Ashmolean Museum

Ashmolean Museum Our world famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time.

This gold disc is one of the earliest recorded finds of a prehistoric artefact.It was unearthed at Ballyshannon in Irela...
02/06/2026

This gold disc is one of the earliest recorded finds of a prehistoric artefact.

It was unearthed at Ballyshannon in Ireland, probably sometime in the 1680s, and is illustrated in the 1695 edition of William Camden’s Britannia. It was found by men looking for a place described in an old Irish song where 'a man of a gigantick stature' was buried with gold ornaments.

The disc is made of a thin sheet of beaten gold, and has raised decoration (repoussé) of a cross-shape surrounded by circles and geometric patterns. Objects such as this are known as 'sun-discs' and are one of the earliest forms of sheet gold work found in Britain and Ireland, dating to around 2500–2100 BCE in the Early Bronze Age.

Sun-discs may have been worn on clothing, and are often found singly or in pairs in burials.

See this object on display in Gallery 17, Level G.

🌞 Ballyshannon Disc, 2500–2150 BCE, Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland. Gold, 5.5cm diameter. AN1836.p139.372

This unusual collection of weird and wonderful creatures is typical of the comical and bizarre subjects that flourished ...
01/06/2026

This unusual collection of weird and wonderful creatures is typical of the comical and bizarre subjects that flourished in eighteenth-century Indian painting.

The fantastical figures combine comedy and a touch of horror, featuring human, bird, fish, reptile and insect elements, as well as demons and dragons. It was perhaps composed by a court painter.

🖼️ Animal grotesques, mid-18th century, Punjab Hills. Gouache on paper, 14.9 x 25.1 cm. EA1958.130

Imagine Excel but 5000 years ago…Early tablets like this one were used for administrative purposes to record the storage...
30/05/2026

Imagine Excel but 5000 years ago…

Early tablets like this one were used for administrative purposes to record the storage and distribution of goods, animals and people.

This tablet comes from Jemdet Nasr, the remains of an ancient site in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

Tablets such as this list quantities of different commodities using an early form of the cuneiform script, and the circles and half circles that you can see across the document indicate numerals.

This tablet is known as the ‘field of the EN’. It contains calculations for the areas of five fields. The scribe added these figures together and divided the grand total into thirds. Two thirds were allocated to a person called the EN, which is Sumerian for 'lord', while the remaining third was divided unevenly among other individuals, including the wife of the EN. It clearly reflects a hierarchical society, with EN as a leading figure.

See it on display in Gallery 19, Level G.

📝 Tablet with calculation and addition of the areas of five fields, 3200–2900 BCE. Clay 5.2 x 8.4 x 1.5 cm. AN1926.583

Rose-mania 🌹Henri Fantin-Latour created some 800 floral paintings over 30 years, from the 1860s. His careful arrangement...
29/05/2026

Rose-mania 🌹

Henri Fantin-Latour created some 800 floral paintings over 30 years, from the 1860s. His careful arrangements and skilfully studied blossoms were much admired by the British.

Most of his flower studies were displayed in Victorian interiors.

By the late 19th century, Britain was rivalling France as the world’s leader in rose
cultivation. Victorian society was also in the grip of ‘rose-mania’!

See this work as part of In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World, open until 16 August 2026: https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/in-bloom-how-plants-changed-our-world

🏛️ Ashmolean Members go for free.

💐 Still Life of Pink, White and Yellow Roses, Henri Fantin-Latour (1836 - 1904), 1894. Oil on canvas. WA1937.105

This beautiful dish dates from c.1490. It depicts a crane flying against a floral background, and measures 35cm in diame...
28/05/2026

This beautiful dish dates from c.1490. It depicts a crane flying against a floral background, and measures 35cm in diameter.

The Timurid period, c.1370–1507, was one of the most vibrant periods of Islamic art. Its founder, Timur, also known in Europe as Tamerlane, brought many different craftsmen to his empire's capital from conquered lands. This greatly enriched the artistic production associated with Timurid patronage, especially in spheres like architecture, manuscripts and decorative arts.

