Launched in 2022, the Digital Lab is a digital engagement project which seeks to increase the visibility and accessibility of the world cultures collections at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.
The project highlights collections in the Museum’s care through a range of themes such as Substances of Wellbeing and Intoxication, Object Diasporas, Making and Mending, and Digitisation.
What value do broken objects hold? Are they doomed to spend the rest of their days in boxes being ignored? How can we instead use them to enhance our understanding of those objects?
6 June 2023
Of all the tea bricks at MAA, only one is embossed with the image of a dragon. What are the multiple meanings of this important Chinese symbol in this context, and what is its relationship to the tea brick?
30 May 2023
Named after the bearded man that features on them and originating in the the mid- to late-16th century in the Rhineland, how did these stoneware pots become associated with 'witch' bottles?
2 May 2023
Each year, people gather in Ngāruawāhia, Aotearoa New Zealand to celebrate the leader of the Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement). May 1969 was the third anniversary of the first woman to lead the Kīngitanga, Te Atairangikaahu.
Children outnumbered adults for most of human history, yet they rarely appear in the stories that museums tell. A past without children is incomplete. This is a digital version of a previous exhibition that aimed at redressing the balance.
COLOUR integrates insights from the arts, humanities, and the sciences, conglomerating objects and artworks from different times and places, and from across the University of Cambridge museums, libraries, and colleges.
© 2023 Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ
The MAA Digital Lab is supported by Qinghai Spring Medicinal Resources Technology Co.
The Museum’s catalogues include historic descriptions and representations that are factually inaccurate, racist and otherwise inappropriate. We are committed to the work of addressing hurtful legacies in the collections we care for. We ask for your help in identifying images or data that cause offence or harm, and we welcome your feedback or suggestions which can be sent to feedback@maa.cam.ac.uk