Museum of Classical Archaeology

Museum of Classical Archaeology
Location	Cambridge
Coordinates	52°12′02″N0°06′37″E / 52.200632°N 0.110280°E /52.200632; 0.110280
Type	University museum
Collections	Plaster casts of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture; sherds; epigraphic squeezes
Visitors	8,132 (2022)[1]
Director	ProfessorCaroline Vout[2]
Curator	Dr Susanne Turner[3]
Owner	University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge Museums
Fitzwilliam Museum Kettle's Yard Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Museum of Classical Archaeology Whipple Museum of the History of Science Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences The Polar Museum Museum of Zoology

TheMuseum of Classical Archaeology is a museum inCambridge, England. Founded in 1884, the museum is housed in theFaculty of Classics of theUniversity of Cambridge. Since 1982, it has been located in a purpose-built gallery on the first floor of the Faculty of Classics on theSidgwick Site of the university.

The museum is one of the few surviving collections ofplaster casts of ancientGreek andRoman sculpture in the world. The collection consists of several hundred casts, including casts of some of the most famous surviving ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. Noteworthy casts include those of theLaocoön and His Sons, theFarnese Hercules, theBarberini Faun and theCharioteer of Delphi.

ThePeplos Kore is perhaps the best known exhibit in the museum. It is a plaster cast of an ancient Greek statue of a young woman painted brightly as the original would have been, which was set up on theAcropolis of Athens, around 530 BCE. In 1975, the museum attempted to replicate the sculpture's original appearance by painting a cast of the figure. The replica is displayed next to a second, unpainted cast as a challenge to the erroneous equation of ancient Greek sculpture with pure white marble.^[4]

The museum also holds a large collection ofsherds andepigraphicsqueezes.^[5]

The Museum of Classical Archaeology is one of eight which make up theUniversity of Cambridge Museums consortium.The museum is open to the public Tuesday to Friday (10.00am to 5.00pm) and on Saturdays in university term time (2.00pm to 5.00pm).

Its former home onLittle St Mary's Lane was designed byBasil Champneys in 1883.^[6] In the 1970s it became evident that it was no longer adequate to house the collection and the 100-year lease fromPeterhouse was coming to an end. The former museum building now houses the Ward Library of Peterhouse.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCambridge Museum of Classical Archaeology.

• Museum of Classical Archaeology website

• Museums of the University of Cambridge
• Institutions in the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Cambridge
• Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge
• Sculpture galleries in the United Kingdom
• Art museums and galleries in Cambridgeshire
• Collections of classical sculpture
• Archaeological museums in England
• History museums in Cambridgeshire
• Museums in Cambridge
• Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom
• Museums of ancient Greece in the United Kingdom
• Plaster cast collections

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