Humanities News

Museum of Antiquities at the University of Queensland

On Monday 12 February, the Year 10 History classes visited the Museum of Antiquities at the University of Queensland. 

From Angus Miller (Year 10 History): 

The day started off with an air of excitement with the opportunity to see and hold actual Ancient Egyptian artefacts that would add a new dimension to our current studies focusing on the funerary beliefs and practices of the Ancient Egyptians, the first unit of study in Year 10 History.   After a short 20-minute commute we had arrived at the UQ Museum, where we were hastily ushered off to our designated tour guides who were tasked with showing approximately 50 Marist students around the museum for the morning. 

 

Our tour started off with a hands-on workshop analysis of several authentic artifacts. The classes were broken up into small groups of 4 or 5 and given a set number of artifacts that we were required to analyse, with the purpose of helping us interpret their intended use and an approximate date of creation.   We spent nearly an hour examining the objects and debating their use which taught us the importance of historians having an open mind and an eye for detail.  After we finished writing our answers and sharing them with the group, we had a short morning tea, before we were soon guided to the second part of the excursion, the Museum Display tour. 

 

During this part of the morning, we were initially permitted to walk around the museum displays to have a look at whatever items caught our attention.  The exhibits comprised Ancient Egyptian amulets, mummified animals, hieroglyphics, death masks, as well as a range of ancient Greek and Roman antiquities.  Our tour guide then directed our attention to specific pieces and demonstrated how they linked to the Egyptians’ religious beliefs, ceremonies, and living conditions.  The question-and-answer session allowed us to effectively draw links with our classroom studies.  Finally, we had our lunch outside the museum, before heading back to the buses and then back to school to continue our regular school day.   It was a pleasure to be able to see all the artifacts in person that we would be learning about later in the term.  All the students were grateful to the history teachers and the UQ staff for setting up a fun interactive museum tour for the Year 10 History classes.

From Oliver Searle (Year 10 History)

Session 1 – Gallery Look-Through Tour – First off, once the two classes arrived at the University of Queensland campus, the two classes separated. Our session began at the gallery where we got to look quite a few of artefacts (protected in a glass cabinet). There were sections that contained artifacts from ancient times, including what we are studying this term (Funerary Beliefs and Ancient Egypt). It was interesting to see all the artefacts from Egypt as well as other ancient period times, for example, the displays of artifacts from ancient Greece. This was a good thing to look at because it gave us an insight into what artefacts meant back in ancient Egypt. In my opinion, it would have been better if more artifacts were on display, like for instance, could you imagine viewing a Pharoh's sarcophagus at the gallery. To view one and reflect on questions like how it was made, who it belonged to and what riches were place inside sarcophagus with its owner. Other than that, we all had a good experience.

 

Session 2 – Hands-on Activity – Secondly, we did a hands-on with artefacts and got to de-code a question-and ­answer sheet. This was a fun activity because we were able to be more 'hands­-on'. Although, it would have been better if more artefacts were made available to us. In groups, as we engaged with the handling of smaller artifacts, it would have been exciting for us to handle the bigger artifacts if they were made available to us. It was impressive the way we were able to decode each of the artifacts that we were given to handle. Something that I had never done before.

 

I would like to thank Mr O'Brien (Head of Department) for setting up this excursion for both, Ms Yorker Williams, and Mr Peter Watt's class. It was certainly a great experience for both classes to visit the museum at the University of Queensland.