Art. Culture. Issue 19 Antiquities. March 2018 Natural history. From the ground up In this issue A word from the Director, David Ellis

In 2018 we’ll be watching as the new Our Egyptian material is one of 2 Buku-manapanmirri 16 The Mummy Project Chau Chak Wing Museum emerges our many treasures and a renewed Coming together Opening an ancient coffin from the ground and enthusiastically program of analysis has been Community consultation in provides some astonishing planning the opening exhibitions conducted on our four mummies. The Arnhem Land is part of an discoveries. and programs. results, benefiting spectacularly from exhibition of Yolgnu culture being the latest scanning technology, will be developed for the new museum. 21 Fragments of history The current activity is a clear incorporated within the new gallery of First impressions are deceptive reminder of how close we are to the Chau Chak Wing Museum. 6 News with sherds of blue-and-white starting construction, and how ceramics. complex a task it is to build a Around this time last year I reported David Ellis, photo by Martin Ho 7 Wish upon a fish 21st century museum. on a new project: the conservation, Students contribute to the 24 Sphere of influence cleaning and assembly of hundreds in the Nicholson, and a set-design naming of new fish species. A spherical sculpture is more Dr James Flexner of the Department of plaster fragments that comprised by Frank Hinder for the 1963 Student complex and intricate than of Archaeology organised a section of pavement from Armana, Union Theatre production of The it appears. archaeological testing of the museum the ancient capital of the 18th Dynasty Bedbug. Both reflect teaching and 32 A stitch in time site in mid-2017, providing a great in ancient Egypt. This precious learning at the University and will 27 Good hair day Watercolours of textiles by a opportunity for student training. The decorated pavement is quite literally make fine additions to the new A portrait has close ties to former student are still exquisite, excavations bore out the prediction coming together. museum, where one of our priorities hairdressing in ancient Rome. 100 years later. of previous heritage assessments – is to extend the opportunities and that there was unlikely to be much The first section of three has been benefits of the collections to students. 30 Drawing inspiration 34 Scenes from the Nile by way of contextual remains – but reassembled and its colours are now TAFE design students use the Part 2 of our feature on a that didn’t stop the students clean and bright. It is ready for display Keep up to date with the project at: University’s collections to bring significant fresco-painted floor and volunteers gaining valuable in the new museum. This meticulous, .edu.au/museums their works to life. from Amarna in ancient Egypt experience and enjoying the thrill time-consuming work was in a of finding old coins and pottery. large part supported by generous You can also follow us on twitter 36 Voyage in time Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay’s donations for the conservation of @SydneyUniMuseum, or find us 8 From Bauhaus to Bedbug great-great nephew retraces a In this issue we will hear how these collections. Its companion on Facebook. A recent acquisition enriches momentous journey. preparations for an exhibition of section (stage 2) now awaits treatment the University’s history of cultural heritage from the Yolngu by contracted specialist conservators. David Ellis interdisciplinary, experimental art 38 Donor honour roll for 2017 people began with respectful Director, Museums and and drama. consultation with the Yirrkala, Two elements of the University’s Cultural Engagement We say thank you to the donors who are making an enormous Ramingining and Milingimbi history return home in the form of a 11 Return of the warrior difference to our achievements. communities in Arnhem Land. cast of a Parthenon frieze, previously Casting new light on an object that has returned to the 39 Making history Nicholson after 50 years. All the latest museums news, Sydney University Museums Education and Public Programs Muse edited by Luke Parker. from special guests to collecting Comprising the , To book a school excursion, an adult education 14 Dig this! and University Art Gallery tour or a University heritage tour This edition contains names and images of people awards. +61 2 9351 8746 who have died. We acknowledge that, for some Students make fascinating findings The Macleay Museum and the University Art [email protected] people and communities, these may cause distress during test digs on the Chau Chak Gallery are now closed as we prepare for the and sadness. Where possible, cultural permission 40 Find your muse opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Macleay Museum to publish has been sought. Wing Museum site. Enquiries: For your diary: our upcoming The Nicholson Museum remains open: +61 2 9036 5253 Produced by Marketing and Communications, events and programs. Monday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm and [email protected] the , February 2018. 18/7135 the first Saturday of every month, 12 to 4pm ISSN 1449‑0420 ABN 15 211 513 464 Closed on public holidays. Nicholson Museum CRICOS 00026A In the southern entrance to the Quadrangle General admission is free. +61 2 9351 2812 Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) +61 2 9351 7305 (fax) is a globally recognised certification Become a fan on Facebook [email protected] overseeing all fibre sourcing standards. Cover and above: Coffin for the lady Above: (Florence) Helen Wark, Above: Marble portrait of a Roman and follow us on Twitter. This provides guarantees for the Mer-Neith-it-es. NMR.29. textile study, Indo‑Portuguese woman, second half of the first sydney.edu.au/museums University Art Gallery consumer that products are made See story page 16 chasuble detail, UA1990.325 century AD. Donated through The Hon Enquiries of woodchips from well‑managed See story page 32 R P Meagher bequest 2011. Nicholson forests and other controlled sources Museum, NM2012.11 Sydney University Museums Administration +61 2 9351 6883 with strict environmental, economical See story page 27 +61 2 9351 2274 [email protected] and social standards. +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) [email protected]

1 Recent archaeological investigations We are developing an exhibition also seeking advice about the best in Arnhem Land date the earliest for the University’s new Chau Chak approach for the exhibition, including Buku-manapanmirri known occupation of the Australian Wing Museum that will showcase the how we embed Yolngu interpretation continent to about 65,000 years generations of art and knowledge and philosophies into its design. Coming together ago. Included among the findings of the Yolngu people housed at the are ground ochre and mica-rich University of Sydney. In September 2017, Assistant minerals used for pigments. A Curator, Indigenous Heritage Matt – conservative estimate suggests Historic collections held in museums, Poll and I visited art centres in ’s First Peoples have been art galleries and archives are part each of the main areas where the producing art in this country for some of the continuum of Aboriginal artworks were created to get these Preparing an exhibition of artworks by 3500 generations. and Torres Strait Islander people’s discussions underway. In Ramingining, Yolngu people for the new Chau Chak cultural heritage and practice. Art independent curator Djon Mundine Since the 1920s, staff of the University in its broadest sense continues as a OAM joined us. He played an integral Wing Museum, Rebecca Conway starts have visited and worked with Yolngu principal means of communicating role in acquiring works there in the people. The result of these shared and expressing the richness of 1980s. Our trip was incredibly positive with a visit to their homelands. endeavours is a rich collection of clan and community identities, and productive. Yolngu cultural heritage here at the religious knowledge and important University of Sydney. messages about Yolngu rights In 2018 we will bring artists from and responsibilities passed down the region to Sydney so we can Representing the work of many through time. continue working together on this important artists, the material major endeavour. includes paintings on bark and A vital part of developing our masonite, large-scale wooden and exhibition is consulting with the To find out more about the art woven sculptural works, historic communities, artists and descendants centres and communities, please visit: photographs, and ceremonial and whose heritage is represented in our www.bulabula.com.au domestic objects. The items come collections. We hope to inform people www.milingimbiart.com from three main geographic centres: about what we hold and engage with www.yirrkala.com Yurriwi-Milingimbi, Ramingining the community to better document and Yirrkala. and understand the materials. We are Rebecca Conway is Curator, Ethnography in the Macleay Museum

Galiwinku - Elcho Island Maningrida Yurriwi - Milingimbi Nhulunbuy . R Yirrkala Oenpelli Ramingining Nangalala (Kunbalanya) ll r Yalangbara e e d iv a Havelock Falls R r Port Bradshaw . C e

v R h i l t o y R Nourlangie o l rp B Caledon Bay e v Kakadu i r e L e d iv y n R l National Park G Man Arnhem Land Blue Djarrakpi Mud Bay

Ro pe r

Yolngu people own and manage a vast land and R iver saltwater estate. Aerial view on flight between 0 100 Yurriwi-Milingimbi and Nhulunbuy. We flew more kilometres than 200km via Galiwinku-Elcho Island, of Map source: CartoGIS Services, Warrumpi Band 'My Island Home' fame, to the College of Asia and the Pacific, © Australian National University township of Yirrkala. Photo: Rebecca Conway The Australian National University CartoGIS CAP 09-074c

2 3 On the far outskirts of Ramingining we were privileged to be Part of our visit to Milingimbi involved discussion of the series of Larrakitj poles invited to visit the Country of Charlie Djurritjini, neighbour acquired by the University that featured at ‘Makarrata: Bringing the past into the future’, to David Gulpilil. Here, Charlie points out over the dry season a peace‑making event between the community and cultural institutions in August 2016. It was Arafura Swamp towards Garr, Spider Island, one of many important great to catch up with senior artist and Art Centre Director, Raymond Bulambula (far right), sites in the landscape. Matt Poll faces the challenge of trying as well as other senior representatives to celebrate the recent signing of the Milingimbi to record audio in high wind. Photo: Rebecca Conway Makarrata Resolution. This document describes the spirit in which we intend to work together now and into the future, which was an outcome of the event. Photo: Rebecca Conway

Ishmael Marika and Matt Poll compare a 1940s bark painting, collected by Ronald Berndt in Yirrkala, with a contemporary work by a descendant of the artist. Ishmael is an award-winning emerging artist and a director at the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre. He produces, directs, films and edits work that documents the activities of the Yirrkala community and surrounding outstations as well as producing his own multimedia projects. Photo: Rebecca Conway

One of four large-scale murals in Yirrkala celebrating four decades of Yolngu land rights battles, 1976‑2016. Painted by Melbourne-based artists Mike Makatron and Cam Scale, this mural replicates an important historic photograph of seven Marika men, Rirratjingu clan warriors who were the core of the struggles. Part of their activism was painting their rights. Together with other key representatives of the community, they Women’s business in Ramingining; following a produced the Yirrkala Bark Petitions that were sent to string‑making demonstration by master weaver Julie Federal Parliament in 1963. Many of the men in this Djulibing Malibirr and her daughter, Matjarra, they mural as well as other significant artists have works discuss the symbolism in University artworks with in the Macleay collections. Photo: Rebecca Conway Macleay curator, Rebecca Conway. Photo: Matt Poll

4 5 News

Tribute to a friend In October 2017, Lynette Jensen donated a remarkable collection of seven copper-plate engravings from the 17th and 18th centuries, each depicting the celebrated Vatican Hermes statue that was found in 1543 in Rome. During his time at the Nicholson Museum, former senior curator Michael Turner recognised the similarities between the Vatican and Nicholson Hermes statues, and determined that they were in fact two of at least six Roman marble copies of a Greek Praxitelean bronze. As Jensen writes, the donation is a fitting tribute to Turner “in recognition of his energising work at the Nicholson Museum, exemplified by his recognition of the identity of the statue”.

