Last chance to see some of our Ice Age treasures as we say a fond farewell for a few exciting years building our new Museum Hello Future! The ancient worlds galleries will close at the end of September 2018, as we transform into a natural history museum during the building work.
British Ice Age fossils including mammoth, hyena, bear and hippo formed the core of the Museum’s collection in the 1880s and 1890s when sites such as Creswell Crags were being excavated. They have been key to understanding where and how Neanderthals and other early humans lived in Britain during a period of rapid climate change during the Last Ice Age around 200,000 years ago. They continue to help us understand how our climate changed in the past, how people adapted and survived as animals migrated in and out of Britain and how we might adapt to future climate change.
Although some of our Ice Age Treasures will be resting from display for the next few years, they are still available by appointment and we still have our fabulous Fossils Gallery open as usual alongside a host of exciting events. Exciting times ahead!
I have just returned from a really interesting visit to the Palaon museum and Science Centre, Germany. We had loaned them our Sabre tooth cat tooth (now classified as a scimitar toothed cat) found at Creswell Crags for their Cats exhibition which has recently finished.
Manchester Museum’s Sabre Tooth Cat tooth (now classified as a scimitar toothed cat) found at Creswell Crags alongside Palaon’s reconstruction
The tooth is a really important part of the story of the last Ice Age in Europe as one of the northern-most records alongside Neanderthal remains. It’s been great to loan it out so a new audience can see it and share Manchester Museum’s amazing Ice Age fossil collection.
Palaon Museum and Science Centre
It was also a great opportunity to see an amazing new museum, particularly has we are changing to becoming the UK’s most imaginative, inclusive and caring museum: hello future. Palaon is famous as the site where the worlds oldest wooden weapons and tools have been found. They are around 300,000 years old and were preserved in anoxic lake sediments above what is now an abandoned open-cast coal pit.
300,000 year old wooden spears used by Neanderthals to hunt horses
modified tools, probably used as handles for flint knives
Not only are these incredible tools preserved when they would usually have rotted away, but there is an incredible array of amazing Ice Age animals preserved too. Everything from lions to spectacularly preserved horses that the Neanderthals had been hunting 300,000 years ago.
A selection of exceptionally preserved horse skulls, hunted by the Neanderthals
I’d describe Palaon as a mix between Creswell Crags, La Brea Tar pits and the Guggenheim. An incredible mix of world class collections, a stunning building and amazing museum, well worth a visit.
One of my highlights from the first episode of the stunning new BBC Civilizations series (available on BBC iPlayer) was Simon Schama’s visit to Petra.
Image Wikipedia Berthold Werner
This beautiful building, created during the 4th century Nabataean Kingdom was only possible because of the the properties of the sandstone it is carved into.
Most buildings are made from rock that has been excavated, shaped into blocks which are then stacked to make walls. Petra is different, the columns, doors and rooms have all been excavated from the bedrock in the side of the gorge.
The orange-brown sandstone at Petra was formed over a range of different time periods (from the Cambrian to the Upper Cretaceous) and was formed in a variety of different conditions from desert to shallow seas. The distinctive colour comes from the iron minerals that have reacted with oxygen forming the rusty-red.
Sand from Petra
The sandstone is very similar to the Triassic sandstone found in Cheshire and north-west England. This formed during desert conditions. The remains of the sand dunes can still be seen where the rock is exposed at the Stockport railway viaduct (on the M60) and the railway cutting going into Liverpool Limestreet station.
So what made it possible to create this building at Petra?
Not too hard, not too soft
Like the story of the Three Bears and the porridge, the sandstone here is just right. The strength and hardness come from how strong the cement is that holds the grains together to form the rock.
Too soft and it crumbles into sand. Softer parts of this sandstone have eroded away over the years and now form much of the sand of the Arabian Desert. Too hard and it is difficult to chisel out to form features (such as the details at the top of the columns) and rooms.
Strength
In contrast to buildings made from blocks of rock, Petra is pretty strong when under attack from armies, earthquakes and the ravages of time. Conventional block built buildings inevitably have points of weakness where the blocks meet.
It looks nice
One of the marks of culture and civilization is the desire to be surrounded by beautiful things. I guess it is a matter of personal taste, but the sandstone is a beautiful rusty-red colour reflecting the iron-minerals coating the quartz grains in the sandstone.
Right place at the right time
Petra was on a key trading route. It sits in a narrow sheltered gorge with little room for conventional buildings. The obvious thing to do is tunnel into the soft rock.
I didn’t want to miss an excuse to include a clip of one of my favorite films: Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. Good opportunity to look at the Nubian Sandstone 🙂
I’m excited to say we have reached new heights with our collection: we’ve acquired a rock fragment from Mount Everest!
The fragment was donated by Nobel Prize winner Professor Andre Geim, who was given it by David Tait MBE, who has climbed Everest five times raising money for the NSPCC.
I think I’d be the first to admit that it is not the most spectacular looking specimen in the collection, but it definitely trumps everything on location and effort put in to collecting it. I’ve been in touch with David Tait to thanks him and ask about where it was collected. He said that it was from the ‘upper reaches’ of Mount Everest and he apologised for it being quite small!
The geology of Mount Everest is quite interesting and as our rock is a Schist rather than the Ordovician Limestone, it can’t quite be from the very top.
