Mummies come to the Ashmolean Museum

Its been mentioned on here before that we do love wondering around the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. A £5million project has just been completed to house 6 new galleries on Ancient Egypt and Nubia so we went along to take a look. It was really excellent, the detail and explanations were fascinating.

 Charlotte loved seeing all the mummies on display, bit worrying when she asked if they could be unwrapped though. She wanted to learn about the process of wrapping the body, and there was really detailed area on this, about parts of the body being removed and going into Canopic jars and the heart being replaced before the body is wrapped. There were also amulets on display and this got Charlotte thinking about about things that would be special to her.

The was a large Shrine of Taharqa from the temple at Kawa, the only complete free-standing pharaonic building in Britain, which you could walk all the way around and study the intricate drawings.
There was so much to see, being the first day open it was busy but we will be going back soon to take another look on a quieter day.
The Ashmolean has also been listed in the top 20 most popular free destinations in England, and the most visited outside of London. This is a must see place.

Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford

We have visited the Ashmolean on a few occasions since its re-opening in 2009, but they have only been very quick visits so decided to dedicate a few hours to going round and seeing everything. Or should that be everything at 3 year old standards which involved very fast walking round the museum twice, and every time we stopped for a whats that, just as I would read the blurb out she would speed onto the next thing.
The Ashmolean isn't much of a hands-on museum, there are a few areas for children to have a go though, but its  more a look at and study so not good for those children who need to touch everything. Would be very good for linking with school projects for older children.

I think Charlotte enjoyed it, she went round enough times and didn't show any sign of slowing down. we do seem to get a little lost each time we go, and seem to find rooms we haven't seen before, makes it all the more interesting. We stopped for a long time at the statues, she loves statues. There is quite a bit of open space and lifts to all floors so suitable for pushchairs, the open spaces created in the central areas make it much less of a stuffy museum, but in great contrast other areas are designed like state rooms which shows off the art work. A lot of thought has been put into how objects should be displayed to great effect.

There is a very popular cafe downstairs and rooftop restaurant. All in all a great place to go to get away from the British weather, its free and right in the centre of oxford so close to all the shops/restaurants/cafes. There are regular family friendly events and also activity sheets to keep children amused, so even those need to touch everything kids can do something.
http://www.ashmolean.org/