director	Professor Nicholas Thomas
Owner	University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge Museums
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The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, also known as MAA, at the University of Cambridge houses the university's collections of local antiquities, together with archaeological and ethnographic artefacts from around the world. The museum is located on the university's Downing Site, on the corner of Downing Street and Tennis Court Road. In 2013 it reopened following a major refurbishment of the exhibition galleries, with a new public entrance directly on to Downing Street.^[2]

The museum is part of the University of Cambridge Museums consortium.^[3]

History

Founded in 1884 as the university's Museum of General and Local Archaeology, the museum's initial collections included local antiquities collected by the

Von Hügel set in motion a move to larger, specially built, premises: in 1913 the museum moved to its present location in Downing Street, although the new galleries were not fully installed until after World War I. Various depositions and donations of eighteenth-century collections — including material collected on James Cook's three expeditions — were made to the museum in the 1910s and 1920s.

The MAA reopened after a lengthy refurbishment in 2013, with a completely redeveloped ground floor, new temporary exhibition space and new archaeology galleries.^[6]

Von Hügel's successors as curator have been

Currently, the Museum is part of a joint research project with the British Museum, looking at the use of audio recordings within anthropology and mapping connections between related collections of objects, photographs, and field notes, under the supervision of professors Vicky Barnecutt and Don Niles.^[7]

Museum displays

The museum's current displays are arranged on three floors:

• Ground floor: The Clarke Hall: Archaeology of Cambridge and the Li Ka Shing Gallery (Temporary Exhibitions)
• First floor: The Maudslay Hall: Anthropology
• Second floor: Andrews Gallery: World Archaeology

The museum building, which is Grade II listed, incorporates the central section of Inigo Jones's choir screen from Winchester Cathedral.^[8]

A display on the Anglo-Saxon Trumpington bed burial is on the ground floor.

Gweagal Spears

In 1770, after returning to England from their voyage in the

• 
  Haida totem pole
• 
  Haida totem pole (detail)
• 
  Ornamental bronze (Santon, Norfolk)
• 
  Bronze plaque (Santon, Norfolk) (detail)
• 
  Pectoral cross from the Trumpington bed burial
• 
  Display of

  Benin bronzes

References

Further reading

• V. Ebin and D.A. Swallow, “The Proper Study of Mankind…”: great anthropological collections in Cambridge. University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1984
• A. Herle and J. Philp, Torres Strait Islanders: an exhibition marking the centenary of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait. University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1998.
• J. Tanner, From Pacific Shores: eighteenth-century ethnographic collections at Cambridge. University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1999.
• Robin Boast, S. Guha and A. Herle Collecting Sights: the Photographic Collections of the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, 1850—1970. Cambridge: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge University Press, 2001
• Haidy Geismar and Anita Herle: Moving images.
  ISBN 978-1-86333-319-1

External links

• Official website

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52°12′09.7″N 0°7′15.6″E / 52.202694°N 0.121000°E / 52.202694; 0.121000