🪶 Dish with flying crane against a floral background, c.1490. Fritware, 37cm diameter. EA1978.1605

While about the size of a real mouse, this bronze one actually weighs at least three times as much, clocking in at over ...
27/05/2026

While about the size of a real mouse, this bronze one actually weighs at least three times as much, clocking in at over 60 grams. 💪

🐭Figurine of a mouse, Roman Period 30 BCE–395CE. Find spot, Egypt. Copper alloy, 5cm length. AN1933.696

This majestic lion is a rare example of ancient Egyptian sculpture in clay. It was found with a cache of royal sculpture...
23/05/2026

This majestic lion is a rare example of ancient Egyptian sculpture in clay. It was found with a cache of royal sculpture in the temple enclosure at Hierakonpolis.

In Egyptian mythology, paired lions often served as the guardians of entrances, and sculpted lions performed the same function in temples. This example may have had a companion (the excavators found fragments of another pottery lion elsewhere at the site) and the two probably served as guardians within the temple precinct.

Meet this watchful lion in Gallery 23 on Level G.

🦁Lion statue, c. 2325–2175 BCE. Find spot, Hierakonpolis. Clay, 41.2 cm (height). AN1896-1908.E.189

📚 What book are you currently reading?Woman reading at a window, 1913, Albert André (1869–1954). Oil on canvas, 61 x 50c...
22/05/2026

📚 What book are you currently reading?

Woman reading at a window, 1913, Albert André (1869–1954). Oil on canvas, 61 x 50cm. WA1937.34

It’s World Bee Day! 🐝The prosperous ancient city of Ephesus adopted the bee as the design on one of its coins.Ephesus wa...
20/05/2026

It’s World Bee Day! 🐝

The prosperous ancient city of Ephesus adopted the bee as the design on one of its coins.

Ephesus was home to the temple of Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting, wilderness and wild animals. The high priest of the temple was known as the ‘king bee’ and the priestesses were known as ‘melissae’ (honey bees).

This silver coin was a Tetradrachm, meaning a four drachm piece, and would have represented about a week’s wage. It dates back to around 650 BCE–297 CE and was minted in Ephesus.

The obverse (front) inscription ΕΦ[ΕΣΙΩΝ] stands for ‘coin of the Ephesians’. The reverse of the coin shows a stag, which relates to Artemis, emphasising the importance of her cult for ancient Ephesus, and a palm tree to the left.

See it on display in Gallery 7, Level -1.

🐝 Ancient Greek silver coin, 650 BCE – 297 CE. Silver, 24mm (diameter). HCR5273

To celebrate this year’s Chelsea Flower Show we are sharing a selection of blooms from our current major exhibition, In ...
19/05/2026

To celebrate this year’s Chelsea Flower Show we are sharing a selection of blooms from our current major exhibition, In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World.

Do you have a favourite?

To purchase tickets for the exhibition and see these artworks in person, visit our website: https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/in-bloom-how-plants-changed-our-world

🌻 Annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus), Everard Kick & Daniel Frankcom, from the Florilegium, commissioned by Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, 1703, bound volume with watercolours © The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, Badminton Estate, Gloucestershire

💙 The Blue Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea), James Caldwell after Philip Reinagle, from Robert J. Thornton’s The Temple of Flora 1798–1810, bound volume with coloured engravings © The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, CR.L.50, p.247

🌷A Vase of Flowers, c.1609, Ambrosius Bosschaert (1573–1621). Oil on copper, 37.5 x 26.9 cm. WA1940.2.15

🩷 Duncan Grant, Hollyhock, Charleston, Kate Friend, 2019, C-type print. Courtesy of the artist & Lyndsey Ingram

🍌 Banana blossom with life stages of the Bullseye moth, illustration from 'Metamorphosis of Surinam's Insects', by Maria Sibylla Merian, 1726, coloured engraving © Bodleian Libraries

🦋 A 'Forest Floor' Still Life of Flowers, 1687 Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750). Oil on canvas, 47 x 40 cm. WA1940.2.64

🌿 Spotted Arum (Arum dioscoridis), Ferdinand Bauer, 1788-1794, watercolour on paper for John Sibthorps’s Flora Graeca © Sherardian Library, Bodleian Libraries, MS. Sherard 245, fol. 56

💛 Study of a Yellow Rose, Rory McEwen, 1977, watercolour on vellum © Rory McEwen, courtesy of the Shirley Sherwood Collection

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