Museums of Oxford
Note: all images taken by myself unless otherwise noted. The Ashmolean Museum This is the University of Oxford's museum of art and archaeology, founded by Elias Ashmole (1617 - 1692) who gifted his collection to the University. It opened as Britain's first public museum, and the world's first University museum, in 1683 (more detailed information at Ashmolean.com). The original museum building is now the History of Science Museum. True to form I have seen my early love of the ancient Classical Greek & Roman world slowly metamorphosis into a love of the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, specifically the period from about 4000 bce to the end of the Bronze Age that occurred roughly between 1200 & 1150 bce. Sumerian culture developed in the area south of the close confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, in what is now southern Iraq. One of their greatest contributions to humanity was the gift of writing, known to us as cuneiform. The name cuneiform is a coin...