Museums of Cambridge

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Cairo Geniza collection at the Cambridge University Library

I was asked by a friend to go to the Cambridge University Library and see the Cairo Geniza manuscripts. Having walked for what seemed an eternity I discovered that unfortunately one needs to apply well in advance for access as the documents have to be pulled out of the archives. I won't be able to see them this trip.

What are they? According to Wikipedia they are a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, Egypt. These manuscripts span the entire period of Middle-Eastern, North African, and Andalusian Jewish history between the 6th and 19th centuries CE, and comprise the largest and most diverse collection of mediaeval manuscripts in the world.

Museum of Zoology

A very interesting museum but more aligned for the education of school children. They a few interesting items to view but it was very hard to photograph the artefacts as the lighting, glass used and general lay out made taking images very difficult for the average person.

Having said that they do have a few artefacts of immense interest. An almost complete skeleton on the Dodo for one.

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

It should be remembered that until not so long ago simple taking archaeology artifacts that you dug up, was not seen as synonymous with theft. TODAY IT IS!

This museum 'owns' a number of Benin Bronzes. I had a long talk with a curator who told me, when I queried her, that the ownership of their Bronzes are under active discussion currently with the country of origin and the outcome of the discussions will be known once the university heirarchy have had their meetings and come to their own conclusions.It sounded to me like a nasty method of dragging out the decisions for as long as they can so that they can hold on to their 'loot'

I have no issues with showing copies of artefacts unless they are so culturally significant that they should be never shown, not even as a facsimile.

Afterall can you imagine if it was a foreign country that dug up the bones of Richard 3rd and put them on display in a museum elsewhere. I can hear the virtual roar of indignation.

Museum of Classical Archaeology

This museum holds plaster copies of many Roman copy of Greek statues. The Romans developed a system of doing this with the result that we are able to still see the exquisite work of the Greek artists including the great sculptor, Praxiteles. With one or two exceptions all statues are plaster casts of the Roman copies of the originals. They represented much of what I studied over the three years of my Ancient History degree.

To be honest, I felt like a child in a candy store. Please enjoy.

Statue of Kleibis. (586 bce)

The second statue is missing. Two sons pulled mother's cart to a religious ceremony. Mother prayed that they be rewarded so goddess allowed them to die as the reward

Notice how much these early statues take on similar style & stance to Egyptian statues

Kore from Acropolis. 520 - 510 bce

The Moschophoros 560 bce.

A man carrying a sacrificial calf.

The Ramping Horseman (550 bce).

The Sunium Koros (c600 bce)

One of tallest koroi known.

The Auxerre Goddess (c 640 bce)

The goddess is presented twice. On the left of the viewer, in plain plaster and on the right the goddess is presented in colour.

Although all Greek/Roman statues appear nowadays in white, academics know that originally they were painted. The colours and designs however are not known and are hotly debated.

The Tyrant Slayers (c 477 bce)

Two statues to celebrate the heros, Harmodios & Aristogeiton,

who assassinated the tyrant Hipparchus in 514 bce.

Possible head of king Leonidas of Sparta (C 475 bce)

Leonidas led the 300 Spartans against the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 bce. The helmet plum is a reconstruction.

The Cape Artemisium God ( C 460 bce)

Found on a ship wreck at Artemisium, it is not known if this is Zeus or his brother Poseidon.

The Delphi Charioteer (474 bce)

The Choiseul-Gouffier Apollo (460 bce)

The Lodovisi Throne (460 bce)

Possibly shows the birth of Aphrodite

The Chatsworth head (460 bce)

The find location, curly hair and the larger than life size indicates the head may have been Apollo.

Diskobolos (The discus thrower) by sculptor Myron (460 - 450 bce)

The Doryphoros (Spear carrier) by sculptor Polikleitos (450 bce)

Known as one of the best examples of 5th century body sculpture

The Velletri Athena (430 - 420bce)

Veiled head of Hera, wife of Zeus (5th century BCE)

Head of Socrates the Philosopher.

Made by sculptor Lysipos after Socrate's death in 399

Thucydides (475 bce) .

Author the history of the Peloponnese Wars. Head made in his lifetime.

The Berlin Amazon (5th century BCE)

A Caryatid from the Erechtheum on Acropolis (erected between 421 & 407).

A Caryatid is a female form acting as a column.

The Boughese Ares by sculptor Alkamenes (420 - 410).

Academic disagreement whether or not this is Ares or Achilles because Ares is seldom depicted in art

Discobolus by sculptor Naukydes (410 - 400 bce)

Eros of Centocelle (5th century)

Based on the writings of Pliny the elder we know that the original statue was by sculptor Praxiteles.

Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles (4th century)

Praxiteles was the first to present women in full nude mode whereas previously only men were presented in the nude

Goddess Psyche or Aphrodite

Playwright Euripides (4th century BCE)

Head of Ascleipios, god of medicine & healing (325 - 300)

According to Plato, as Socrates died he called out to Crito that he owed a chicken to Asclipeios because he believed that he was being cured of the disease of life.

Original statuette of Socrates

known by some as the father of western philosophy

Head of Hypnos, personification of sleep.

The Richmond torsos, possibly of Aphrodite

Aphrodite of Capua

Dying Alexander (3rd) the Great

Made by sculptor Lysipos

King Menelaus of Sparta

Brother to Agamemnon of Mycenae, leader of the Greeks at Troy,

& husband of Helen of Troy

Laocoon & his sons (Hellenistic period)

Orestes & Elektra by sculptor Stephanos (1st century bce)

Nike of Samothrace (Hellenistic period)

Used as the Spirit of Ecstacy on the bonnet of the Rolls Royce

The Esquiline Aphrodite (1st century bce)

Nike of Brescia (330)

Crouching Aphrodite (3rd century)

Fitzwilliam Museum

This is the primo museum in Cambridge founded in 1840.

Art at the Fitzwilliam.

Tarquin and Lucretia 1571 by Tiziano Vecellio, called Titan

Venus and Cupid 1523-1524 by Jackpot Palma called Palma il

Hermes, Herse and Aglauros 1576-1584 by peolo Caliari

Head of Lucretia (1685 - 90) by Giacomo Filippo Parodi

A capriccio view of Roman ruins by Giovani Paolo Panini 1737

The scene shows the Pantheon of Marcus Agrippa

Juxtaposition of the death of a Nazarene Saint

with an Iranian politician prisoner

St John the Evangelist by El Greco 1590s to 1600s

A Bigger Picture, Brueghel- style by Pieter Brueghel- the Younger

The Triumph of Death: Pieter Brueghel the Younger

The Four Seasons: Spring (1886) by Claude Monet

Mercury taking flight 1515 by Giovani Francesca Rustici

Ancient World at the Fitzwilliam

Most images of items I am showing belong to the earliest acknowledged civilisation in the world. I will not get involved as to what constitutes a civilisation. Wiser people than I, who acknowledge the existence of all first nations, still use criteria to determine and define "what is a civilisation"?

I just ask that you, the reader, understand that there is a difference between "civilisation" and "culture". There are many but similar understandings available. Please do some research yourself.

The following artefacts date between roughly 3500 bce and possibly 550 bce. I will try to get more accurate dates for them.