Masks and Totems

Nick's Sketch-book

To celebrate our joint birthdays, Nick and I decided on a cheap day out in Cambridge. We visited the Sedgewick Museum and the Muesum of Archaeology and Anthropology which are both situated among the labs and lecture theatres of the University, in Downing Street.

Totem

These places are so special; both of them have a Harry Potter feel about them; full of magic and mystery along with a few cobwebs. They are also free to visit and the staff are really helpful.

Tourist

The Sedgewick is a proper Victorian Museum, full of gem-stones and fossils, mostly in old wood-and-glass cabinets with printed signs in block letters, probably using the original blocks to print from. The galleries are an exhibit in themselves, but, look closer and this is a library of resources and wonderful objects. Some of the labels were put on by Charles Darwin himself when he collected the specimens on his voyages. His house was just around the corner.

Sailor

The Archaeology and Anthropology Museum's main gallery spans three floors with balconies at the upper levels. This is a good thing because a magnificent totem pole runs from bottom to top. There is also a library and a bright and a new, airy shop and gallery at the entrance where an exhibition on Tahiti is being prepared. When Darwin collected fossils, Captain Cook collected costumes and artefacts from around the Pacific and there are lots of them here. The museum mostly features the Pacific Rim because those were the areas that the first Cambridge ethnologists and anthropologists studied. They virtually invented anthropology here in Downing Street.

Nick homed in on masks with his pen and ink while I rushed around photographing everything that caught my eye. I think we both looked at the objects as works of art, not worrying too much about the context or even bothering to read the labels. After all, works like these inspired the modern art movement from Picasso onwards. But next time I'm going to home in on one topic and learn a bit about the culture in Tahiti, Borneo, Burma or New Guinea.

One thing particularly caught my eye. There on the top floor was the top of a deer skull, complete with antlers. Two eye-holes had been drilled in the skull to enable it to be worn as a mask and head-dress. It was from Stone-Age Britain. There was Herne The Hunter! It sent a shiver through me and I just kept going back to it.