- Apply
- Adult learning courses
- Housing or Council Tax Benefits
- Allotments
- Jobs at the Council
- Bus pass
- Library membership
- Carer's assessment
- Licences
- Council housing services
- Planning applications
- Council tax and business rates
- Register for My Account
- Disabled parking
- Rubbish and recycling services
- Free school meals
- School places
- HMO licence
- Social services assistance
- HomeChoice Bristol
- Pay
- Report
- Abandoned property
- Housing repairs
- Benefits fraud
- Litter and street sweeping
- Complaints, compliments and comments
- Missed bin collections
- Concerns about a child
- Planning and building control reports
- Domestic violence
- Problems in my area
- Flyposting and graffiti
- Problems with roads, pavements and drains
- Freedom of information
- Taxi complaints
- Harassment and hate crime
- My Account
You are here
On this page:
What is ethnography and foreign archaeology?
Ethnography, in museums, is the study of the material culture, that means everyday things, of people from all over the world. It is a branch of anthropology - the study of people and their cultures. Ethnographic collections in British museums usually contain objects from non-western cultures.
The foreign archaeology collection includes Egyptian, Meditteranean, Greek, Roman, Assyrian, Mycenean, and near East objects.
The Ethnography and Foreign Archaeology department also has responsibility for the Bomford Glass collection; coins and medals, historic maps, and militaria.
What is on display?
At Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, there is an Egypt gallery, large Assyrian reliefs and gallery featuring archaeology and ethnography called 'Curiosity'. It features objects from Oceania, South America, Africa, New Zealand, Egypt, and Greece. There's a small display of Mexican antiquities on display on the ground floor of the museum, some maps and African pots around the front balcony, and a medal and some coins in the Silver Gallery. There are two Inuit polar bear figurines in a case about global warming on the ground floor. There will also be objects from the collection in M Shed.
What's in store?
Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives Ethnography collection includes material from the Americas, Africa and the Pacific. There are about 10,000 ethnography objects ranging from tiny pottery beads to full-size native American canoes, from huge bark-cloth masks from Papua New Guinea to a ball of string from the Congo. There are painted coats from Canada, a quilted horse armour from Nigeria and initiation costumes from South Africa.
The collections reflect domestic life (such as cooking equipment, furniture) work (agricultural tools, weaving equipment), technology (metal-working tools), ritual (power figures, masks, medicine) and the different stages of life, from baby carriers to toys to funerary masks. The museum also has the very important collection of paintings made at ancient sites in Mexico by Miss Adela Breton, a Victorian traveller, archaeologist and artist.
Most of the Ethnography collection reflects Britain's colonial past. To balance this, and bring the collections up to date, we are collecting modern items that reflect life in the late 20th and 21st centuries.
The Foreign Archaeology collection also contains about 10,000 objects. Most of these are Egyptian.There are about 300 wall paintings from the tomb of Sety I, as re-opened by Belzoni in 1817. Many of them have been conserved and digitised.
You can now search the digitised collection online. Not everything has been recorded yet so new records and photos will be available over the coming years.
What's new?
Among the new acquisitions are knitted hats from Bolivia and Peru, baskets from Zimbabwe, pottery, plastic religious items and tinware from Mexico, resist-dyed fabrics from Nigeria, a plastic water-pot from Guatemala, gin from Mozambique (in a recycled lemonade bottle), tableware from Tbilisi in Georgia, a machete from Nicaragua and a 'phone card from Antigua. The most recent additions are: a large collection of material from Papua New Guinea, weaving equipment from a co-operative in Guatemala, including natural plant dyes; "Day of the Dead" figurines from Mexico; and a velvet and gold mourning dress from Nigeria. This is a collection that is growing, not one that stopped at the end of the Empire.
Why keep it now?
The collections are a valuable resource for the public, staff, students, archaeologists and researchers. They are studied along with other museum collections and excavations to build up a better picture of the past. New discoveries and interpretation of the collection are made all the time. This information is then added to object records so eventually there should be lots more information about everything.
The Bomford Collection
The collection comprises ancient and Roman glass vessels and other glass objects assembled by James Bomford between 1960 and 1978. It was purchased by the City Museum in 1978 with the aid of grants from the National Arts Collections Fund, the Victoria & Albert Purchase Grant Fund and through individual and company sponsorship. A fund-raising campaign organised by Mr A.C.V. Telling of the H.A.T. Group of Companies attracted substantial donations from many quarters including the City of Hannover, one of Bristol's twin towns.
The collection demonstrates the early history of glass, its evolution and technology. It contains many forms made in the Roman world between about 1500 BC and 500 AD. Some of the early pieces are very rare, whilst others display great technical expertise and beauty. The Bomford Collection is available to browse online.
Contact
Anyone can see the collections behind the scenes by making an appointment. The archaeology staff run a monthly object enquiry service, bookable at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery reception. You can also search the collections online.
For further information please contact:
Sue Giles
Senior Collections Officer - World Cultures
Tel: 0117 922 2635
Email: sue.giles@bristol.gov.uk