Navigobius kaguya. Photo by SK Tea.

Bauhaus legacies Senior Curator Dr Ann Stephen interviewed North American art historian T’ai Smith about her book Bauhaus weaving theory: From feminine craft to mode of design at Wish upon a fish the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools conference in Canberra in late September 2017. Smith spoke about how – Bauhaus weavers such as Anni Albers, Gunta Stözl and Otti Berger challenged assumptions The Macleay Museum offers the opportunity for school Philippines and Japan, was published in November 2017 about the feminine nature of their craft and students to help name new species of fishes described with the name Navigobius kaguya. It is named after questioned how value and legitimacy are by the museum’s Natural History Curator, Dr Tony Gill, Kaguya-hime, the Moon Princess from the Japanese established in the art world. You can access and colleagues. folktale Taketori Monogatari (‘The tale of the bamboo an e-book version of Bauhaus weaving theory cutter’). It alludes to the yellow spots on the first Excavations at Paphos in Cyprus 2017 through Project Muse: The winning names are announced once the descriptions dorsal‑fin, which resemble the graphics in moon phase In October 2017 the Paphos Theatre Archaeological Project muse.jhu.edu/book/35700 of the new species have been prepared and officially charts, and acknowledges that the species is found conducted its 18th season of excavations at the World published in scientific journals, a process that can take in Japan. Heritage‑listed site of the theatre of Nea Paphos. An official months. Two such species were recently published in the Nicholson Museum excavation, in collaboration with the animal taxonomy journal Zootaxa. Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, the theatre was a venue for performance for more than six centuries, from 300 BC until the By coincidence, both species names refer to heavenly late 4th century AD. bodies. The first species, named by students participating in the University’s Spectacular Science sessions in Excavations this season focused on understanding the theatre’s November 2016, was published in October 2017 with the eastern parodos (entranceway) and nearby nymphaeum name Pseudochromis stellatus. It’s a species of dottyback (water‑fountain). Team members also participated in an fish from Indonesia. The “stellatus” part of the name is international conference and curated an exhibition, Travellers Latin for “starry” and refers to the star-like yellow spots from Australia, as part of the program of the European Cultural on the upper part of the body. Capital festival. A 3D virtual reality model of the theatre was constructed by LithodomosVR, enabling viewers to understand The second species was named by students participating the size and scale of the Roman theatre. The model can be in education workshops as part of ‘2071: A Performance downloaded from the GooglePlay and iTunes app stores. About Climate Change’ at the in June 2017. The species, an unusual type of goby from the Pseudochromis stellatus. Photo by MV Erdmann.

6 7 In 1958, when Frank Hinder became head of art at Sydney Teachers’ College at the University of Sydney, he would, Sydney artist Frank Hinder (1906–92) was fascinated by alongside teaching, work on many student theatre and light and kinetic effects, in part inspired by the Bauhaus puppet productions. Among the most acclaimed was his idea of combining art and technology. In 1927 he took design for Vladimir Mayakovsky’s revolutionary epic The the unusual step of travelling not to Europe but to the Bedbug, performed at the Student Union Theatre in 1963. United States, after studying under Italian artist Antonio Dattilo Rubbo and at East Sydney Technical College with The University Art Collection recently acquired . The sculptor Lyndon Dadswell. At the Chicago Institute of Art Hinder’s model of the stage design for The Bedbug he became a convert to the formal language of cubism black‑and‑red set, with a flashing sci-fi screen, looks and theories of dynamic symmetry. like a transistor radio topped by a twirling, five-pronged antenna. Set in a “futuristic conference hall”, the design He married American sculptor Margel Ina Harris in includes an electronic voting system that, when plugged in, 1930, and together they attended American modernist lights up in green and red with bells and buzzers. Emil Bisttram’s summer school at Taos, New Mexico, an art‑and-nature colony. Returning to Australia in 1934, the Sydney University Museums conservator Alayne Alvis, Hinders would become part of a small group of Sydney who examined the mechanism, believes Hinder updated avant-gardists who experimented with abstraction, the model in 1988 with a combination of the then latest including , and Rah Fizelle. fibre‑optics and an incandescent bulb, and also signed the base. The Hinders closely followed international art movements, and were early to purchase a copy of László “The bulb rotates under a series of fibre-optic cable ends, Moholy‑Nagy’s book on the new Chicago Bauhaus, The which are placed in a circle roughly mimicking the track of new vision: fundamentals of design – painting, sculpture, the bulb,” Alvis says of the ingenious gadgetry. architecture, published in 1939.

“The other ends of the cables are placed in the vertical Inspired by such experiments, the Hinders collaborated ‘wall’ element of the maquette. The light from the bulb on set design, sculpture and fountains. Frank Hinder is transmitted through the optical cable and is visible at would spend the war years in the army’s camouflage unit, the wall. As the light moves under or away from the end which he later described in the formal terms of geometric of each cable, the brightness increases and decreases. A abstraction: “My work was connected with light, colour, further refinement is the placing of coloured plastic over tone, shadows, optical effects and illusions and so on – all some of the cable ends on the wall, so the light appears for a very different purpose but nevertheless related to problems which concern the artist.”

The Bedbug, 1965, Frank Hinder, maquette in wood with motors, lights and fibre-optic cables, purchased with funds from the Frank Hinder, The Bedbug, Renshaw Bequest, University Art From Bauhaus Collection, UA2017.23 1965, to Bedbug interior view –

Dr Ann Stephen introduces a recent acquisition, revealing the University’s long history of interdisciplinary, experimental art and drama.

8 9 , Dawson memorial Left: Frank Hinder, 1968, kinetic sculpture in wood, acyclic, aluminium, electric motor, lights, found objects, wire, coloured gels and plastics transferred from the Sydney College of Advanced Education 1990 Return of the warrior University Art Collection, UA1990.571 Dawson Below: Frank Hinder, – memorial, 1968, interior view

book of 1963, which described his 1923 Farbenlicht- (Colour light play), developed for Bauhaus parties green or red. A tall antenna-like device also contains Spiel cable illuminated by the bulb. The end is placed in a and accompanied by music. reflector which diffuses the light, and a hole behind the wall allows light to strike the rotating ‘starburst’ device.” One early cylindrical Luminal Kinetic is the Dawson memorial (1968), transferred to the University Art Hinder’s involvement in stage production gave him Collection from Sydney Teachers’ College. There is an intriguing connection between both of these Hinder a working knowledge of lighting that would form the was made as a tribute to works: the Luminal Kinetic basis of his major late series of box-like. sculptures,These collectively known as Luminal Kinetics drama colleague David Dawson, who had produced . Both works testify to the interdisciplinary constructions mostly look like early television sets The Bedbug projecting a play of abstract coloured light across role an artist such as Hinder played in the University’s As a museum object comes back home their screens. But when opened up they reveal how teaching, long before Sydney College of the Arts their extraordinary effects were made from everyday became part of the University. after half a century, Dr Paul Donnelly domestic objects: sink filters and toys, such as Meccano, reveals its significance – and the role of The museum is currently developing an exhibition combined with coloured gels and Perspex, lit and run and is keen to gather any by small electric lights and motors. on the Bauhaus Diaspora renowned artist Lloyd Rees. recollections from former students, whether who were as ainvolved student, It was in the early years of the Weimar Bauhaus in the production of The Bedbug (1919‑33) that artists such as Moholy-Nagy and staff or audience member. German‑Australian Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack first Plaster cast of relief slab in the British Museum from the Parthenon, experimented with machines for making light Ann Stephen is Senior Curator, Athens, XXXI South Frieze. Donated by Alan and Jancis Rees in memory of University Art Collection Lloyd Rees, 2017. Nicholson Museum NM2018.129 projections. Hinder would have known of the Australian Photographed in situ at the Lloyd Rees house, Northwood, Sydney in 2017 Bauhausler, Hirschfeld Mack through his Bauhaus

