HOME LEARNING: Anglo Saxons

Have you seen our new Anglo Saxons home learning pack yet? 📚✏️

Travel back in time to Anglo Saxon England with a short video from our Learning team, try your hand at a quiz and have a go at two jigsaw puzzles. You can also learn how to make your own Anglo Saxon brooch in our short craft activity video.

Give it a try today: ashmolean.org/home-learning-anglo-saxons

These coins are from the Crondall Hoard, which was buried before AD 650 and includes the earliest-known Anglo Saxon coins. The hoard was found in Hampshire in 1828 and came into our collections in 1944.

MUSEUM SECRETS: Opening the Box

"The museum is full of boxes. Perhaps the entire Ashmolean might be conceived as one gigantic box into which have fallen all the treasures of the world...In the basement, and I promise this is true, there is a cardboard box full of boxes and labelled, ‘Boxes for Gold Boxes'."⁠

In this week's episode, join teaching curator Jim Harris as he peers inside one of these many boxes - a tiny tortoiseshell container that holds a secret portrait of a woman, complete with a lock of her hair. The empty space inside is full of surprises and hidden stories, about wealth and the often ugly means of making it. A seemingly polite and pretty little box, it has much to tell us about memory.⁠⁠

Listen to the episode here, or wherever you find your podcasts... https://www.ashmolean.org/museum-secrets

From the Ashmolean Museum

Memento mori ring. 17th Century Europe.

Valentine’s Day

A posy ring for you on this Valentine’s Day! ⁠ ⁠ Posy rings are gold finger rings that usually feature a short inscription. They were very popular from the 15th–17th centuries in England and France as gifts between lovers.⁠ ⁠ The name posy derives from the old French term ‘poesie’, meaning poetry, and the inscriptions were often expressions of affection, friendship and love. They were most often written in Latin and French, as both of these languages were understood widely amongst the elite in Medieval Europe. ⁠This one reads “Kindly take this for my sake” around the inside of the band. ⁠ ⁠ This ring is one of many posy rings in our collection, and dates back to Early Modern Britain (AD 1500–1850).⁠

A Medieval Belt Buckle

What’s that old saying - ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’?

It is fascinating to see how some object designs stand the test of time, like the traditional belt buckle. This one was found in Suffolk and dates back to Medieval Britain. It is made from copper alloy and measures 3cm high.

Iron Age Decorated 'La Tene' Styled Sword and Sheath, Torcs and Metal Belt, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

A Runic Calendar

This carved wooden object from our founding collections is a Runic Calendar or Almanac - an ancient way of keeping track of the days 📓

A Runic calendar is a perpetual calendar originating from 13th-century Northern Europe, based on the nineteen-year-long metonic cycle of the moon. They are written in Runes, which are the letters in a set of alphabets used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet. They were often written on parchment or carved onto staves of wood, and have markings that indicate special days, including solstices, equinoxes, and celebrations, most often Christian.

This particular calendar was made in Staffordshire in the 17th century, when Runic almanacs had come back into fashion and were something of a status symbol for the educated upper class. It measures 47 x 4.5 x 4.5 centimetres. You can see it on display in our Ashmolean Story Gallery (8), on the lower ground floor.

The Watlington Hoard

Have you ever come across the Watlington hoard on a visit to the Ashmolean? It is a sight to behold 👀⁠ ⁠ Comprising about 200 coins, 7 items of jewellery and 15 ingots (bars of silver), the find is hugely significant because it contains so many coins of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex (r. 871–899) and his less well known contemporary, Ceolwulf II of Mercia (r. 874–c. 879). ⁠ ⁠ The hoard can be dated by the presence of a single ‘Two-Line’ type penny which was not produced until the late 870s, after the Battle of Edington (May 878) between Alfred’s forces and a Viking army. Viking forces moved both by water and land, and they likely used the ancient trackway known as Icknield Street which passes through Watlington, close to where the hoard was found. It is possible that the hoard was buried in the wake of this violence or during the ensuing movement of peoples.⁠ ⁠ The hoard was discovered on private land by metal-detectorist James Mather in 2015. Thanks to pivotal grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), the Ashmolean Friends and Patrons, and several individuals, we were able to save the hoard for the nation in 2016.⁠

Happy Birthday to Us!

IT’S OUR 337TH BIRTHDAY! 🎂⁠ ⁠ On 24 May 1683 the doors of the Ashmolean Museum were officially opened to the public.⁠ ⠀⠀⁠ The Ashmolean came into existence when the wealthy antiquary Elias Ashmole gifted his collection to the University in 1682. He did so ‘because the knowledge of Nature is very necessary to human life and health.’ It opened as Britain’s first public museum, and the world’s first university museum.⁠ ⠀⠀⁠ Below is a watercolour painting of the South East view of the museum from 1848, and you can swipe to see a photograph taken from the same angle today. However, this wasn’t actually the original location of the museum. The first site of the Ashmolean was on Broad Street, where the Museum of the History of Science is now.⁠ ⠀⠀⁠ Help us to celebrate our birthday today - what are some of your favourite Ashmolean memories? Let us know in the comments below.⁠ ⠀⠀⁠ #AshmoleanMuseum #Ashmolean #Museum #Art #Culture #MaterialCulture #History #InstaHistory #InstaMuseum #Ancient #Object #Archaeology #Antiquities #AncientHistory #Oxford #Birthday #ThenandNow

Ashmolean Augment Reality Filters

Feeling the cabin fever during #lockdown?

