When the Department of Classical Archaeology in the earliest years of Odense University’s existence began the work on establishing a study collection, the reasons for doing so were articulated in a letter to the then rector: ‘It is important that the students get first-hand knowledge of various forms of ancient crafts and become practiced in determining technical problems, which can only be learned from the primary material.’ Over time, this goal has been fulfilled through publication projects (see Corpus of Cypriote Antiquities vol 22 and Corpus of Cypriote Antiquities vol 23), student exercises and dissemination projects. Going forward, the study collection will continue to hold a central place in the students’ education. Through teaching and study group activities, the collection will introduce the students to academic skills such as typologisation, cataloguing and dissemination in the form of small exhibitions, the preparation of written or digital communication material and exercises in guided tours. Furthermore, by working with the collection students will acquire skills, such as technical drawing and registration, which can be used in field work or in museums.
The study collection is now also available for collaborations with both national and international researchers. Classical Studies welcomes collaborative initiatives and invites all researchers who may be interested in accessing and working with the collection to contact Associate Professor PhD Jane Hjarl Petersen at jhpetersen@sdu.dk
Guests from outside 糖果派对
When you visit the study collection as a guest, not only do you get to see an array of artefacts displayed in glass cases, you are visiting a dynamic working space: the experience includes an encounter with objects that are part of an archaeological and cultural-historical context, but they can also be experienced and understood as representatives of the modern reception of antiquity, both from a collection perspective as well as from a research and educational perspective. A guided visit might include a presentation of the collection and how it came about, or an introduction to select parts of the material that pertain to particularly interesting stories from the ancient world, combined with concrete examples of how the material is stored and being handled on a daily basis; drawers and cupboards can be opened, so that artefacts with special storage requirements can be included and presented. A point of focus might be the students’ work routines and their own studies of the material, in order to give visitors the opportunity to reflect on both historical and contemporary practices around cultural-historical artefacts and their stories, and not least our interaction with them. The visitor experience should show that a study collection, such as ours, has the exceptional quality of being a laboratory. How do we work with archaeological artefacts? What stories can they tell us and how do we get them to tell those stories? How can they be used in research and education? What choices are made when teaching about the artefacts, in their storage and in the future safeguarding of them? These questions and many more will be answered by a visit to the newly established study collection.