10 11 Photographs of the Nicholson The motivation for acquiring casts was intended to deceive, but as museums Museum prior to the 1960s show a simple: they offered the opportunity pursued a broader public the divide multitude of sculptures and sculptural for detailed study of some of between genuine and copy became reliefs from antiquity dominating the the world’s best art and, unlike blurred, confusing the visitor and, as cluttered scene. It gradually becomes photographs, communicated the a corollary, demeaning the rarity and Interior views apparent, however, that these are exact scale of the original works and significance of original material. of the Nicholson Museum in the 1930s familiar antiquities from renowned allowed multiple views in varying light. with the plaster cast in situ. international collections and could It was at this time that a young not possibly be genuine artefacts. In one of his regular columns in the Professor Alexander Cambitoglou What we are seeing are exact copies Union Recorder of 5 October 1933, arrived at Sydney from Greece – casts of the originals, typically in Woodhouse described this advantage. via Oxford. As curator, Professor plaster – not marble. In discussing the cast of an original Cambitoglou applied a mid-century Greek relief from about 490 BC held aesthetic, and in this modernisation Plaster casts of objects from antiquity in the Athens National Museum, he of the museum the casts had no – mainly Greek, Roman, and Egyptian noted sculptor Alexnor’s “bungled place. Contrary to the campus myth (hoplite), it certainly looked more conspicuous even among the walls) and four frieze slabs. There – had been acquired between the attempt at foreshortening is hardly that the casts were buried under spectacular than the £1/6/6 against sculptures of the Frieze. are also five more frieze slabs in the 1890s and 1940s by successive noticeable in a photograph, but is the Quad’s paving, surviving lists which a pencil X is marked in the original Dining Hall of the Women’s curators at the Nicholson Museum apparent at once in the cast”. from the 1960s reveal a great deal Brucciani catalogue. The journey from the Nicholson College at the University of Sydney, for teaching and inspiring students. of effort was made to transfer the to Rees is not as strange as may which were acquired by the college’s Casts were big business around the Casts also enable an accurate casts to other departments within the Slab XXXI (as it is now known) is first appear. The casts were a great first principal, Louisa Macdonald world, as evidenced in the Nicholson understanding of scale. During my University, as well as institutions and regarded as one of the masterpieces favourite of Rees for teaching drawing (1892–1923), who was an archives by the 1910 catalogue British first visit to Athens as a student I NSW high schools. There were many of the Parthenon and a good choice and art history to architecture archaeologist and author of the Museum List of casts from sculptures still remember my surprise at the willing recipients. for representation in a teaching students from 1946 to 1986. Eminent original Nicholson catalogue on etc. in the Department of Antiquities, variable sizes of Acropolis dedicatory collection. There was no doubt it was architects including Penelope Seidler pottery and lamps (1898). manufactured and sold by Brucciani & sculpture – even after four years More recently there has been a new originally from the Nicholson. In AD and Philip Cox reminisce fondly of Co. in Goswell Road, London. of intense slide tests in Greek art appreciation of plaster casts and over Trendall’s A guide to the principal their time with Rees, drawing for Our newly returned orphan block was and archaeology at the University. the past decade, the Nicholson has casts of Greek and Roman sculpture hours in the Nicholson Museum. clearly one of Rees’s favourites and That this was “printed by order However, this was the 1980s, by which attempted to retrieve some of these in the Nicholson Museum, 1941, the we can reasonably speculate he would of the Trustees” demonstrates time most of the Nicholson’s casts items, but with little success. slab is detailed on page 43: The Parthenon cast of the charioteer be pleased at his role in its return to how complicit the British Museum had become redundant and the and soldier is the one to return to the Nicholson, together with another was in “democratising” objects in opportunity to observe comparative This is why an invitation to visit 74. Slab XXX. Charioteer. the Nicholson among the other seven story and layer of significance. Given its collection for institutions and scale was diminished. the harbourside home of the late In the British Museum. relief sculptures in the collection his own appreciation of casts and collectors around the world. The renowned artist and former teacher In the chariot are the driver and originally connected to that temple. the way he used them in teaching, Nicholson catalogue is annotated by During the 20th century, casts began at the University, Lloyd Rees (1895 an armed warrior, wearing a There are, however, other relief he would no doubt approve of the lines and crosses marking examples to fall from favour around the world -1988) came as a pleasant surprise – a Corinthian helmet. Rivet holes by casts from the Parthenon at the renewed respect for plaster casts. identified for purchase, almost and at the Nicholson Museum this life-size plaster cast of a block from the horses’ manes show where University, including in the southern We look forward to displaying it in the certainly by William John Woodhouse, came to a head in the 1960s when the southern frieze of the Parthenon bronze reins were attached. The vestibule of the Quad (and one-time Chau Chak Wing Museum. curator from 1903-37, who was a minimalist, modern aesthetic was set onto a veranda wall. Depicting treatment of the horses’ heads, entrance to the original Nicholson) largely responsible for expanding the ushered in a purist appreciation for a speeding four-horse chariot which was especially admired by where there are two metopes (marble Paul Donnelly is Associate Director, cast collection. original works. Casts were never (quadriga) with driver and foot soldier Ruskin, shows vigour and freedom panels on the temple’s external Content, Chau Chak Wing Museum

12 13 Dig this! –

With construction of the new Chau The area had been identified in a previous survey as Images from left to right: having little to no potential for recovering significant Beer bottle, porcelain Chak Wing museum about to begin, teacup, and clay tobacco relics; nevertheless, we had to be sure we were indeed pipe fragments from a group of archaeology students dug not disturbing anything of State Significance. the museum site Ceramic sherds from the museum site test pits. Dr James Flexner describes Our goals for the dig were multiple: first, to provide a practical, hands-on opportunity for students; second, to Students and the dig mascot the invaluable experience. working on a test pit gather data on the recent landscape context of the new museum; third, to collect, if possible, an assemblage of All images by James Flexner A small silver coin, a brown glass fragment with the letters artefacts that might form part of the Nicholson Museum’s “OTHS” embossed on the surface, some sherds of a teaching collections; and, finally, to offer a model for flowerpot. These are just some of the fragments of history how this kind of partnership between the Archaeology uncovered by University of Sydney students and volunteers Department, Sydney University Museums and CIS might While the overall deposit was quite disturbed and must One of our project’s goals was to bring this story to light over four weekends in June and August 2017. work should future opportunities arise. be from the last 50 years or less considering there was as part of the interpretation of the location of the new plastic present throughout, we did find a few artefacts museum, alongside the more widely acknowledged stories As part of the development of the new Chau Chak Wing Senior Archivist Nyree Morrison, of the University’s of note. There was the aforementioned 1927 silver of the local Gadigal people, Grose Farm, and the first Museum site, we decided to involve students and dig a Archives and Records Management Services, provided three-pence coin, a few sherds of Rhine pattern ceramic classes on campus in 1859. few test pits around the area of the old tennis courts. I’ve historical research on the old tennis courts, which first dishes, some tobacco pipe fragments, and a fragment long had an interest in university campuses as heritage appear in the University Calendar in 1923. of European gunflint. These last few items are evidence Aside from a few interesting glimpses into campus places – since my days as a PhD student at the University from an earlier era, but again we have to be careful about history, this dig represented an excellent (if reasonably of California, Berkeley, where I helped colleague Kim Over our four weekends of fieldwork we uncovered layers interpretation as they were found in a much more recent limited) opportunity for students to get some hands-on Christensen excavate a 19th century feminist’s house as of sediment that relate to recent construction activities in fill layer. And the “OTHS” bottle fragment? It’s from the experience with real-world excavation conditions. The part of her PhD research. As Sydney is Australia’s oldest and around campus. The deposits included fill brought in, now defunct Tooth’s Brewery, which was just down the method of digging test pits ahead of development to university, this dig represented a golden opportunity. probably from the cutting of Parramatta Road, and to build road on Broadway. identify archaeological remains is common throughout up the area that eventually became today’s University Australia. Further, the materials we identified could be Working within NSW heritage guidelines and with the Avenue, a main entrance to the University. Intriguingly, The implication that university students drank beer and found just about anywhere in NSW. University’s Campus Infrastructure Services (CIS) health we found some layers of clay, gravel, and crushed spent (well, in this case, lost) money will probably surprise and safety requirements, the team’s work was limited to sandstone that might be evidence of an earlier entrance no one. However, these traces do point to a time in the One of the many things that made the dig engaging, the top 50 centimetres of each 1 metre by 1 metre trench road, perhaps slightly west of the current road. University’s history long before smartphones, lecture instructional and fun was having a mixture of students that was then backfilled at the end of each weekend. recording and learning management software were and volunteers, from people who have worked for years essential to everyday activities. as professional archaeologists in Sydney and elsewhere, to students who had never dug before. They included a Further, the tennis courts themselves were an important student from the Uni 2 Beyond program, which supports locus of student life on campus, particularly for women students with intellectual disabilities to experience students. The tennis courts were formerly found in the university life. Quadrangle, but apparently they were moved down to the location of the future museum so female athletes I am now working with another group of student could play tennis in peace, away from the wolf-whistling volunteers to analyse the materials we excavated and harassment from male students that was more prevalent develop a report for Sydney University Museums ahead of (or more likely to be tolerated) at the time. The wooden accessioning this assemblage into the Nicholson’s teaching building that stood near the tennis courts was once the collections. These fragments of the University of Sydney Women’s Sport Clubhouse. will live on as reminders to students and visitors about the recent past on campus.

Dr James Flexner is a Lecturer in Historical Archaeology and Heritage at the University of Sydney

Image: [Grass-Stock image 486327369]/iStock

14 15 The Mummy Project – 2.

“Speak my name so I may live again” In his 1948 Handbook to the Nicholson Museum, Professor The Mummy Project of Archaeology Dale Trendall (1909-95) listed the coffin Such was the genesis of the Mummy Project at the is inscribed on many Egyptian as empty, although the museum database notes that it Nicholson Museum. The project aims to investigate tombs. Dr Jamie Fraser describes contains “mixed debris”. We had no idea what this would scientifically all the mummies in the Nicholson collection, comprise, as the coffin had not been opened for 20 years, including the mixed remains inside the coffin of opening an ancient coffin to but presumably not very much, given Trendall’s comments Mer‑Neith‑it-es. uncover surprising secrets. and the coffin’s unremarkable presence in the Nicholson collection since its accession 160 years ago. The museum houses three complete mummies, all part of Sir Charles’s original bequest: two adult mummies he And so, one quiet Friday in June 2017, we removed the lid. purchased within the coffins of Meruah and Padiashiakhet, When we recently opened the coffin of the lady and the mummy of a boy called Horus, currently on Mer‑Neith-it-es at the Nicholson Museum, we expected We placed the lid, carved to resemble the woman it display. These mummies were X-rayed and CT-scanned to find a few residual bandages and bones from a enclosed, with serene eyes and lips curved in a gentle in 1997-98 under the direction of Dr Karin Sowada, and mummy removed by tomb robbers in the 19th century. smile, on an adjacent table. Peering into the casket, we Horus was scanned again in 2009 by Dr Janet Davey and We could not have been more wrong. were astonished by what we saw: far from residual scraps, Michael Turner. the coffin was filled with a miscellany of bones, bandages, The anthropoid coffin of Mer-Neith-it-es (image 1) is beads and other materials (image 2). Were these the Yet the remains inside the Mer-Neith-it-es coffin have elegantly carved from imported cedar wood or cypress remains of a single mummy that had been ransacked never been studied. pine, and dates to the 26th Dynasty, circa 664-525 BCE. by tomb-robbers looking for amulets and jewels? Were It was purchased in Egypt by Sir we, in fact, looking at the heavily disturbed remains of Imagine this coffin has been shaken like a cocktail shaker, (Chancellor of the University of Sydney, 1854-62), Mer‑Neith-it-es herself? and you can perhaps picture the jumble of remains inside. and was one of the original 408 Egyptian objects that The coffin’s torso and head are piled high with layers of formed the core of his donation of antiquities to the bandages and chunks of resin that was poured over the University in 1860 to found a museum.

