World Museum Liverpool « Herbology Manchester
Read about our visit to World Museum Liverpool via herbologymanchester.wordpress.com
manchestermuseum's posterous
The Manchester Museum on Posterous
Importance of Natural History Collections « Entomology Manchester
Here is a brief report and interesting video from one of our volunteers
Hi I’m Molly Czachur, a Zoology student at the University of Manchester, and a volunteer in the Entomology department. I work on the recuration and updading of the nomenclature of the Crustacean collection here at the museum, where we have over 500 specimens of crabs, lobsters and other Crustacea.
I made this video “The Importance of Museums to Zoologists” for my fellow Zoology students, in an attempt to show them how cool the museum really is, and how there is so much knowledge held within the walls of the museum that I was not aware of before becoming a volunteer.
In the video you can see the spirit collections, the dry collections and I have pointed out a few of my favourite crabs: The Hairy Stone Crab, The Long-Eyed Swimming Crab and the Long-Legged Spider Crab. Big thanks for help with the commentary by my friend Lauren, who was the presenter in the documentary. I hope you enjoy, and see the importance of the work which goes on in the museum, both for a scientists education, and for the museum in its preservation of specimens for people in years to come.
Dinosaur CSI: Once more into the concrete bunker... Dinosaur bone-X-rays, synchotrons & elemental signatures
Dinosaur bone-X-rays......Sauropods never looked so good!
Working at a synchrotron usually involves being below ground level, surrounded by concrete, serenaded by the hum of energy and crushed by the absence of sleep. The 8-hour shifts often merge into 24-hour days whilst the timeless hum of relativistic electrons fills the air.
Tomorrow, the University of Manchester team will start building another experiment on beamline 6-2 at the Stanford Synchrotron Lighsource. This is the only beamline on the planet where we can rapid scan GIANT objects (certainly in terms of synchrotron-based imaging), to tease their elemental signatures from their multi-million year old tombs.
Read more at dinosaursabbatical.blogspot.com.es
Why do museums collect… shabtis? « Egypt at the Manchester Museum via @EgyptMcr
One of the most popular and ubiquitous items of ancient Egyptian funerary equipment is the small servant figurine – or shabti. Most museums with an Egyptian collection, however small, include at least one or two of these figurines. At the Manchester Museum, we have over 1000 complete and fragmentary examples.
Read more about why via shabtis are so popular and why so many have ended up in museum collections egyptmanchester.wordpress.com
Win a night at the Lowry Hotel and tickets to see the ‘super-group’ AfroCubism, as part of the We Face Forward launch celebrationsCompetitions
And to celebrate, Band on the Wall, the Manchester Partnership and The Lowry Hotel are offering a complimentary overnight stay in a Deluxe City View Room with breakfast for two people on the night of Sunday 3 June, plus a pair of tickets to the AfroCubism gig at The Bridgwater Hall on Sunday 3 June (7.30pm).
To enter, all you have to do is answer the question below, agree to join the Creative Tourist mailing list (we don’t share data and we don’t bombard you with rubbish) and cross your fingers. The winner will be picked at random at 9am on Wednesday 30 May.
Just go to http://www.creativetourist.com/competitions and tell us - Which two countries do the band members of AfroCubism hail from?
Curator’s Diary 26/4/12: Ancient Egypt for the visually impaired « via @EgyptMcr « Egypt at the Manchester Museum
Curator’s Diary 26/4/12: Ancient Egypt for the visually impaired
April 30, 2012 by Campbell@Manchester
On Thursday I met with a group of around 30 visitors from Henshaws, a charity that provides support for blind and visually impaired people.
I confess to a little trepidation at the task of describing in sufficient detail objects that I am used to presenting in primarily visual terms – through photos or line drawings. We tend to speak of Egyptian ‘visual culture’ rather than ‘tangible culture’, and most museum displays assume that objects – because they are usually behind glass – are only viewed by sight. But what if you are blind or visually impaired?
The selection of objects for the session was dictated mainly by texture. Along with Conservator Irit Narkiss, Andrea Winn, the Museum’s Curator of Community Exhibitions, and I chose objects that provided a range of surfaces: part of a carved limestone block with a biographical inscription; a pre-Dynastic cosmetic palette, worn on one side; a small travertine kohl pot; a Late Period hard stone scarab amulet.
All our handling objects are accessioned pieces from the collection judged safe enough to touch. That sense of being able to touch the past was something that instantly struck a chord with our Henshaws visitors.
Usually I would discuss an object based on appearance, and this would invite questions about age or function immediately. However, in this case questions were more likely to arise once each person had handled the object. In that sense, engaging with the pieces was a much more individual experience than is usually the case in a museum handling session. The question of how certain objects were made – asked more frequently than how old they were or what they were used for – gave me a greater appreciation of how tactile objects can be, picking up details that I have otherwise missed.
