Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Cambridge's archaeology and world-cultures museum, free to enter, with Pacific, Torres Strait and local collections.
MAA stands on the Downing Site, where Downing Street meets Tennis Court Road. By its own count it holds a million artefacts spanning two million years of human history. Some of the collection is local, found in the Cambridge area, and the rest is archaeology and ethnography from around the globe.
How it grew
Founded in 1884 under the name Museum of General and Local Archaeology, it started with finds gathered by the Cambridge Antiquarian Society and Pacific objects donated by two collectors, Alfred Maudslay and Sir Arthur Gordon. Its first curator, Anatole von Hugel, added his own South Pacific collection. Members of the 1898 Torres Strait expedition brought back more, and urged their students to go on collecting during fieldwork. In 1913 the museum transferred to the Downing Street building it still uses, and objects from Cook's three voyages were deposited or donated in the 1910s and 1920s. The Grade II listed building incorporates a section of choir screen designed by Inigo Jones for Winchester Cathedral. Refurbishment finished in 2013.
Inside
Displays are arranged over three floors: archaeology of Cambridge and temporary exhibitions on the ground floor, anthropology above, then world archaeology at the top. The Anglo-Saxon bed burial found at Trumpington is on the ground floor, and Aboriginal spears from Cook's first voyage, which belong to Trinity College, are shown here.
Practical notes
Entry is free. Opening is Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 17:00, and Sunday, 12:00 to 17:00. A party of ten or more should email ahead. The Museum of Zoology and the Sedgwick Museum are nearby.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