The ghosted hieroglyphs on the lid name the occupant as Mer-Neith-it-es, a noblewoman who served the Mistress of the Temple of Sekhmet. However, the intricately decorated exterior has faded, and the coffin lies within a perspex case in the museum’s Education Room, overshadowed by the vibrant coffins of Meruah and Padiashiakhet that have been admired in the galleries for decades.

1. 1. Coffin for the lady Mer-Neith-it-es. NMR.29. 2. Mixed remains with the coffin NMR.29.

16 17 3. The coffin NMR.29 being CT scanned at Macquarie Medical Imaging, and filmed by the ABC for current affairs program, 7.30.

4. Professor John Magnussen places the mummy of the boy Horus NMR.26 into the CT scanner.

6.

5. CT images of the mummy purchased in the coffin of the lady Meruah NMR.27 (images by Simon Bird and John Magnussen, courtesy of MMI, Hospital).

6. A cone beam CT image of the skull of the mummy purchased within the coffin of the priest Padiashiakhet NMR.28 (images by Kirstin Geyer 3. 4. 5. and John Magnussen, courtesy of MMI, Macquarie University Hospital).

mummy as a preserving agent; a leg bone lies against the excavation far outweighed the disturbance that these We were fortunate to partner with the extraordinary We also had a film crew from the ABC’s current affairs coffin’s shoulder, rib bones jut erratically from bandages, excavations would cause, as the remains had already been team at Macquarie Medical Imaging (MMI) at Macquarie program 7.30 following the story; and we had invited part of the jaw lies near the coffin’s feet. Hundreds of tiny damaged by robbers. University Hospital to CT scan the remains. On Sunday several experts to collaborate with MMI, including faience beads, once laid over the mummy as a beaded net, 10 December 2017 we found ourselves travelling across Egyptologist Dr Conni Lord, bio‑archaeologist Dr Estelle are scattered throughout. Like the Burgdorf Museum, we too decided excavations the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the Mer-Neith-it-es Lazer, anatomist radiologist Professor Dzung Vu, and were appropriate in the case of the Mer-Neith-it-es coffin. coffin and the complete mummies of Horus, Meruah and forensic odontologist Dr Alain Middleton. There is, it turns To find such an assemblage in 2017 is extraordinary – and Not only are the remains already heavily disturbed by tomb Padiashiakhet packaged in crates. out, a finite number of people who can hustle around a a striking testament to the richness and depth of the robbers, but the excavations would allow us to conserve computer, eagerly awaiting the images expertly produced Nicholson collection. Coffins were usually purchased in the intermingled bones, bandages, beads and debris that MMI is Australia’s most technologically advanced medical by the radiographers. the 19th and early 20th centuries with complete mummies, are susceptible to Sydney’s humidity and heat. Excavations imaging practice. Its GE brand CT scanner is only a few although the mummy they contained was not always would also enable us to learn far more about the life and months old, and the facility houses a smaller Newtom The aim was to capture thousands of images for analysis the coffin’s original occupant. On the rare occasion death of the individual the remains represent. These brand Cone Beam CT scanner capable of imaging a skull over coming months. However, the unprocessed images coffins were obtained with mummified debris, curatorial excavations are scheduled to begin in 2018. to an incredible 75 microns. There was considerable were immediate and incredible, and all four mummies staff usually disassembled the remains seeking objects enthusiasm for the project amongst the staff, including quickly yielded new discoveries. for display. CT-scanning the mummies radiologist Professor John Magnussen, radiographers It is an old archaeological paradox that an excavation is Simon Bird and Kirstin Geyer, and Chief Research While the remains inside the Mer-Neith-it-es coffin were Excavating the remains at once an act of conservation and destruction, as the Facilitator Dr Marg Pardey. Although Professor Magnussen indeed mixed, the scanner detected two mummified How should we deal with such an unexpected assemblage? materials recovered can never be reassembled in the way had previously scanned Egyptian mummies for the ankles, feet and toes, consistent with a single person; the When faced with a similar jumble inside a Ptolemaic coffin they were found. Australian Museum, this was the first time he had scanned fused ends of some of the bones suggest the person was in 2013, the Museum of Ethnology in Burgdorf, Switzerland, four in one day. at least 30 years old. decided to excavate. This was a significant decision. While excavations inside the coffin would conserve the Human remains must always be treated with care and individual remains, they would also remove the jumble The excitement filling the scanning rooms was far more The Cone Beam CT images of the Meruah mummy respect, and such ethical considerations rightly prevent of materials that in itself is a remarkable artefact of 19th boisterous than the incredulous silence that fell when we (image 5) showed significant post-mortem damage to the us from using invasive or destructive techniques when century antiquarianism. Before we removed a single bone had opened the coffin in June: the mummies needed to head: the lower jaw was twisted, and several teeth had studying well-preserved mummified remains. In the case or bead, we therefore wanted to record the materials as be unpacked from their crates and manoeuvred between slipped into the empty skull. of the Burgdorf coffin, the knowledge gained through accurately as possible. the two scanners, which were operated simultaneously (images 3 and 4).

18 19 Fragments of history

7. –

7. CT image of the skull of the boy Horus NMR.26 (Image by Kate Handel, Simon Bird, Kirstin Geyer and John Magnussen, courtesy of MMI, Macquarie University Hospital).

8. CT image of the mummy of the boy Horus NMR.26 (images by Simon Bird and John Magnussen, courtesy of MMI, 8. Macquarie University Hospital).

More surprisingly, the Roman period mummy purchased It was common for Egyptian tombs to have inscribed on in the 25th Dynasty coffin for Padiashiakhet (image 6) had their walls a refrain “speak my name so that I may live the knuckles of both hands and several toes on one foot again”. The most exciting part of the project will take place severed off cleanly, presumably by 19th century dealers when we integrate these discoveries in a purpose-built trimming the mummy to fit it within a smaller coffin for Mummy Room in the Chau Chak Wing Museum. 1. Safavid ensemble sale. Don’t be fooled by first impressions. Ana Silkatcheva blue‑and‑white The mummies and remains of Horus, Meruah, bowl, Nicholson Museum, NM64.139 The moment I will never forget was when CT Radiographer Padiashiakhet and Mer-Neith-it-es will be displayed explores the significance of sherds of Islamic ceramics Kate Handel (a CT application specialist from GE), alongside digital CT animations showing what lies within held in the Nicholson collection. generated a haunting image of the skull of the boy Horus, the bandages or beneath the coffin’s lid. By marrying his upper front baby tooth missing, his adult teeth about to science and Egyptology, the Mummy Room will say these descend (images 7 and 8). We fell silent at that image, until people’s names and so help them live again. images also revealed two thin, diamond‑shaped objects, Blue-and-white glazed pottery is Instead, these are fragments of copies minerals, were mixed, fermented for possibly made of resin or wax, that had been placed over Dr Jamie Fraser is Senior Curator, often associated with China, as of Chinese porcelain made in Persia months, then fired in an extremely the boy’s eyes so he could see in the afterlife. the Nicholson Museum. it is one of the most celebrated (now Iran) under the Safavid dynasty hot kiln. of Chinese wares. So it was not in the 16th–18th centuries AD. The Mummy Room in the Chau Chak Wing Museum The Nicholson Museum is grateful to Macquarie Medical surprising that several trays holding These rare materials and specialised We are only at the beginning of the project. Once Imaging, whose staff were so generous with their time, hundreds of blue-and-white pottery Fine Chinese ceramics – no matter techniques made China the only analysed, the CT data will generate an extraordinary expertise and enthusiasm, scanning the mummies at sherds in the Nicholson storeroom their decorative scheme – are producer of fine porcelain wares for amount of information concerning the life, death and no cost. had been registered initially as renowned for their beautifully fine, more than a millennium. Its products mummification of these four people. The excavations “Chinese porcelain”. white, translucent body that gives were highly coveted everywhere, but within the Mer-Neith-it-es coffin will enable us to handle out a wondrous ring when struck: nowhere more so than in lands under the bones directly, helping us understand aspects of But a closer examination revealed porcelain. The secret to making Islamic rule, where Chinese ceramics diet and disease. they were neither porcelain nor porcelain lies in both the raw were so popular that they were Chinese; while they do have a strong materials and the manufacturing heavily and closely imitated, from the link to China it is not the direct one techniques. White kaolin clay and decorative schemes of the vessels assumed by the early cataloguer. porcelain stone, both granite-based to their shapes. After all, a cheaper

