UCD Classics Museum Trip 26.02.25

This week myself and some of the other newsroom members got the wonderful opportunity to visit the Classics Museum at UCD. We saw many ancient artifacts from a couple of different time periods such as ancient Greece and the Roman empire. 

Upon arrival, the class was greeted by one of the historians there at UCD. She started out by giving us a brief history on all the exhibits. Personally, I found it all very interesting and educational as we learned more and more about ancient Greek and roman life and craftsmanship. 

After the tour concluded, we were separated into two groups. One of them got to look around for themselves and read more about the artifacts at hand and the other was sat down and shown some real-life excavations. I found this very interesting and surreal as the items were passed around and you got to hold them and look at some of the everyday items that people during these periods of time used daily. These items included old Greek vases, plates, jewellery etc. 

Apart from all of this we were given an account of how the classics museum at UCD first came to be. According to staff, the classics museum was founded in 1910 by Henry Browne who thought it would be beneficial for students to have real life sources to help them in their studies. The museum was realised over a ten-year time-period and most of the excavations were gifted to Henry Browne by bigger museums at the time. The collection included Greek and roman vases, coins, pottery, glass and jewellery from daily life.

With all that being said, I really enjoyed this trip. I thought it to be very interesting and educational. I would recommend going if you are interested in seeing this for yourself. 

Thank you for reading.

Written by Mia Tabakova                                                 

Pictures by Elisa Dessena