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Description: | The internationally significant Egyptian collection of c.15,000 artefacts is the most important part of the archaeology collection as a whole and includes historically important material acquired as part of the 1867 Joseph Mayer donation and also from subscriptions to 19th century excavations by the Egypt Exploration Society and through associations with the Institute of Archaeology at Liverpool University. The museum has on loan material from Beni Hasan, excavated by Professor John Garstang of Liverpool University. (See also the University of Liverpool Museum of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies).
The core of the Archaeology collection was formed through the donation of 15,000 items in the late 1860s by Joseph Mayer, a Liverpool goldsmith. In addition to ethnography material, the collection contains British, Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities and European medieval art. Objects include fine medieval ivories, numismatics, significant Anglo-Saxon and Ancient Egyptian artefacts and Oriental decorative arts. The collection has subsequently grown to more than 100,000 artefacts through fieldwork, donations and gifts from other museums. Parts of the collection represent some of the best material worldwide.
Near Eastern material (14,000 objects) originates from various important sites and is important because of the rarity of similar material within UK museums. It includes a collection of c.650 pieces of prehistoric pottery, terracotta and sculpture from Cyprus. The collection was developed through excavations in the 1950s that involved a former museum director, J H Iliffe.
The Classical collection includes a core of material acquired through the Mayer donation and ranges from Etruscan metalwork, jewellery and pottery to Roman pottery, gems, metalwork, ivory and glass. There is also Greek pottery and sculpture. Notable acquisitions of the 1950s-1980s include the Nelson collection of Roman jewellery and sculpture, the Danson collection of Greek painted pottery and other items and a wide range of Greek ceramics from the Wellcome collection. The museum also shares an important group of 5,000 items of sculpture with the Liverpool Museum containing late antique and early Christian ivories from the Mayer collection and a collection of classical sculpture from the Ince Blundell donation of 1959. These groups of material are among the best in quality, both nationally and internationally.
British Antiquities are centred on the original donation from Joseph Mayer in 1865 collections presently include c.6,000 items of British archaeology such as prehistoric pottery, flint and metalwork, Roman pottery and bronzes, Anglo-Saxon glass, metalwork, beads and bone. There are items such as the 7th century Anglo-Saxon Kingston brooch, excavated by Fausset in the 18th century and later acquired by the museum as part of the Joseph Mayer material. There are also around 25,000 items from local excavations and fieldwork, mainly comprising Mesolithic flintwork, post-medieval ceramics and more recently significant Romano-British pottery and tiles. The museum also holds c 10,000 archaeological site records.
Post-medieval material relates to local excavations within the last two decades carried out by local and regional archaeology agencies. The collections originate from kiln sites and include late 16th to early 17th century glass from south Lancashire but predominantly 17th and 18th century pottery from Buckley, North Wales and a late 18th century site in Merseyside. | Subjects: | Archaeology Ancient Egypt | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | Address: | William Brown Street
Liverpool,
L3 8EN | FAX: | 0151 478 4390 | Telephone: | 0151 207 0001 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:2110 | Go to resource |
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