20 21 2. Safavid blue‑and‑white 3. Fragment of Abbasid 4 and 5. Fragments of under-glaze painted octagonal dish, Nicholson blue‑and-white, Nicholson stone-paste from Syria or Egypt, Nicholson Museum, NM64.133 Museum, NM64.135.117 Museum, NM62.567 and NM64.135.93

product that was a fair imitation of several Chinese characters, there influence between China and the nothing to the Chinese. Painting Potters discovered that a mixture Islamic world prompted a flood of a more expensive one could attract is a series of squares of diminishing Islamic world, a connection that led vegetal sprays, palmettes and Arabic of crushed quartz, crushed glass, imitations, and the versatile, new, customers who desired, but could not size, set one inside another. This was to a veritable revolution in ceramic calligraphy on the opaque white and a fine white clay formed a fabric white stone-paste body was exploited afford, the real thing – just as modern a Persian approximation of complex technology in the medieval period ground in pigments made from cobalt that was finely textured, a bright to produce faithful recreations. The consumers may buy imitations of Chinese ideograms (graphic symbols (9th century to the 15th century). ores – at the time a mineral known white throughout, and presented a fine texture of stone-paste allowed luxury brands. representing an idea or concept). Other sherds in the Nicholson’s only in Mesopotamia – produced a white ground without the need for copies to be as thinly potted as the collections help tell this story. striking blue-on-white effect once opaque colourants in the glaze. This porcelain originals. These trends Among the hundreds of Safavid The octagonal dish (image 2) is a described as looking like “ink on was stone-paste. Its arrival heralded continued under the Mamluks, the blue‑and-white sherds in the similarly close imitation, but one The wild popularity of Chinese snow” (image 3). While the much later a revolution in the ceramic craft, Ottomans, and the Safavids. Nicholson, a fragmentary bowl and that is likewise not quite right. It exports in 9th century Iraq, under the Chinese version of blue-and-white leading to a worldwide zenith in a small reconstructed dish attest presents a lion frolicking with an Abbasid caliphate, led local potters is best known around the world, the splendid pottery decoration. Few museums in Australia have especially closely to the trade embroidered ball. While this was a to innovate in order to imitate. The Iraqi invention occurred much earlier. Islamic objects in their collections; relationship between Persia and common motif on Chinese ceramics, first innovation was an opaque white From the 12th century the Egyptians these fascinating ceramic sherds in China in the early modern period. The here the lion is rendered with a glaze, achieved through the addition As time moved on, Abbasid and Syrians, joined by the Iranians, the Nicholson reveal the prominence exterior walls of the bowl (image 1), distinctly Persian interpretation of tin. While the secret was revealed blue‑and‑white fell out of use, but the excelled at the production of and relevance of the Islamic world which faithfully reproduce the form of its features. And the exterior of when a tap on the vessel produced hunger for Chinese porcelain refused beautifully decorated vessels, with to global history. The Chinese of Chinese examples, are decorated the shallow dish, not easily visible more of a “thunk” than a ring, and to abate in the Islamic world. In designs in cobalt blue, black, and connection is just a single aspect of a with a wreath of flowers connected by at a casual glance, is punctuated the earthenware beneath the opaque subsequent centuries, potters in Syria brown painted under a colourless captivating, multifaceted story. undulating stems, and filled out with by motifs that are completely new, glaze could not pretend to pass and Egypt continued to experiment glaze (images 4 and 5). leafy scrollwork. local inventions. Overall, though, the light through it, the visual effect with materials for ceramic products, Ana Silkatcheva is an archaeologist effect is strong enough to fool a less was a compelling simulation of fine and their efforts led to the invention By the 14th century, China was specialising in the material and visual To a casual observer, the decoration discerning consumer. Chinese wares. of a new, man-made ceramic body importing cobalt from Mesopotamia, culture of the Islamic world. resembles designs on Chinese that lent itself to decoration like and had developed its famed wares. But a mark on the base Production of copies under the But the Iraqi potters were not content nothing before. blue‑and-white decorative scheme. gives the game away: instead of Safavids was the culmination of to make copies, establishing their The influx of these wares into the the expected reign mark formed of many centuries of trade and mutual own decorative techniques that owed

22 23 All images: Magdalena Sphere of Abakanowicz, Organic structures and soft forms, influence installation view, National Gallery of – Victoria, 1976

Czarna Kula, Black Ball II (Spher) (1968) is a sculpture by Abakans was organic, not just in terms of the material, Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930–2017) that was but in the process of making them; they were never pre- purchased for the Power Collection after Abakanowicz’s planned and developed their individuality and associated retrospective at the Art Gallery of and mystery as they were constructed. the National Gallery of Victoria in 1976. “I like working the form with my hands, I exert control over Abakanowicz travelled to Australia at the invitation of the its every details,” Abakanowicz has said. “The movement Crafts Board of the Australia Council in conjunction with of my hands corresponds to the natural rhythm of my the Polish People’s Republic. During her three-month body, to my breath. This rhythm determines the number of visit she gave interviews, held workshops and travelled logical activities that can be performed from morning until to Queensland – visiting the Great Barrier Reef – and to evening, from my morning until my evening.” Central Australia where she visited Uluru and Kata Tjuta. As part of this same trip she visited Papua New Guinea Along with several other Polish artists, Abakanowicz was with her friend, Australian artist Jutta Fedderson. invited to exhibit at the first Biennale Internationale de le Post-war Polish artist Magdalena Tapisserie in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1962. In preparation Czarna Kula, Black Ball II (Spher) as the title indicates, she experimented – her flat, woven wall hangings became Abakanowicz is known for her and on first impression, presents as a black ball. However, immense sculptures and her Abakans were born. intriguing textile sculptures. Katrina on closer inspection, the work reveals a complexity and intensity of technique, material and form. A hollow These large-scale sculptures contributed to a rupturing of Liberiou analyses a spherical work spheroid tapestry, it is made of woven fibre, including sisal the art/craft debate that took hold in Europe in the late that resists easy interpretation. and rope, and contains a steel structure and hanging ring 1960s. Abakanowicz’s process of weaving – by hand, “off that allow it to be suspended. loom” – and of using coarser fibres such as sisal, rope, horsehair, hemp and flax, as opposed to the traditional The work is part of a series of major fibre works known as tapestry materials of cotton and wool, triggered a fibre Abakans, made between 1967 and 1972, which propelled revolution. In contrast, many of the traditional tapestries Abakanowicz onto the international stage. The term exhibited at the Biennale by artists such as France’s Jean Abakans – coined in the 1960s by Polish art critic Anka Lurçat were made by professional weaving workshops in Ptaszkowska, taken from the first part of the artist’s Aubusson, Beauvais or Paris. surname – was eventually adopted by Abakanowicz. It resonated with the close, psychological relationship the Part of this rupturing was that Abakanowicz conceived artist had with the works. The practice of making the her works as installations, creating whole-gallery

24 25 Magdalena Abakanowicz, Czarna Kula, Black Ball II (Spher), 1968 spheroid tapestry, rope, sisal, black dye, steel JW Power collection, The University of Sydney, managed by Museum of Contemporary Art, PW1976.1 installation view, Organic structures and soft forms, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne © Estate of Magdalena Abakanowicz and courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York

led a privileged country life, and she was fascinated by Polish peasant folklore that spoke of myths and spirits. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, when she was nine, their situation changed forever. The family was forced to flee their home in 1944. They effectively had to go underground, become anonymous, and hide their background.

This experience gave Abakanowicz the impetus to reinvent herself. In 1949 she commenced studies at the Gdansk Academy of Fine Arts, an interdisciplinary art school that fostered collaboration between forms. It was here that she was first introduced to textiles. Wanting to be part of the new cultural centre of post-war Warsaw, Abakanowicz transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1950. environments; by placing works in relation to one another There were challenges and benefits of attending the she created spaces for the viewer to experience an Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts – all classes had to be intimacy with the works. No longer being restricted to the approved by Communist officials and the official “style” loom, her works became limitless; her largest Abakans was “social realism”, which contrasted to Gdansk where were more than 8 metres high. Working in a small studio, freedom of expression was encouraged. However, it was she often only saw the completed works once they were here that Abakanowicz studied under teachers who were installed in the exhibition space. to have an enormous impact, particularly renowned Polish textile artist Eleonora Plutyńska, who taught textiles with The Abakans reference the human body; however, Czarna an emphasis on traditional hand-weaving. Kula, Black Ball II (Spher) is ambiguous and could be indicative of a growth or mass that could invade the body, Plutyńska had travelled Poland to discover and preserve the psyche or the natural environment. Even the material ancient weaving techniques. Abakanowicz studied used evokes the body; it could be hair, veins, muscle or materials and natural dyes and, perhaps most importantly, viscera. The colour is not a solid black; there are shades how to improvise and create directly onto the loom of brown and a deep mulberry. without producing preparatory drawings. This approach was a natural fit for Abakanowicz, whose practice drew Abakanowicz designed the Abakans for the viewer to get heavily on Polish folklore, customs and nature. close to, to be in their presence, to feel their warmth and take in their earthy, wooded smell. It’s an intense work, Abakanowicz was a remarkable artist who had a long and generating an unsettling emotional response, with an rich exhibiting history, including representing Poland at ambiguity that leaves lingering questions. Like her other the Venice Biennale in 1980. Today her work is held in works, Czarna Kula, Black Ball II (Spher) references and collections worldwide. She was at the forefront of the art/ was influenced by Abakanowicz’s personal history – she craft debate of the 1960s and a leader in the revitalisation Good hair day experienced first-hand the intense chaos, trauma and of figurative sculpture in the 1970s and 80s. destruction of World War II, which stayed with her and – became a recurrent theme in her work. Czarna Kula, Black Ball II (Spher) is one of only two of Abakanowicz’s fibre-based works held in Australian Coif, bouffant or curl? New research into the identity of On her father’s side, Abakanowicz’s family were szlachta collections, and visitors will have the opportunity to see it (nobility) from a long line of Tatars, a nomadic Turkic- in the new Chau Chak Wing Museum. a portrait in the Nicholson collection is closely tied to speaking people who lived in west-central Russia, hairdressing in Ancient Rome, explains Candace Richards. Kazakhstan and western Siberia. Her mother’s family Katrina Liberiou is Assistant Curator of the University were Polish aristocracy. In Poland, Abakonowicz’s family Art Collection

