The Museum of Classical Archaeology is one of the least known museums in Cambridge. Run by the Faculty of Classics of the University of Cambridge since 1983, it is located in a purpose-built gallery on the first floor of the Faculty of Classics on the Sidgwick Site of the University. Unfortunately it is hard to find due to lack of signage and several times I have arranged to meet my art students there and they are late and frustrated as they have spent time trying to find it.

Once inside, the museum is worth the effort. It is full of white casts of heroic figures that used to adorn public buildings. The collection spans the length and breadth of the Graeco-Roman world and covers a time period reaching from 1700 BCE to 400 CE.

Outside the university term time the museum is quiet and only a few visitors find their way in but during term time you might stumble into an informative lecture given by learned professors. Several times I have been there drawing and a tutor and their student/s have arrived and I can overhear how their essays are progressing which I find fascinating.

The drawings above are of the gorgeous Mattel Amazon and looking out of the window past the plaster cast heads.