Meeting the Henshaws group afforded a genuinely new perspective on how people experience ancient Egyptian material culture. Our new Ancient Worlds galleries will include handling objects as well as new Hapic technology that will allow users to experience the feel of objects too fragile to be touched regularly, but which can be simulated through advanced computer software programmed to control a stylus. This will enable visitors to trace the contours of an object remotely – a very exciting innovation in how we interact with museum objects.
Read a blogpost about the visit from a member of the Henshaws group here.
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Posted in Curator's Diary | Tagged ancient egypt, Henshaws, object handling, society for the blind, tactile, visual impairment | 2 Comments
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This shows that museums should cater for people not just with normal facalties but right across the strata of handicaps
The young and old also When I was four because my father was a tuniversity and money was short we spent a huge amount of time in Birmingham museum. It was there my life was changed I met a mummy who I called charlie he kindled a love for all things ancient and Egyptian. This love was passed down to my son Chris Museums can do this Chris
Glasgow’s Kelvingrove did the same for me – only they had ‘Mary the mummy’! The Henshaws group were so enthusiastic. Can’t wait to take them round the new galleries when they open.
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Chris simons
Campbell@ManchesterDinosaur CSI: SPARING Dinosaurs...
Event: Cairo Chaos – Toot ‘n’ Carboot and Watt the Heka « via @EgyptMcr - Egypt at the Manchester Museum
Event: Cairo Chaos – Toot ‘n’ Carboot and Watt the Heka
April 29, 2012 by Campbell@Manchester | Edit
The Manchester Museum, Sunday 13th of May, 11-12 am.
The Manchester Museum’s ‘Unearthed’ presents Cairo Chaos.
With the esteemed poet extraordinaire, Toot and Carboot in collaboration with the terrifyingly talented magician, Watt the Heka.
More ‘laffs than a safari full of meerkats.
More rhythm than a Nile river cruise.
Hear words and see magic in a story.
That will amaze baffle and amuse.
Open to mummies, daddies and young pharaohs.
No need to book, just turn up.
Be sure not to miss the beginning. Magic starts at 11am
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How DID they build the pyramids…? http://bit.ly/IL631h « via @egyptmcr Egypt at the Manchester Museum
Manchester Museum has a unique collection of objects connected with pyramid building. Many everyday tools have survived from a settlement specially-planned to house workers who built the pyramid of King Senwosret II (c. 1880-1874 BC).
In ancient times the town was called Hetep-Senwosret (‘Senwosret-is-pleased’ or ‘Senwosret-is-satisfied’). Today the town is known as Kahun, the name given to it by the site’s excavator W.M.F. Petrie (1853-1942 AD) after hearing the name from a local man. The whole site, including the king’s pyramid, its associated temples and other tombs, is more commonly called Lahun. It is situated at the eastern edge of the Faiyum region – an area of major building works in the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BC).
The pyramid was built upon a natural outcrop of limestone, of over 12 metres in height. An internal framework of limestone walls was built to form a structural skeleton. Measurements for this and other aspects of the building work would have been made using cords and a plumb line (Acc. No. 104). Around the pyramid were also discovered a wooden mallet (Acc. No. 55) and, most interestingly, rollers, also made of wood (Acc. No. 6197). These would have been used to move the heavier stone blocks up the side of the pyramid on a ramp.
Unlike earlier examples, the core of Senwosret II’s pyramid was constructed largely from sun-dried mud bricks. Brick moulds (Acc. no. 51) would therefore have been in common use by workers. The pyramid was faced with white limestone blocks to give the appearance of a solid stone structure. The lowest course of this casing was set into a rock-cut foundation trench as a precaution against movement of the masonry caused by the settling of the mud bricks. A copper chisel (Acc. no. 204) found at the workers’ village may have been used for dressing stone both at the pyramid and in surrounding buildings. Most of this material was removed by later kings, such as Ramesses II, for use in their own buildings.
Other items in Manchester would have been used in the construction and maintenance of buildings in the pyramid complex. A plasterer’s float (Acc. no. 52), with traces of plaster still adhering to its flat surface, might have been used to lay plaster floors – as found in some of the town’s houses – or to finish the surface of walls. Agricultural implements might also have been used near the pyramid: when finished, it would have been surrounded by rows of trees, indicated by the remains of roots in pits, which would require tending.
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Wonderful Whitworth Wildlife, plant planting and the Tree Monster!!!
Thank you to everyone who came to Wonderful Whitworth Wildlife in Whitworth Park on sunday, the day went so well - it hardly rained at all! I hope everyone had a good day and hopefully learnt something new about our environment and the wildlife we're so lucky to still have here in Manchester.
Read more via mcryouthboard.blogspot.co.uk