26 27 1. Bone, wood and gold plated At the site of Diaspolis Parva in Wigs were also used to augment a hairpins, Roman period, 30 BC – Egypt, Flinders Petrie and his team person’s appearance. Roman wigs AD 395. From the EES excavations at Diospolis Parva in Egypt, directed uncovered the houses and necropolis were made from human hair and by Sir Flinders Petrie 1898–99. Donated by the Egypt Exploration of the Roman citizens who lived there. worn by both men and women. In the Fund 1900. Nicholson Museum, Included in the finds, particularly from early Imperial period, Ovid suggests NM00.124.1, NM00.124.9, NM00.151, NM00.154 women’s graves, were wooden and the long blonde locks from Germanic ivory combs, mirrors and hairpins, captives were a prized commodity, 2. Wooden comb, Roman period, 30 BC – AD 395. From the EES both plain and decorative. Those and later accounts suggest black hair excavations at Diospolis Parva in Egypt, directed by Sir Flinders made of ivory and bone were carved from India was also valuable. Both of Petrie 1898–99. Donated by the Egypt with geometric designs, and wooden these colours would have been hard Exploration Fund 1900. Nicholson Museum, NM00.168 pins may have had gold plated to affect with dye, unlike the red and 3. Portrait of a young woman decoration wrapped around the ends, auburn hues that could be produced painted on a wood panel, possibly which would be visibly nestled in a using naturally occurring pigments. late second or third century AD. Purchased 1979. Nicholson Museum, woman’s hair. NM79.1 The red hair, as indicated by the curls 4. Marble portrait of the Emperor Further evidence from Egypt is seen of our portrait, could have been the Claudius, AD 41–54, reworked to 1. 2. portrait of Emperor Titus AD 79–81 in the realistically painted mummy woman’s natural or dyed colour. Purchased 1964. Nicholson Museum, portraits preserved from the Fayum NM64.325 region. These famous artefacts date Sadly, the ancient sources do not Page 27: Marble portrait of a Roman woman, second half of the first between the first and third centuries comment on the colour of Julia Titi’s century AD. Donated through The Hon AD, and are vital to understanding, hair. However, another portrait held RP Meagher bequest 2011. Nicholson Museum, NM2012.11 among other things, the changes in in the Getty collection in Los Angeles Hair is rarely acultural. Throughout debaucheries of Nero’s reign, this Some scholars suggest that while fashion and ornamentation among also has traces of red pigment around history, one’s choice of cut, colour new dynasty of the Flavians sought women’s faces were still presented society’s elite. They also help to her curling coiffure, lending support and coiffure could make a bold to impose control, civic order and as idealistic rather than realistic, the inform and date sculpted works. to the theory that this sculpture could personal statement, in either conservatism on the empire. strict structure of hair reflected the indeed be of the Emperor’s daughter. accepting or rejecting social norms, civic order and control also visible in One mummy portrait in the Nicholson cultural attitudes and political These ideals were expressed through images of the Emperor. collection, possibly from the third Candace Richards is Assistant affiliations. In the Roman empirical a change in the Emperor’s portrait century AD, shows the recurring Curator, Nicholson Museum period, portraits of the Emperor, style, specifically, the depiction of The contrast of the Nicholson fashion of a mass of loose curls rising imperial family and local elite served ageing – realistic, serious faces sent a portrait’s hairstyle with her softly in a tier above the face, which is an important propagandistic function message of wisdom and experience. depicted facial features gives us here shown held in place by a simple and the choice of hairstyles, for both The Nicholson collection’s portrait further clues to her identity. She has golden diadem with a central gem and men and women, played a key role in of Titus, reworked from an earlier a somewhat plump face, with almond pearl ornament. visual messaging. portrait of the Emperor Claudius, eyes and softly closed lips in a serene followed these trends by showing a expression. This combination of A marble portrait of a young woman furrowed brow and a more aged face. curls and full face follows closely the in the Nicholson’s collection has a portraits known of Julia Titi Flavia, bold mass of curls perched like a Depictions of Flavian women were daughter of the Emperor Titus. cloud over her forehead. The rest subtler, and they were rarer than of her hair is parted in the centre, portraits of women in the previous However, it is almost impossible and the combed, wavy tresses are era. However, their hairstyles were to determine if this portrait was gathered softly into a bun at the nape extravagant, and we believe our intended to be of Julia herself, or of of her neck using a braid of her own portrait was made during this period. an elite woman who fashionably styled hair to secure it in place. Traces of her hair in the latest trends of the day. red pigment over the curls show that The new leadership of the Flavians the portrait, like most other marble was also the beginning of a new style The towering structures, braided sculpture in the Roman world, was of coiffure for Imperial and elite intricacies and lengths of hair needed originally painted. But who is it? women across the empire. As time to complete such extravagant looks progressed, the band of curls, as seen required a range of equipment that In AD 79, following the death of his in our portrait, became higher and was usually hidden from view in the father, Vespasian, Titus became higher, forming a dominating tower final portrait. To understand how emperor. In stark contrast to the of strictly controlled locks that could these coiffures were constructed, increasing extravagances of the stand well above the woman’s head. we must turn to other areas of the 3. Julio-Claudians, culminating with the archaeological record. 4.

28 29 Sylvia Gluchowska Jadarah Karanikas Left: roe deer sketch Left: creature design Below: creature design Above: skeleton muscles for creature

To bring to life the imaginary creatures shown Drawing inspiration here, students from TAFE NSW Design Centre studied the natural history collections of the Macleay Museum and the University of Sydney’s – School of Veterinary Science’s bone collection.

Students from TAFE NSW Design TAFE design students have been engaging with the University’s collections every year since Centre in Enmore have been using the 2007. The students are focused on developing University’s collections as inspiration for the knowledge and skills to become concept artists and designers for the digital games and film industry. Eleanor Kenway their works, writes Barry Dean. Right: concept narrative Below: bats in the wet store sketch

As part of their major project for the Advanced Diploma of Creative Product Development, students were asked to design an original animal with evolutionary specialisations, and to create artwork that detailed its skeleton, muscles and external appearance.

Armed with sketchbooks and watercolours, the students worked from skulls and complete skeletons at the University of Sydney School of Veterinary Science, and in the Macleay Museum they made rapid sketches in the entomology stores and wet collection (specimens stored in fluid). The observational drawings they produced on their visit provided invaluable research material.

Barry Dean teaches at TAFE NSW Design Centre Enmore.

30 31 A stitch in time Top left: Textile study, border On 14 October 1912 she gave a talk ancient and modern embroidery, and of 17th century Italian chasuble, – at the Women’s College titled ‘The photographs of some famous pieces. UA1990.316 Art of Embroidery’, covering early Top right: Textile study, embroidery examples from Egypt Wark was appointed lecturer in centre panel of 18th century Austro‑Hungarian chasuble, in the 15th century BC, and how the applied arts at Sydney Teachers' UA1990.323 practice flourished with ancient College in 1914. She used the drawings In the early 1900s a Bottom left: Textile study, Greeks and Romans. she made during her time in London UA1990.328 former student made to inform her teaching and inspire Bottom right: Textile study, Wark traced the development through students. The drawings remained 17th century Spanish embroidered exquisite watercolours velvet and silk panel, UA1990.319 Europe, with special mention of in the college’s collection when Opposite page: Textile study, of textiles in a London England: “One of the most remarkable she retired in 1945 until they were detail from Syon Cope, UA1990.315 museum. Chris Jones pieces of embroidery in the world, transferred to the University Art the famous Bayeux Tapestry, is now Collection in 1990 along with the rest looks at her work, generally believed to be the work of of the college’s art collection. which is held in the Englishwomen,” she said. She finished by talking about William Morris and Chris Jones is Assistant Collections University collections. John Ruskin, showing examples of Manager, Sydney University Museums

(Florence) Helen Wark graduated from During her time in London Wark The Syon Cope is unique among the University of Sydney with a Master made watercolour studies of textiles surviving examples of opus of Arts from the School of Classical in the V&A collections, including of anglicanum, the Latin term for English Philology (Latin) in 1905. This early Italian, English and Spanish textiles, work, used to denote high-quality interest in the ancient world was to and Persian prayer carpets. Her English embroidery. The detail Wark echo through her life as educator drawings focus on details and edgings, has drawn illustrates St Michael and craftsperson. showing the colours, stitching slaying a two-headed dragon. and construction. After graduating Wark travelled to Following her return to Sydney in Italy and England, studying at the One study is a detail from the Syon 1912, Wark gave a series of talks. She British Institute in Rome and the Royal Cope, made in England around gave a lantern slide lecture titled College of Art in London. She stayed 1310-20. This cope, made from linen, ‘Early Christian Art in the Catacombs in a residence for female students embroidered with silk, silver-gilt at Rome’ at the Young Women’s at Lexham Gardens, Kensington – a and silver thread, is a cape-like Christian Association in April, and to short walk from both the college and vestment that would have been worn the Sydney University Women’s Union the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). at Christian church ceremonies. The in July. garment is decorated with scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ and the Apostles.

