Current exhibitions at the Nicholson Museum

Egyptians, gods and mummies: Travels with Herodotus

In about 450 BC the Greek travel writer Herodotus went to Egypt. He journeyed throughout the Delta, up the Nile as far as Elephantine, and headed into the desert towards Giza to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx. They were already, in his day, 2000 years old.

He also visited the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis. A granite column capital from this temple (pictured), weighing 3.4 metric tonnes, will be the centrepiece of the exhibition, on display in the Nicholson Museum for the first time. On either side of the Hathor capital is the carved head of the goddess Hathor.

The exhibition looks at Egypt through the eyes of Herodotus. Mummified cats, birds and crocodiles will be on display, plus three of the Nicholson's mummies.

From 26 August 2009

Click here for a review of the exhibition published in The Australian

The Sky's the Limit: Astronomy in Antiquity

How did the ancient Egyptians know when the Nile was about to flood? Why was Stonehenge built? How did the ancient Greeks know when to plough their fields? Which zodiac sign did Augustus use to legitimise his rule?

The answers were in the sky.

The sun, moon, stars and planets and their movements were of great significance to the people of the past. Their religious beliefs and ritual activities regularly involved the movement of the sun, moon and stars. Beliefs grew of peoples’ destiny being told in the sky: the zodiac and horoscopes were developed. The movements helped to signal regular events and, with devices such as the Antikythera Mechanism, these were systematised into the calendar that we still use. The philosophical reasoning and the scientific investigations and instruments that have helped to explain the world from Aristotle to Galileo, provide a continuum of human investigation and discovery.

3 May til June 2010

Image: Silver Denarius of Augustus.
Reverse with Capricorn holding a globe and bearing a cornucopiae.
After 27 B.C.
Macquarie University Museum of Ancient Cultures. C.21

Charles Nicholson: Man and Museum

Sir Charles Nicholson (1808-1903) was both a man of his time, and in many ways, ahead of his time. Serving as Vice-Provost from 1851 to 1854 and Provost (Chancellor) from 1854 to 1862, he played an important role in establishing the University of Sydney and developing its cultural and artistic life.

This exhibition features a selection of his extraordinary benefaction of art and antiquities to the University. On the 200th anniversary of Nicholson's birth, Man and Museum celebrates his life and achievments, and the legacy he left for future generations in the shape of the Nicholson Museum.

To December 2010

Classical Fantasies:The Age of Beauty

The re-discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 1730s and the subsequent rise of Neo-Classicism in the second half of the 18th century, the Classical past became a powerful influence on thought and the material appearance of the everyday world.

The Classical Fantasies exhibition traces the development of Neo-Classicism through some of the leading figures of the movement, such as the art historian Johann Winckelmann, the collectors and commoisseurs Sir William Hamilton and Charles Townley, the antiquarian Baron d'Hancarville, the architect Piranesi, the patron Thomas Hope, the great mad of letters Johann von Goethe, and the artist Wilhelm Tischbein.

Until December 2010

Image: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema The Pottery Workshop 1871 (detail). Copyright Manchester City Art Gallery.