Visit to the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford

We visited the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford yesterday and it is a wonderful place. Stacked full of the strangest artefacts and the occasional surprise, it is really a worthwhile experience. Amazingly, I asked whether photography is allowed and they said yes.

This is Herman in the main display area. You can see that it stretches over three levels and the lower level is filled with hundreds of display cabinets.

Herman in the Pitt Rivers Museum

This totem pole is at the far end of the hall and it stretches up almost to the ceiling.

Totem pole

Looking back towards the entrance:

A packed museum

On the right is this... call it a garment. Eskimos wear it to protect from the weather. And it is made of seal intestines. This is a closeup photo of the embroidery:

Intestine garments

I really liked these wooden carvings:

Carvings

I just had to take this photo. He didn't look too excited about being so close to the shrunken heads or Tsatsas. Compare how small the objects are.

Herman looking at Tsantsas (shrunken human heads)

A colourful mask:

Inuit mask

Another Inuit mask:

Mask

And traditional Victorian mourning attire:

Victorian funeral attire

And Indian toys and dolls:

Inuit dolss

And these are my favourite objects - Egyptian Ushabti dolls. They were made to resemble a real person and then buried along with the pharoah or master. I first read about them at school in Wilbur Smith's River God and I've been fascinated by the idea of Taita's Ubshabti (as described in the The Seventh Scroll).

Egyptian Ushabti dolls

This hall as closed and all the dinosaur fossils covered by plastic. But look at the glass ceiling:

Glass ceiling

This fossil also caught my eye - it is a plant, but with so much detail!

Plant fossil

And a fossil of a prehistoric animal:

Fossil

This is Pyrite - I think commonly called "Fool's gold". They have a huge crystal in the collection:

Pyrite crystals

Another view of the covered fossils:

Covered fossils in the museum