The Archaeological Collection

The Fascination of the Ancient World

Delve into a world of art and craft from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, ancient Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. Alongside original works, the extensive collection of casts of ancient statues gives a comprehensive view of Greco-Roman sculpture.

A museum shop also offers a small selection of archaeological souvenirs and further reading on archaeology. A coffee corner in amongst our casts of ancient sculptures is an inviting place to stop and admire the collection.

The Originals Collection

The University of Zurich's collection of original ancient works is one of Switzerland's premier collections of art and crafts from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and from ancient Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, especially Etruria and Rome. It has been gradually and systematically expanded as a university study collection since the late 1860s, but always with the intention of making it available as a museum to an interested public.

The Collection covers the period from 4,000 BC to around 500 AD, and extends geographically from the western Mediterranean to the Tigris in the east, and from the Nile in the south to the Crimea in the north. Highlights include Greek and Roman sculptures and portraits, masterpieces of Greek vase art, ancient paintings in the form of mummy portraits from Faiyum, a wooden Egyptian casket containing a mummy, and not least the monumental Assyrian reliefs from the royal palaces of Ashurnasirpal II and Tiglath-Pileser III in Nimrud (Iraq).

A museum shop offers interested visitors a small selection of archaeological souvenirs and further reading on a variety of archaeological subjects. On the upper floor of the building, situated among casts of ancient sculptures, is a coffee corner with drinks machines, where visitors can stop and admire the collection.