32 33 This gave us the option of making a Turning the reconstructed pavement 1. The pavement supported by foam blocks, as the edges and holes are Scenes from moulded support that would serve over safely was also a challenge. With filled with casting plaster. for both storage and display, the the object sandwiched between 2. The tricky stage of turning the idea being that the fresco would padded boards strapped together to pavement over ready to mould a support. the Nile sit on it without being set into it, prevent any movement or damaging pressure, it took a team of six to 3. With medical thermoplastic allowing the pavement and support lattice moulded to the reverse of to be separated if necessary. Casting execute the turn deftly. Finally, the pavement, ready to pour the Part 2 casting plaster. plaster proved to be the most the modified plaster support was sympathetic and versatile material, constructed in several pours then 4. The pavement resting on the moulded support. – but it is very heavy. levelled to provide a flat, stable base. Opposite page: The pavement conserved. Maru-Aten floor fresco, The challenge was to make a support With the development of a successful depicting papyrus plants, Amarna Dr Wendy Reade continues period, 1352–1323 BC, donated by of plaster that was both lighter and treatment methodology, the the Egypt Exploration Society, 1925, her story of the conservation stronger than just plaster on its own. conservation of the remaining three Nicholson Museum, NM64.415.3 related panels has begun – a precious of the Nicholson Museum’s I set two layers of a thermoplastic opportunity to repair one of Egypt’s important fresco-painted floor resin lattice, used to make casts rarer treasures. The four panels for broken limbs, into the plaster to will be on display in the Egyptian from Amarna in ancient Egypt. provide structural strength. To make galleries in the new Chau Chak the plaster lighter in weight, I bulked Wing Museum. it out with fumed silica, resulting in a weight saving of more than 50 percent Dr Wendy Reade is Conservator, without loss of strength. Sydney University Museums

In Issue 16 of Muse in March 2017, The abraded edges of the fresco These same principles of minimal I reported on the progress of fragments also made it difficult to intervention with maximum the conservation of an unusual align joins correctly. Inevitably some stabilisation applied when designing a fresco‑painted pavement from the joins needed adjustment by heating support. It had to be a purpose-made floor of the Maru-Aten building at and softening the adhesive with a construction that would support Amarna, Egypt. hairdryer until it was possible to the weight of the panel evenly by gently reposition the joins. conforming to its contours. It was one Created in the reign of Akhenaten of the project’s greatest challenges, in the mid-14th century BC, this Over such a large surface, a very as the base support should ideally structure housed water pools and small misalignment of one join be light but strong, and rigid enough painted scenes of Nile River plants becomes magnified in subsequent to prevent any movement of the and birds. At the time of that report, joins, creating a problematic pavement that would undoubtedly the painted plaster fragments had reconstruction. Once reconstructed, see it shatter again. been cleaned and consolidated, there were still chips and small areas but were yet to be joined and set missing from the pavement. In the past it has been popular 1. 2. on a bespoke support, a process to set wall paintings in plaster, that challenged our ingenuity and I used casting plaster to complete the encasing them in a solid heavy block resulted in a unique solution to an jagged edges of the panel, and to fill that cannot be removed without old problem. holes in the pavement, but not chips endangering the fresco, and which and gouges. Following the philosophy hides the reverse. The advantage of a While the placement of the pieces of minimal intervention, I only filled floor fresco is that it doesn’t have to of the fresco jigsaw was reasonably where necessary to provide strength be mounted vertically on a wall: the straightforward, it was not a simple and protection, and to minimise Amarna pavement will be displayed matter to adhere them together. visual disruption. It was important to horizontally as it would have been The pavement had been laid on an colour the white plaster fill to blend seen in antiquity. uneven earthen substrate, reflected with the pavement so as not to catch in the curves and varying thickness of the eye, but at the same time closer the pavement pieces. inspection should distinguish modern 3. 4. repair from the original.

34 35 Long-awaited greetings.

commemorate Miklouho-Maclay’s Macleay Museum, and the Watson Citizens of both Russia and Papua landing with the placing of soil from Bay Marine Station, the biological New Guinea cherish his memory. his homeland at his memorial. research station he founded for the The goals for our expedition were focused study of marine fauna. to establish cultural connections The opening of the photographic and cooperation with the leading exhibition at the Divine Word In 1887, Maclay and Margaret moved universities of Papua New Guinea University in Madang on 22 September to Russia, where he died after a long and Australia, carry out scientific 2017 was another important event. illness. Margaret and their two sons, research, continue working with Here we presented photographs Vladimir and Aleksandr, returned to the people of the Rai Coast and of Miklouho-Maclay’s objects and Sydney, and their descendants have recognise anew the achievements of drawings from the collection of Peter ensured the memory of Miklouho- the man UNESCO named a “Citizen the Great’s Museum of Anthropology Maclay and his humanitarian and of the World”. Voyage and Ethnography of the Russian scientific work were kept alive. Academy of Sciences. For more information, pictures For me, Miklouho-Maclay is a good and stories about the work of the in time My great-great uncle’s history is also example for the youth of the world. Miklouho-Maclay Foundation, visit: connected inextricably with Australia, His firm temper, consistency of aim, www.mikluho-maclay.ru – so our next stop was Sydney, where decency and commitment to the Miklouho-Maclay lived and worked principles of humanity once made Nikolay Miklouho-Maclay is the in the 1870s and 1880s. Here Nikolai him the hero of many books in the great-great nephew of Nikolai Nikolaevich married Margaret Soviet Union. In the period after the Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay Robertson Clark, the daughter of Second World War, two films were Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay was a Russian explorer and scientist who was the Premier of New South Wales, produced about him, multi-volume Sir John Robertson. The expedition editions of his diaries were published, based in New Guinea in the 1870s. His descendant, Nikolai Nikolaevich team visited sites where he worked, and books about him were popular. Miklouho-Maclay, reports on a commemorative journey. including the Australian Museum, the

In 2017, ahead of Papua New Guinea’s gladly greeted the expedition team Academy of Sciences, stayed in Bongu 42nd Independence Day celebration, from “Maclay’s village” (Russia). village where the descendants of a Russian expedition prepared for “Maclay has come back and has Tuya, Miklouho-Maclay’s first friend a voyage to the Rai Coast of Papua called the rain,” they said to us, on the island, lived. A newly built New Guinea. glad to have the long-awaited rain house was given for the expedition and to be reconnecting with their team’s use, and everyone was On 15 September, we arrived on the Russian history. accommodated comfortably on the north-eastern coast of Madang, PNG. cocoa matting and mattresses. It was here, on September 20, 1871, To this day, the great humanist that the 25-year-old Miklouho-Maclay Miklouho-Maclay is venerated on the On 16 September 2017 the local landed after a 10-month passage from Rai Coast, with legends about him people, together with the expedition the Imperial seaport of Kronstadt passed down through the generations, team, celebrated the Independence on the Vityaz corvette. Unlike my and where even children are named Day of Papua New Guinea. Miklouho- ancestor’s meetings with local after him. It was just the same in Maclay had fought for independence people – which was often a nervous, Soviet Russia, where schoolchildren and against colonisation and slavery dangerous and difficult encounter – would learn about the history of (known in his time as “blackbirding”). the villagers met us with great honour. the Rai Coast in geography and with We were honoured by the visit Miklouho-Maclay’s diaries. of PNG’s Grand Chief Sir Michael Gathered on the shore in festive Thomas Somare, who was the first Once located at Watson’s Bay At the Mitchell Library dress, residents from the three The contemporary expedition prime minister after independence Marine Station, this sandstone reading room, with family villages near where Miklouho-Maclay team, which included academic and from Australian administration in 1975. plaque with Nikolai Miklouho- member Janie Maclay, the widow Maclay’s insignia is now in the of Paul Maclay, grandson of All images courtesy and © of lived (Bongu, Gumbu and Gorendu), curatorial members of the Russian Some 3000 coastal people came to Macleay Museum collection. Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay. the Maclay Foundation 2016.

