Discover the archaeological collections of Heidelberg University.
Since 1848, the year of their actual founding, the two parts of the collection have been constantly expanded to include antique originals and casts of plastic sculptures. Today they form one of the largest archaeological university teaching collections in Germany.
The Museum of Antiquities displays ancient art from the countries of the Mediterranean region, specially painted Greek and Etruscan vases as well as clay vessels, clay figures, and clay reliefs from Greece, Italy, Cyprus, and the Near East. Ceramics from Troy and replicas of finds from Mycenae and Crete complete the historical panorama, which extends from the 4th millennium BC to late antiquity.
In the extensive collection of casts, plaster casts of numerous large sculptural works of antiquity are on display. They provide an overview of the development of Greek sculpture from its beginnings to the Roman imperial period.
The originals of the statues and reliefs from which the plaster casts are made are kept in the world's most important museums: the pediment figures of the Aeginetes in Munich, for example, the Parthenon sculptures in London, the relief plates from the great frieze of the Pergamon Altar in Berlin.