VOICES IN THE GALLERY

In 2019 a group of students from Oxford Spires Academy visited the Ashmolean and explored the Ancient Near East Gallery. Watch the short films below to hear their responses to objects they discovered.

They each chose an object from the displays and then had the chance to handle it. The chosen objects included an ancient grinding stone, pottery bowl and a clay ornament in the shape of a fist. The students talked and wrote about their object, describing why they had chosen it and what it means to them. You can read their words in Gallery 19, or listen to their words in the videos below.

 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pIxV4LitFPo

Basalt grinding stone
9000-8000 BC
Abu Hureya, Syria
AN1978.441

 

Terracotta ceiling corbel
About 870 BC
Nimrud, Iraq
AN1951.50

 

Bowl
800 BC
Eastern Turkey or Armenia
AN1970.465

 

Pouring vessel
3000 – 2000 BC
Yortan, Turkey
AN1896-1908.AE.1208

 

Bowl
2800 – 2300 BC
Jericho, Palestine
AN1954.536

 

 

These videos were recorded and produced by Penny Boreham with post production by audio/video editor Simon Owen.

Photography by Ian Wallman.