Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Downing Street
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire
CB2 3DZ
England
Website
Museum website
Telephone
01223 333 516
Fax
01223 333 517
Founded in 1884, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology holds world-class collections of art and artefacts from all over the world, representing cultures and histories over millennia.
In 1997 the Museum's entire collection was recognised as a Designated Collection of national importance.
Venue Type:
Museum
The entire collection of this museum is a Designated Collection of national importance.
This museum was founded in 1884 on the basis of two important collections: the Cambridge Antiquarian Society collection relating to British archaeology; and anthropological artefacts from the South Seas acquired by, among others, the museum's first curator, Baron Anatole von Hügel. The collections now comprise approximately half a million archaeological items and over 150,000 ethnographic objects. Most have been acquired through Cambridge-based research and are exceptionally well documented.
The strengths of the archaeological collections include their worldwide scope and the extensive Palaeolithic and Mesolithic material. Important anthropological collections include artefacts from Cook's first voyage to the Pacific in 1769 and artefacts and photographs from the 1898 Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait.
Collection details
World Cultures, Costume and Textiles, Archaeology
Key artists and exhibits
- In addition to the permanent displays the following special exhibitions are currently on view:
- Paired Brothers: concealment and revelation (Iatmul ritual art from the Sepik, Papua New Guinea)
- Coveney: Island Identity in the Fens
- ROCK-ART image people land knowledge
- Vanuatu Stael: Kastom & Creativity
- Designated Collection
The Cultured Rainforest
The Cultured Rainforest tells the story of the rainforest on the island of
Borneo and the people for whom it has been home, today and in the past. The
exhibition overturns the idea that rainforests are the last virgin landscapes
of the world and shows that these supposed natural wildernesses have in fact
been shaped by humans for 50,000 years. We explore how the people of the
rainforest have made it their home: a world full of meaning and surprise, with
its own rich histories unfolding over thousands of years.
An international team of archaeologists, anthropologists, and historical
ecologists conducted research in the Kelabit highlands of Borneo from 2007 -
2010 to study how people have transformed rainforests and vice versa by working
closely with local Kelabit and Penan people.
The Cultured Rainforest brings the results of this cutting-edge research to a
British audience. Built around a full-scale reconstruction of a hearth from a
longhouse, the centre of Kelabit domestic life, the exhibition features
photographs and film from the project team and 360 degree panoramas that bring
the sights and sounds of the rainforest. It also draws on MAA’s rich collection
of artefacts from the region, many of which were donated by Charles Hose,
zoologist, botanist, ethnographer and colonial administrator for the Brooke Raj
in Sarawak from 1884 to 1916.
The Cultured Rainforest is a product of a collaborative research project between
University Malaysia Sarawak, the Sarawak Museum and the Universities of
Cambridge, Leicester, Oxford, Sussex and Queens University Belfast. It is
funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Interactive panoramas of the rainforest, produced by Douglas Cape of z360, can
be found online at
http://www.z360.com/sara/index.htm
Suitable for
- Any age
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