The Australian National University’s Classics Museum is inconspicuous — housed in the heart of the university’s campus, just around the corner from Kambri. The 20th-century exterior is a stark contrast to the collection within, which boasts objects from Roman Britain, Europe, Northern Africa and the Near and Middle East.
Dr Georgia Pike-Rowney has been Lecturer in Classics and Curator of the Classics Museum since 2022. The dual role, she says, means more time can be spent engaging the collection with the wider community.
‘It’s an academic position that also works as a curatorial position. Mostly, in university contexts, collections are curated by professional staff—even though the collections are often used for research,’ says Dr Pike-Rowney.
‘Being able to combine those roles means there is even more of an opportunity to embed the collection into teaching, into research, making sure that it’s really working for our students and for the rest of the staff.’
The ANU Classics Museum was established with two objects in 1962 as a research collection. Now, it is home to 600 unique objects in addition to its hands-on teaching collection.
The legacy of Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke AO FAHA
In 2022, the Museum received a donation from AAH Fellow Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke AO (1934 – 2023), one of Australia’s most prominent classical scholars, of over 450 objects obtained from Jebel Khalid, Syria. Dr Pike-Rowney says Prof Clarke was an ‘oracle’ during her first few months stepping into the role of Curator of the Classics Museum.
‘The second day of my taking on this position, he came into my office and said, “I have some things for you”. In his office—that was bursting at the seams with books and boxes and things—were boxes and boxes of research material from Jebel Khalid,’ says Dr Pike-Rowney.
In 1986, Clarke was asked to join the University of Melbourne’s dig at El Qitar on the Syrian Euphrates, a salvage operation ahead of the flooding to be caused by the new Tishreen dam.
While in Syria, he studied and published inscriptions on early Christian tombs. In his search he wandered across a nearby plateau called Jebel Khalid and noticed a plethora of pottery on the surface.
Further excavations discovered the remains of Jebel Khalid, a Hellenistic fortress town on the edge of the Euphrates. Excavation ceased in 2010 and it did not recommence due to conflict in the region.
Several objects were brought back to Australia under a legal process, approved by the Syrian government which allowed archaeologists working on the sites to take some materials back to their country for further research. Several of these objects are now used for teaching and research in the “Graeme Clarke Hands-on Teaching Collection”, across classical studies, ancient languages, art history and archaeology.
‘I have a family connection to that site as well, which is really lovely. My father-in-law Barry Rowney—who I never got to meet because he died before I came along—did all the site drawings, and we now have those site drawings available to students,’ says Dr Pike-Rowney.
‘So, we can actually marry the material to the exact position on the site where that material came from.’
Combatting the illegal antiquities trade
The INTERPOL database of stolen works of art contains descriptions and pictures of over 52,000 items.
In 1984, an Attic black-figure amphora, previously known as the Johnson Vase, was purchased in good faith from Sotheby’s in London in honour of Professor Richard St Clair Johnson. In 2022, the Carabinieri identified the vase as a stolen artefact connected to an illegal antiquities dealer.
Further, an Apulian fish-plate, purchased in the same year, was found to be linked to David Holland Swingler, another well-known dealer of illicit antiquities.
Both items are currently undergoing restitution agreements between the Italian government and the ANU which will see the objects remain on loan in the Classics Museum for up to eight years. Another restitution case, of a marble portrait head, purchased in the 1960s, is ongoing between the Vatican and the Museum.
Dr Pike-Rowney says being open and transparent about the restitutions was an important step for the Classics Museum in taking accountability for its collection’s history and adds another layer to the complex job of managing modern museum collections.
Due to the sheer number of stolen objects in global collections, it is not possible for authorities to repatriate all pieces, and maintain the same quality of care.
‘I think it’s particularly important to have a dedicated position that focusses on the collection at ANU, in the current climate around antiquities and museums,’ says Dr Pike-Rowney.
‘There’s a lot we need to manage. There’s a heritage of problematic collecting histories that all museums are grappling with.’
Breathing new life into the museum
As the Museum shifts from acquiring “new” objects to interpreting and activating its current collection, Dr Pike-Rowney says the change is breathing a new life into the museum.
‘Originally our community of Friends of the Classics Museum was set up to raise money to buy ancient objects. We can’t do that anymore because we need to stop fuelling the illegal antiquities markets. Instead, we are finding other ways of thinking into about the museum and interpreting the objects in new and exciting ways,’ says Dr Pike-Rowney.
A recent exhibition, ARTefacts, co-curated with visual artist Julian Laffan, engaged five contemporary artists to interrogate conceptions of the classical world and classical studies.
Aidan Hartshorn, Julian Laffan, Robert Nugent, Susie Russell and Harriet Schwarzrock were asked to respond to an object from the Museum’s collection. The objects chosen included an Egyptian writing tablet, a bronze portrait head and a bronze spiral brooch.
The artists created works in a range of media and materials, including film, glass, wood and stone. Dr Pike-Rowney says the artworks, which were displayed in amongst the ancient collection, question traditional conceptions.
‘[Aidan Hartshorn] responded to our ancient coin collection with knapped stones. We’ve embedded them inside the case with the ancient coins. The pieces serve to evoke questions around colonial collecting processing and priorities,’ says Dr Pike-Rowney.
Hartshorn states in the exhibition’s catalogue that he uses gilded pieces to evoke the question: “‘If First Nations People of Australia utilised gold and other ‘precious’ materials, would we have been seen differently?’”
Engaging the Classics Museum with contemporary practice and politics, says Dr Pike-Rowney, provides a new way to examine the collection and engage students in social issues relevant to classical studies.
‘It’s all about looking at the ancient world through a contemporary lens. Contemporary classical studies encompasses exploring the problematic heritage of the discipline,’ says Dr Pike-Rowney.
One of the things Dr Pike-Rowney enjoys most about the museum is the sense of place it offers. ‘It’s in an old building, embedded in the middle of all the staff offices, where the students are coming past all the time,. The Museum is integral to the life of the department, and that’s quite rare.’
‘Because the offices are on the perimeter of this shared space, visitors to the museum often get to see the classicists and the archaeologists who work in this building go about their daily lives — there are hallway discussions and open doors. That’s special.”
