ListenThe antique collection contains around 4000 objects by cultures from countries around the Mediterranean during the time of Antiquity. The collection consists above all of Greek and Roman ceramics, bronze figurines and terracotta, Greek and Latin inscriptions, antique coins and plaster copies of antique sculptures.
Antique objects were in the possession of the university as early as the 19th century. In connection with the establishment of a professorship in classical archaeology in 1909 a collection of antique objects began to be built up more methodically. The purpose of this was to use them in teaching. The first time, the collection was discussed officially was in 1913. At that time, it was kept at the home of Professor Sam Wide. The objects did not have their own premises yet, but in 1920 the Gustavianum was taken over and the collection could grow. Antique objects from the university's Museum of Nordic archaeology and Art collections were transported to the antique collection. The National Museum of Stockholm also deposited a number of objects.
The number of objects over the years has increased, above all through donations and gifts and only in rare cases, through purchase. Many of the objects have been donated by Swedish researchers who have carried out excavations in different Mediterranean countries. Around the middle of the 1930s the collections increased in part with objects from the Swedish Cyprus expedition, and also with material from excavations in Asine which contained approximately 25 tonnes of archaeological material. The latter material constitutes its own collection, the Asine collection.
The general public had the opportunity to see the ancient objects after 1955 when a completely new and permanent exhibition was opened at the Gustavianum. It was also in connection with this that the epithet Antique Collection became the official name. In 1985 approximately further 15 tonnes of archaeological material from Cyprus was added to the Antique Collection when material from Arne Furumark’s excavations in Sinda at the end of the 1940s was donated to Uppsala University.
The collections are important resources for students and researchers, both from our own university and from other universities in and outside of Sweden.