36 37 Sydney University Museums Making history

Donor honour We extend a huge thank you to all our donors, supporters and 1. Joe Fidler, ABC Radio’s roll for 2017 volunteers who have made a Richard Fidler and Senior Curator Dr James Fraser before Richard’s lecture significant difference to what on his book, Ghost Empire, at the Nicholson Museum in – we are able to achieve. September 2017. 2. Dr Craig Barker with Dr Elena Poyiatzi-Richter of the Leventis Municipal Museum in Nicosia in Cyprus with a Renaissance portrait of Caterina Cornaro in the 1. 2. exhibition Secrets of a Royal Principal benefactors History Teachers Sponsors and grants Natasha King Portrait. Over $1,000,000 Association of NSW Academy Travel; Australian Margrit Koettig 3. A delegation from Dr Chau Chak Wing Michael Hobbs, OAM Research Council (ARC) Discovery Mure Lilje the National Museum of The Ian Potter Foundation Patricia Howard Project Grants: Excavating Sebastian Loyzaga China was welcomed to the Estate of the late Morgan MacGregor (DP150103518) Shenghao Ma University by Associate Key benefactors Evan Hughes (2015‑2018) and Bauhaus Australia Beatrice Marks Director, Content, Dr Paul Donnelly, Senior Lecturer $100,000 - $999,999 Suzanne Kelly (DP160103820). Courtney Marsh and Associate Curator, Nelson Meers Foundation Peter Larcombe Peter MacGee Dr Stephen Whiteman, Penelope Seidler AM Geoff LeMarseny Donors to collections Caitlin McCormack and Vice-Principal Amrit MacIntyre Frank and Virginia Knowles Kelsey McMorrow (External Relations), Principal supporters Professor Warwick Majcher Dr John Hodgson Eleanor Megna Tania Rhodes‑Taylor. ($5000 – $19,999) Emeritus Professor Bruce Dr Valerie Havyatt Natalie Mendes 4. Dr Jude Philp, Senior 4. Adam Carr Mansfield, AM (deceased) Philip R. Skinner Steffi Michalski Curator of the Macleay Neville Grace (deceased) Jennifer Manton Janette Beavis Brittany Mitchell Museum, with Matthew Dr Valerie Havyatt Jan O’Reilly John Rowe Eleanor Munro Connell, Principal Curator, Museum of Applied Arts and Douglas Paisley Ms Berida Blayney Helen Myers 3. Sciences, on the day of his Supporters Patricia Priestley Susan Humphreys Rachel Nadas talk, ‘From Euclid to the ($1000 – $4999) Jennifer Rapson Elliot Nolan Computer: tracing a line Dr Paul Donnelly Joseph Rooney Regular volunteers Emily Paine through mathematics’, at David Ellis Emanuel Skalvinas Lea Alexopoulos Louise Pulling the Nicholson Museum. Lesley Gent Emmanuel Sklavounos, PSM Rachelle Ayoub Sasha Radan 5. Owen and Tom, from Dorothy Hoddinott, AO Dr Jim Specht Alison Babbage Ivana Radix International Art Services, The Hon John Murray Ann Sutherland Yonas Bauer John Rankin installing new storage Kenneth R Reed, AM Annalise Thomas Brian Beergah Joyce Robertson crates made for a recent acquisition of Larrakitj Adjunct Professor Dianne Truss Tawny Bomley Frances Robson poles from Arnhem Land, Mary-Lynne Taylor Dr Elizabeth Willstead Elizabeth Cameron Ellen Ryan 5. Northern Territory. David Tribe (deceased) Deanne Whittleston Tess Cashmore Marina Saunders Anonymous Arthur Witten Kalita Corigan Rehan Scharenguivel Dr Andrew Wright Emma Case Lauren Scott Contributors Julie Young Rommel Catuncan Nathan Sheldon-Anderson ($100 – $999) Anonymous Jing Chu Henry Simpson Please help us to conserve and grow Helen-Lea Alexopoulos Arabella Cooper Alex Slucky Lucy Bantermalis Maddie Cox Alexander Staats Contributors Name: �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Please accept my: Ian Barnett (Under $100) Siena Di Giovanni-Arundell Rebecca Staats £ Cheque £ Money order £ Credit card Graeme Bartram Carl Andrew; Erik Bachmann Annette Dukes Jasmine Stewart Address: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� (Please make payable to The University of Sydney) Professor Alastair Blanshard (deceased); Chris Baghos; Helen Meeza Elhassan Yi-Kai Tea (Lemon) ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� DE Boesel Bamford; Elizabeth Barry; Mikel Miranda Evans Christina Templis Credit card details Phone: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Ian Bowie Beach; Patricia Biggers; Richard Nastaran Forouzesh Sarocha Thanee £ Visa £ MasterCard £ American Express £ Diners Club Associate Professor Bird; Danny Blackman; Peter Amanda Gaston Vickie Tran Email: �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Anthony Brown Campbell; Mary Chad; Elizabeth Rosemarie Gates Wei-Yu Tseng Card No: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Dr Monica Bullen Clarke; Margaret Crawley Rebecca Georgiades Lyndsay Urquhart Please accept my gift of: Cardholder’s name: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Dr Fiona Bush, OAM (deceased); Anne Cruickshank; Sebastian Gerber Hood Nathalie Vermeer £ $50 £ $100 £ $250 £ Other $ ��������������������������������������������������������� Lydia Bushell Marcel Dimo; Michael Harriden; Shima Gholami Claire Vincent Company name (if using a corporate card) ������������������������������������������������������� (Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible) (A receipt will be issued in the name of the cardholder) Stephanie Chinneck Dr Joan Hocking; Dr Rosita Gabrielle Gonzalez Finnbar Warren Susan Clarke Hohlenberg-Gibson; Graham Alex Grindrod Charlotte Wilkinson-Bibicos Expiry:...... 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Susan Gabriel Alan Spackman; Mary Tanner; Lynette Hyman Professor Terry Gagen Barbra Wagner; Beau Winter and Roslyn Jehne Gloria Gallaher numerous donors who wish to Katherine Johns Advancement Services ABN 15 211 513 464 The information you provide on this form is collected by the University of Sydney to maintain contact and keep you up to date with information about the University, its services, remain anonymous. Sarah Judd Level 7, Jane Foss Russell Building (G02) CRICOS 00026A The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia CFN 10369 events and achievements. It may be passed onto groups affiliated with the University, such Greg Kenny as alumni organisations and foundations (local and overseas), Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness, +61 2 8627 8807 and residential colleges. Your name may be published in the annual honour roll. If you wish +61 2 8627 8819 (fax) to remain anonymous or do not wish to receive information, please contact Advancement [email protected] Services via fax (+61 2 8627 8819) or email ([email protected]). The University sydney.edu.au/museums abides by the NSW Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998. 38 Find your muse at Current exhibitions Sydney University Museums – Please note: the Macleay Museum and the University Art Gallery are Whether you want to view an exhibition or April 2018 May 2018 now closed as we prepare for the attend a talk, we have plenty on offer. public opening of the Chau Chak – – Wing Museum. Saturday 7 April, 2–3pm Wednesday 2 May, 6 for 6.30pm For more information and to view the latest Nicholson Museum Mosaics of Paphos* Decline and fall: Reflections on timetable, visit sydney.edu.au/museums –– Alpha and Omega: tales of Jennie Lindbergh, AMBS Heritage Rome and the USA transformation and click on ‘What’s on’. Cost: free Rt Hon Bob Carr, former NSW Premier –– The sky and the sea: ancient Unless otherwise stated, all events take place Cost: $40, $30 for Friends of the Cypriot art Saturday 7 April, 3–4pm Nicholson Museum and their guests, at the Nicholson Museum. –– Lego Pompeii Ancient Greek Art in the Nicholson Museum $10 for students. Includes light –– Death Magic A guided tour of the Nicholson Museum’s Greek refreshments. –– Memento: remembering collection for the Greek Festival of Sydney 2018. Free Nicholson Museum tours Roman lives Cost: free Saturday 5 May, 2-3pm Join Nicholson Museum staff every Monday –– Tombs Tells and Temples: Digging Australia: Tales from the from 3.30–4.30pm, for a collection tour with excavating the Near East Wednesday 11 April, 12–1pm Australian trenches* a different focus each week. –– Actors, Athletes and Academics: Free Seniors Week Heritage Tour of the Ben Churcher, Academy Travel Cost: free life in ancient Greece Quadrangle Cost: free –– Sustaining the Seas Cost: free June 2018 Wednesday 9 May, 6pm All Nicholson Museum exhibitions Wednesday 11 April, 6pm Sydney and the birth of quantum – are ongoing. Illuminating the past: using vibrational astronomy Saturday 2 June, 2–3pm spectroscopy to unravel the hidden secrets Professor Peter Tuthill, Sydney Future The pursuit of Liberté: Australian Fisher Library March 2018 of objects Fellow, Institute of Astronomy artists in 1920s Paris* Sydney's women in the field: Dr Elizabeth Carter, Sydney Analytical Cost: free Dr Olivia Meehan, Academy Travel Phyllis Kaberry and the Abelam, – Cost: free Cost: free an exhibition commemorating the Saturday 3 March, 2–3pm Friday 18 May, 3.30-4.30pm UNESCO Memory of the World Bad Blood in Byblos: Politics and Murder Tuesday 17 April, 10am–4pm Connections Wednesday 20 June, 6pm listing of the anthropological in Mesopotamia* School holiday activity day: Funny faces – Dr James Fraser, Nicholson Museum Pompeiis of the Pacific: the materials in the Macleay Dr Louise Pryke, Macquarie University portraiture throughout history Free museum tour for International archaeology of volcanic disasters in collections and the University Cost: free Cost: free Museums Day Papua New Guinea Archives. Until August 2018. Cost: free Dr Robin Torrence, Australian Thursday 15 March, 5.30pm Monday 16 April, 6 for 6.30pm Museum Interlocutors in the archive: Aboriginal women The Genealogy of the Tyrant from Sophocles Wednesday 30 May, 6 for 6.30pm Cost: free and the collection of anthropological data and Aristotle to Shakespeare Some impressions of Greece Follow us on Twitter at Professor Jakelin Troy, University of Sydney Professor Edith Hall, Kings College London Candace Richards, Nicholson Museum Thursday 21 June, 6 for 6.30pm twitter.com/sydneyunimuseum Cost: free Cost: $40, $30 for Friends of the Nicholson Cost: free Turquoise Mosaics from Mexico: or find us on Facebook Museum and their guests, $10 for students. Putting the Aztecs Under the by searching for ‘Sydney Wednesday 21 March, 6 for 6.30pm Includes light refreshments. Microscope University Museums’. Latest research on Egyptian mummies at the Caroline Cartwright, British Museum British Museum Thursday 19 April, 10am–4pm Cost: $40, $30 for Friends of the Dr Marie Vandenbeusch, British Museum School holiday activity day: A Bug’s Life Nicholson Museum and their guests, All details are correct at Cost: $40, $30 for Friends of the Nicholson the time of publication, Cost: free $10 for students. Includes light however, events may change Museum and their guests, $10 for students. refreshments. due to circumstances Includes light refreshments. beyond our control. Please Thursday 26 April, 10am–4pm visit our website for Left: Seymchan meteorite, up‑to‑date information: School holiday activity day: Ancient Greece Magadan district, Russia, sydney.edu.au/museums Tuesday 27 March, 6pm Including the launch of Stella Tarakson’s SC2017.301 Antony and Cleopatra If you wish to contact children’s books Here Comes Hercules and *The 2018 Postcards Above: Botanical sample, Khus the Macleay Museum, the Dr Kathryn Welch, University of Sydney Hera’s Terrible Trap. from the Past free khus (Chrysopogon zizanioides), Nicholson Museum or the Saturday lecture SC1977.153.12 University Art Gallery, Cost: free Cost: free series is sponsored please see inside front by Academy Travel. cover for our details.

40 41 Free admission Until September 2018 transformation Omega: tales of and Alpha sydney.edu.au/museums Closed on public holidays. to 12 4pm month, each of Saturday First to 4.30pm to Friday, 10am Monday Opening hours: Sydney of University The The Quadrangle Nicholson Museum Collection. University Art Museum, the Macleay Museum the and illustrated with objects from the Nicholson from Roman Greek and mythology, and history 24 stories of transformation metamorphosis and The 24 letters of the introduce Greek alphabet

Mosaic of a peacock, 4th to 5th century AD, Sicily, Italy. Donated by Sir Charles Nicholson 1860, Nicholson Museum NMR.1062. photographer: Rowan Conroy