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Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford

This wonderful museum houses ‘one of the world’s finest collections of anthropology and archaeology’. Indeed one gets the impression that most of the half million items in the Museum - based on the collection of General Pitt Rivers that he gave to the University of Oxford in 1884 - are on display in the dark and hugely atmospheric galleries. Many of the quirky labels are those of the original curator - and look decidedly ancient! (Written by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

Figurines depicting nahual, fertility, ballgame... (Click on image to enlarge)

Nosing around is fun (and free!), and if you’re on the look-out for items from Mexico, you won’t be disappointed. We spotted, on a quick scout-around:-
• A large display of Mexican and Guatemalan folk masks
• A human-size stone Huastec fertility statue
• A small pottery ballgame figurine
• A small pottery woman-carrying-her-’nahual’ (animal companion spirit)-figurine
• Lots of small Aztec and other pre-Hispanic figurines
• A miniature metate grinding stone
• A Zapotec funerary urn
• A man’s leather ranchero costume dating from at least 1856
• A fascinating range of miniature implements used in ancient Mexican gambling games - including several ‘patole sticks’...

Photos by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore, with help from Randy Vaughn-Dotta.

This article was uploaded to the Mexicolore website on Jun 05th 2016

Pitt Rivers Museum website