The best paper I’ve found is: SEARLE, M., SIMPSON, R., LAW, R., PARRISH, R., & WATERS, D. (2003). The structural geometry, metamorphic and magmatic evolution of the Everest massif, High Himalaya of Nepal-South Tibet Journal of the Geological Society, 160 (3), 345-366DOI: 10.1144/0016-764902-126
We are currently developing activities and displays for our Courtyard Project which will include our South Asia Gallery in partnership with the British Museum. So a piece of Mount Everest will be a fantastic way of helping tell the story of the geological history of the region.
Most people are familiar with the dinosaur Velociraptor from the blockbuster film Jurassic Park. Represented in the film as a scary reptile, our understanding of Velociraptors are transformed by a recent discovery.
Palaeontologists have recently found a close cousin of the Velociraptor that lived in China 125 million years ago showing spectacular preserved feathers. Named Zhenyuanlong suni, the fossil remains of the dinosaur suggest it is unlikely it could fly evidenced by the size of its wings and its feathers were probably used for display. The discovery of Zhenyuanlong suni is important because it changes our understanding of what dinosaurs looked like.
Fossil remains of Zhenyuanlong suni. Credit: Junchang Lu
Manchester Museum, part of the University of Manchester has the model on loan from Studio Liddell. Created by Peter Minister, the new model now on display, shows how our view of dinosaurs has been transformed.
The model of the Velociraptor is a taster of what is to come as Manchester Museum prepares for a blockbuster dinosaur exhibition. This is part of a new exhibition programme which is being planned as part of the museum’s expansion titled The Courtyard Project. Subject to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, work will commence on The Courtyard Project in August 2018 and will comprise of a larger temporary exhibition space, new entrance, improved visitor facilities and a South Asia Gallery in partnership with The British Museum.
An exhibition of stunning scientific models and illustrations now at Manchester Museum
The object-rich exhibition looks at this incredible collection through themes such as Craftsmanship, the Teaching Museum and the Microscopic. It combines George’s collection with the best models and illustrations from Manchester Museum and World Museum, Liverpool.
The beautiful objects blurred the boundaries between art and science and brought together the world’s leading scientists and most accomplished craftsmen. They reflect a moment in time when scientific discovery was rapidly developing, but technology could not keep up with techniques to record such findings.
To make sense of the exhibition we have split the displays into seven themes:
Craftsmanship features the highly-acclaimed Blaschka glass models, created by German glassworkers Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolf.
In Understanding the Body models are used to explore the shape, movement and function of the body. A life-size papier-mâché anatomical wild turkey sits alongside an exploded cod skull and early German models used to teach the bite of a rattlesnake.
Recording the Extraordinary focuses on unusual things that are difficult to describe in words. Early illustrations of the Aurora Borealis, sit alongside a plaster moon crater and a globe of the stars.
Exaggerated papier-mâché flowers and an Edwardian pop-up human anatomy book form part of Looking Inside.
Teaching Museum takes an overarching look at the context in which these models were created. Highlights include Japanese teaching scrolls from 1843 and wax fruits.
Minute details of plants and animals, as well as microscopic creatures are on display in Revealing the Microscopic including Early French flea photographs and models of pollen and penicillin.
Framing Time Some of the first illustrations of the Grand Canyon from the 1870s are shown alongside early reconstructions of long extinct fossils.
We are also running a conference alongside the exhibition: Unlocking the Vault
Nothing ever stays the same, things are always changing be it our Museum displays, our cities and towns, or the natural world around us.
The next part of our #MMClimateControl Social Media campaign in the lead up to our Climate Control exhibition is looking at how the world has changed in the past and what changes might look like in the future.
So please help us raise awareness of Climate Change by sharing your pictures and stories of how things have changed over time using #MMClimateControl
Do you remember what Manchester used to be like, or public transport in the 1980S? What were you favorite clothes when you were teenager? What did you think the future would be like when you were a kid?
Harry Braezenor sitting on the Museum’s Sperm Whale 1898 and the Whale today
Museum collections can give us a fantastic glimpse into the past for everything from Ancient Egypt, to 300million year old fossil plants and the humble Peppered Month. We will be exploring some of these stories in the coming weeks and months, so please join in!
Not only is snow amazing, but it could be a good indicator of how our climate is changing. Do you remember more snow when you were a kid? Were you around in the particularly snowy years of 1947 or 1963? Share your memories with us and get involved!
We hear about climate change on the news and in the newspapers. How the ice caps are melting and how it is happening now. What can we do about climate change, individually and collectively? Is it too late? Is there any point trying? What do people want to do?
Climate change is happening all around us, but this isn’t the time to ignore it, it’s the time to get really creative. What thoughts or ideas do you have? What do you already do in your day to day life, and what might you think about doing?
Manchester Museum will be staging a series of exhibitions and events for visitors to explore climate change from May-September 2016. There will be opportunities to share your thoughts and ideas, to think about what a different future might look like, and what each of us might want to do to help make that a reality. Look out for amazing Polar Bears and other Arctic wildlife, Peppered Moths, tropical frogs, opportunities to rebuild a model Manchester and a wide range of events and activities for all ages and interests
Palaeo Manchester 