The Department of Classical Studies at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, holds an archaeological study collection consisting of more than 500 ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman artefacts, most of which were acquired in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the early years of the University’s existence. The collection includes pottery, weapons, jewellery, metal tools, stone tools, marble sculptures, Egyptian faience objects and Roman frescoes. The great variety of types of objects, materials and chronological span in the collection holds great potential for communicating modern narratives about ancient everyday life, religion, art and craftsmanship. Nowhere else on Funen can a collection of archaeological artefacts of such considerable size and variety be found, and on a national scale, the only other Danish university with a study collection of Greco-Roman antiquities is the . In recent years, there has been an explicit goal for the objects to be made available to students, researchers and the wider public, in order for the collection to reach its full potential as an outstanding specimen for the study of Greco-Roman antiquity and the influences and traces that it has left in our modern world. In other words: it is time to bring the collection into the light!
The project Antikken skal frem i lyset på Fyn! has been made possible through generous grants from the Augustinus Foundation, the Beckett Foundation and the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation and has been carried out in a collaboration between the University of Southern Denmark and Museum Odense. 