The University of Alberta Museums house many objects that provide students and researchers with a deeper understanding of the world's mysteries. Here we uncover items from some of the university's diverse collections.
Changing perceptions of human prehistory
These projectile points, acquired recently by the Bryan/Gruhn Archaeology Collection, are from the Middle Stone Age - about 90,000 years BP, or before present - from what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These harpoon casts are exquisite examples of bone workmanship exhibiting significant technological advancement, supporting the idea that behaviourally modern humans evolved in Africa. The Bryan/Gruhn Archeology Collection contains more than 10,000 prehistoric and historic objects from around the world.
Summer prints are all about Canadiana
Christopher Pratt, one of Canada's iconic painters and printmakers, captures the unbeatable sensations of a summer road trip in this recent donation to the U of A's art collection. Summer of the Karmann Ghia enhances the contemporary Canadian holdings of one of North America's strongest print collections, used regularly in the Print Study Centre for teaching and research.
April showers bring May flowers
This Calypso orchid is a local species that flowers back to life in spring and is one of the roughly 130,000 specimens in the Vascular Plant Herbarium, a research and teaching resource that captures biodiversity from the year 1816 to the present. U of A botanists are busy preparing for Botany 2015, an international conference of several societies with more than 2,300 participating plant scientists, hosted for the first time in Edmonton this July.
All across campus are the 29 interdisciplinary collections that make up the University of Alberta Museums. This unique model distinguishes the U of A as one of the world's great public universities. The collections are used daily for teaching, research and community engagement, and many are open to the public. museums.ualberta.ca
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