TLA Year 9 Book Club trip to Ashmolean Museum

The Year 9 Book Club spent a glorious sunny day in Oxford visiting not one, not two, but three museums! After parking the minibus at Trinity College (courtesy of Ms Smart’s string pulling!) we made the short walk to the Ashmolean Museum to visit the Labyrinth exhibition which is currently showing. This explores the ancient Cretan city of Knossos which was excavated over a period of several years at the start of the 20th Century by the Ashmolean’s Director at the time, Sir Arthur Evans. Knossos is renowned as the setting for the Greek legend of Theseus and the Minotaur. This myth is examined together with Evans’s excavation and reconstruction of the site, as well as with more recent discoveries from the site and its surroundings.

After an excellent lunch we waddled back up the road to the Oxford Museum of Natural History, and the Pitt Rivers Museum. These wonderful museums are housed in the same building. First you walk through the Museum of Natural History and marvel at Nature’s miracles – butterflies, birds, bugs, dinosaurs, rocks and minerals. Right at the back is a narrow arched doorway through which the incredible Wonder House that is the Pitt Rivers Museum can be found. Every case is literally crammed with objects from all over the world. The wooden cases and the tiny hand-written labels have been there so long that they themselves have become exhibits! Everything from masks, to weapons, to armour, to boats, to totem poles, to charms, to recycled objects. Sadly for those of a more gruesome turn of mind, the shrunken heads are no longer on display, but this did not stop us from enjoying a really fascinating day in Oxford and its museums!