We’ve just released eleven Augmented Reality filters on Instagram and Facebook so that you can transport yourself into a range of artworks from across our collections! Snap a selfie in Constable’s clouds, Hiroshige’s coastline, Monet’s sunset and more 🤳

We’ve also released three filters where you can be randomly paired with a quirky object, a bizarre beast from an 18th-century painting, or even try to match a charismatic facial expression found in our collections. We may not being able to welcome you into the Museum right now, but hopefully finding yourself in an artwork might be the next best thing! Navigate to our Instagram profile to try them out. 

#AugmentedReality #AR #Filters #MuseumfromHome #AshmoleanfromHome #CultureinQuarantine #Selfie

Star Wars Day

Happy #StarWarsDay! Here’s some items from our collection which could be mistaken for coming from a galaxy far, far away.

Many of the themes in the Star Wars saga are inspired by history, including clear references to the ancient Roman political system in the creation of the Galactic Empire, as well as the mixture of medieval military-monastic, Japanese samurai and Shaolin monk cultures that makes up a Jedi Knight.

#MayThe4thBeWithYou

The wreckage of a #podracer engine, or chariot wheel hub, found in the tomb of Amenhotep III by Howard Carter

Tatooine-based crime lord #JabbaTheHutt channelled through this 4th Century Chinese greenware pot

Boeotian bronze helmet from the Hellenistic period, or early version of a #StormTrooper helmet?

Early #KyloRen #lightsaber with very impractical kyber crystal handle (or a 16th C state sword of Henry VIII)

God bless nerds.

Squirrel Appreciation Day

Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day! Here are some artistic interpretations of our bushy-tailed friends from across our collection.

Squirrel by Li Hongren. Beijing, 1955. Lithograph.

Round tsuba or sword mounting with grape vine and squirrel. Japan, 1700.

Squirrel by Xu Gu. Jiangsu Province, 1823-1896. Ink on paper.

Throwback to discovering the Holte family crest:

This lantern was said to be the one Guy Fawkes was holding as he was arrested in the cellars below Parliament on 4-5 Nov 1605. It was given to Oxford University by Robert Heywood, whose brother Peter had taken it from Fawkes.[680x900]

Source: https://reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/dsi4oi/this_lantern_was_said_to_be_the_one_guy_fawkes/

Anniversary of the Ashmolean Reopening

Ten years ago today, the Ashmolean reopened after its major redevelopment.

The redevelopment, which is almost invisible from the exterior of the building, nearly doubled the size of the Museum with 39 new galleries, office spaces, and Oxford’s first rooftop restaurant. It also allowed us to bring almost a third more of our collections out of store to put on display to the public, including the Chantrey busts, a gallery of 20th-century art, tapestries and much more.

Here are just a handful of photos from the thousands you’ve shared on social media since then.

It's really one of the best museums in the world, I think; severely underrated!

From Istanbul to Oxford: The Origins of Coffee Drinking in England

Have you been to visit ‘From Istanbul to Oxford: The Origins of Coffee Drinking in England’ yet?

This exhibition explores how coffee and its connected trappings were first introduced to Britain from the Ottoman empire, and how they were perceived, adopted and changed. Coffee came to Oxford around 1637, when a Greek priest named Nathaniel Conopius, was first recorded drinking it here. In the 17th century, a shortage of small change currently pushed coffee businesses to create their own illegal currency in the form of tokens.

These two tokens are from coffee houses that were in Oxford and London. See them on display now in Gallery 29.

Oxford boasts the oldest coffee shop in Britain, which is either Queen's Lane Coffee House:

Or The Grand Cafe:

They're both on High Street, virtually facing each other. (Queen's Lane is bigger, but Grand Cafe is fancier.)

John Dee

English scholar, mathematician, astronomer and occult philosopher John Dee was born #onthisday in 1527. Dee was widely recognised as one of the most influential figures of the Elizabethan age.

Straddling modern science and magic, Dee spent much of his later life immersed in the worlds of magic and Hermeticism. Two objects that belonged to him, a crystal and a magical mirror, featured in our Spellbound Exhibition in 2018.

Ashmolean founder Elias Ashmole owned a number of Dee’s manuscripts and obtained this portrait while gathering material for a biography which, unfortunately, was never written. The portrait is thought to have been painted around 1594, and the artist is unknown.

Among his other accomplishments, Dee was able to survive a charge of treason against him by the Inquisition of Mary I, and went on to become a trusted adviser of Elizabeth I, even selecting the date of her coronation.

Summer Solstice 2019

Happy #SummerSolstice!⠀⠀

Today is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This painting by William Turner of Oxford features Stone Henge, where the summer solstice has been celebrated for thousands of years.⠀⠀

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, thought to have been constructed over 5,000 years ago. It consists of a ring of standing stones, each around 13 feet tall and weighing near 25 tons. The stones are set in the middle of the most dense area of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.⠀⠀

Each year on the summer solstice, the avenue of Stonehenge directly aligns with the sunrise. While there are many theories for the purpose of this alignment, including sun worship and calendar keeping, it ultimately remains a mystery.⠀