Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
University of Michigan
The Kelsey Museum collections contain approximately 98,500 archaeological artifacts and works of ancient art, as well as extensive field records and photographic archives. The bulk of these collections come from excavations conducted by the University in the 1920's and 1930's.
At the heart of the museum's collections are the excavated materials from Karanis, a Graeco-Roman farming town site in the Fayoum district of Egypt. Excavated from 1924 to 1935, the site yielded artifacts which document the lives of the common people of agrarian Egypt under Roman rule from about 200 BC to 500 AD. The 45,000 artifacts from Karanis that were assigned to the University by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization include approximately 3500 textiles, 1800 pottery vessels, pottery lamps, many intact glass vessels, more than 30,000 coins, numerous agricultural implements, woodworking and weaving tools, baskets, sandals, sculptures, toys and other objects of daily life.
Forty tombs at Terenouthis, a cemetery site in the Egyptian Delta, were excavated in 1935. More than 2000 objects including almost 200 limestone grave stelae, hundreds of coins, terracotta figurines, mummy amulets, wall paintings, pottery and jewelry give a unique glimpse of Egyptian religion from about 300 BC through 300 AD. Another major site, Seleucia-on-the-Tigris in Iraq, was the source of nearly 10,000 artifacts. Excavated from 1928 to 1937, this collection contains principally pottery, coins, terracotta figurines, beads, carved architectural fragments, bronze, bone and gold items.
In addition to the excavated materials from these and other sites, numerous purchases and gifts of related materials comprise collections of Late Antique textiles (c. 1700 examples), Islamic textiles (c. 300), Roman glass (c. 1000), Latin inscriptions (c. 650), Dynastic Egyptian and Cypriot antiquities, Mesopotamian and Babylonian seals and tablets, architectural marbles (c. 1250), Greek and Roman pottery (c. 1700), and fine art albumen photographs (c. 10,000). The collections also encompass a photographic archive which includes approximately 20,000 documentary photographs of the Mediterranean area and the University's excavations, as well as several hundred linear feet of written archives.
