The Nicholson Museum will be closed from Monday 6 July to Saturday 11 July for the installation of the Hathor head capital which will form part of the new exhibition Egyptians, Gods and Mummies: Travels with Herodotus. This exhibition will officially open on August 26.

Current exhibitions at the Nicholson Museum

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 December 2009

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 2009

Classical Fantasies:The Art of South Italy

The re-discovery of Pompeii in 1748 and the publication of Johann Winckelmann’s The History of Ancient Art in 1764 defined art history and archaeology as we know them today. This reawakening of the
Classical Ideal (or Neo-Classicism) was to influence art, literature, architecture, furniture and fashion design as well as people such as Josiah Wedgwood and Goethe.

Classical Fantasies will use the Nicholson Museum’s complete collection of over 200 South Italian figured pots from the 5th–3rd centuries BC as a backdrop to explore this extraordinary period in the development of modern culture.

Nicholson Museum
To July 2009

The opening of Classical Fantasies: The Age of Beauty - From Naples to Capri advertised for 25th February has been postponed. Classical Fantasies:The Art of South Italy will continue to July 2009.