Ethnography and Archaeology Collections
The University was regarded as an appropriate place to deposit archaeological and ethnographic objects at times when St Andrews lacked a museum. Thus it accumulated "curiosities" given by travellers or archaeological finds discovered by local residents. More recently, such material has also been acquired for teaching and research in related subject areas.
Ethnography
History
The University has been accumulating items of material culture from overseas for centuries. In the 18th century such objects were displayed in the University Library as "curiosities". Many ethnographic items were also collected in the 19th century by members of the St Andrews Literary and Philosophical society. The Hindu sculpture illustrated here arrived in St Andrews in 1839. It has, by tradition been associated with the invention of the rubber golf ball, because it was supposed to have been packed in gutta percha.
Other collections
The collections surviving today are small, but international, including objects form every continent. The bronze Chinese handbell on the left is 19th Century. The deity shown on the right is Durga, the fierce form of the Hindu mother goddess, presented by Augustus Clifford Bell (1832-74), chaplain of St Andrew's Church, Madras, 1860-74.
Professor Ladislav Holy
A number of the African items in our collections were collected by Ladislav Holy, Professor of Social Anthropology, 1987-97. This Diviner's Wand belonged to a Toka tribesman (Kaloma district of Zambia).
Archaeology
History
The archaeological collections formerly owned by the University and displayed in the Archaeological Museum in the 1970s were subsequently transferred to the St Andrews Museum and the National Museum of Scotland. However, some items were retained, including a large collections of flints found by Armand Donald Lacaille.
Cypriot collection
The University has a fine collection of Cypriot antiquities given by Mrs Margaret Bridges. Shown right is a Terracotta figurine of horse and rider, Iron age, about 750-475 BC. The red painted plank-shaped idol with halo on the left is Bronze Age, about 1900-1650 BC.
