Last week, I told you how two of our artefacts, a gandao and a gundurik from Kalash, made the journey to Musée des Confluences in Lyon. Today, I thought I would give you a bit of a ‘behind the scenes’ view of what such a […]
Two seasoned travellers: From Afghanistan to Denmark to France
Most of our artefacts spend their days in the cold and the dark. They might be nestled in acid free tissue paper in a cardboard box, or they might lie on a compact shelf whiling the years away. A few lucky artefacts may see the […]
The adventures of Jørgen Bitsch – and a spiky ‘teat halter’
What is this? Some strange torture device? A really edgy necklace? Sometimes objects do not tell their story outright (at least not to those, who do not already have specialised knowledge). When I was combing through our database, looking for an interesting subject for today’s […]
The price of a normal life: Rubber dinghy
“The boat we sailed in was smaller than this”, she says. I am standing in the new special exhibition ‘After the Escape – Syrian lives on Samsø’ about an hour before it is to open, and I am talking to an 8 year-old girl. We […]
Cheeky monkey: Coconut figure from Namibia
The curious little coconut monkey figure is a part of collection that Mogens Stryhn just handed over to Moesgaard Museum a few weeks ago. As such, it has entered the museum database as EA 909-127. The entire collection consists of 269 artefacts that Stryhn has […]
Bringing Syria to Denmark: Brass tea pot
Mohammed has always been a strong man. A caring father and a hard worker, who loves to cook for his family. When Syria descended into war, he and his family decided that it was not safe to remain any longer. Mohammed went ahead and journeyed […]
The long journey of a pair of Syrian sunglasses
Sometimes, the most mundane artefacts hide within them the most poignant stories. What would you, for example, consider to be the value of these sunglasses? They are not some fancy brand, nor have they belonged to someone famous. Indeed, one side bar has broken off […]
Is there a genie in the lamp?
The Newars is one of the more than 130 ethnic groups in the republic of Nepal. In fact, they are considered to be the indigenous population of the Kathmandu Valley. For a number of reasons, the Newari community has attracted attention since the first Westerners […]
Can a garden gate be the symbol of a subculture?
This week, we have invited one of the anthropology students who have created the special exhibition ‘In motion: A different take on nomads’ to write a blog about the exhibition. Last week, you could read about fieldwork. This week, Simone Hasse Stavnsbo writes about fieldwork […]
Field-what kind of work?
The next two weeks, we have invited some of the anthropology students who have created the special exhibition ‘In Motion: A different take on nomads’ to write a blog about their exhibition. This week, Pernille Bertram-Larsen writes about fieldwork and about her group’s exhibition ‘Nomads […]
Disposable artefacts or objects without equal?
In April, Ole Winther, head of department in the Agency for Culture and Palaces, attended a meeting on the future for Danish museums in Malmø, Sweden. During the meeting he said: “We have many, many storage units in Denmark, that are filled with old junk […]
”Loaded with devilry”: The shamanic artefacts of the Haslund-Christensen Collection
It did not take long for the Mongolian assistants to realise that something was terribly wrong. The jingling and rattling sounds coming from the bags on the heavily loaded camel exposed their terrifying cargo: a complete set of shaman equipment. Powerful artefacts imbued with spirits, […]
