Garstang Museum

Museum

Explorer Tom

Garstang Museum sounds as though it might be waiting beside a Lancashire market square, but this one sits at 14 Abercromby Square in Liverpool with ancient worlds packed behind the door. Step in for archaeology from Egypt, Sudan and the Near East, then try telling a clay vessel it has travelled less than you have today. The museum belongs to the University of Liverpool and takes its name from archaeologist John Garstang. Its collection grew from excavations and study, giving visitors objects that once served ordinary life as well as ceremony. The displays make the gap between a carefully labelled find and a real human hand pleasantly small. No imaginary pharaoh needs to stride out of a cupboard to make these rooms interesting, though Tom will check the cupboard anyway. This is a working university collection, with researchers and students alongside public visitors. The university is improving parts of the museum: one gallery is temporarily closed while the rest remains open. That is worth knowing before you arrive with a plan to see every object. Look closely at the shapes, surfaces and repairs that photographs flatten; archaeology becomes much more personal when a pot has survived longer than most empires. The university currently opens the public museum on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and lists its Liverpool address on the visitor page. Check that page for any change during the improvement work. If your route brings you across Abercromby Square on another day, do not mistake the university frontage for a promise of entry. Come when its doors are open, give these ancient objects proper time, and let a small room outdistance your entire itinerary.