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Profile on the Petrie Museum
23 October 2014
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, tucked away modestly on Malet Place, has more than 80,000 objects ranging from Prehistoric flints to contemporary art pieces, and is one of the greatest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology in the world.
The museum was originally founded by the eminent, and well bearded, professor of Egyptian Archaeology at UCL, Flinders Petrie. A host of influential UCL'ers developed the museum over the years including: Amelia Edwards (a famous author) who supported Petrie's excavations in 19th century, Margaret Murray (an alleged white-witch) the first female archaeology lecturer in the UK, and Sir Randolph Quirk (Professor of English literature at UCL) who reopened the museum in 1988 after a 2 year closure.
The museum is a resource for students to use and enjoy. Students from all departments are invited to browse the museum in a spare half hour and/or attend our events (mostly free!), and you can gain work experience through internships and volunteering. Our volunteering and internships cover conservation, museum skills and historical research, alongside finance, marketing and project management (opportunities and how to apply are on our website).
The collection is also used for teaching and research; UCL students can book research visits to see objects, use our historical archive or conduct public engagement activities alongside our specialist museum staff.
The Petrie has some world famous pieces, and was designated by the UK government as being 'of outstanding importance'. Most recently in the news were our meteoric beads - iron beads hammered from pieces of meteorite which are 5000 years old (and pre-date iron smelting by two millennia). The museum holds unique material from the time of Nefertiti and Akhenaten, the parents of Tutankhamun, papyrus fragments relating to Homer, medicine and law, and even ancient flip-flops.
At the Petrie you can enjoy a drink whilst rubbing shoulders (metaphorically) with pots and peers at our broad range of evening and day events. These include our unique Petrie Film Club, the only cinema club where the audience are surrounded by sound and shabtis, and our regular events ranging from Life Drawing in the galleries to Sand Dancing in the quad.
Just next door to the Science Library and open 1-5 Tuesday - Sat, why not pop in the next time revision is getting a little too tedious, or someone sets the fire alarm off.
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