The Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology forms part of the Department of Classics at the University of Reading

University of Reading

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

. It is situated on the university's Whiteknights Campus

Whiteknights Park

Whiteknights Park, or the Whiteknights Campus of the University of Reading, is the principal campus of that university. The park covers the area of the manor of Earley Whiteknights, also known as Earley St Nicholas and Earley Regis.Whiteknights Park is some two miles south of the centre of the town...

, about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the centre of the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 town of Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

.

The museum houses a collection of material from the Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 and Greco-Roman

Greco-Roman world

The Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman culture, or the term Greco-Roman , when used as an adjective, as understood by modern scholars and writers, refers to those geographical regions and countries that culturally were directly, protractedly and intimately influenced by the language, culture,...

 civilisations of the Mediterranean, most notably Greek and Etruscan

Etruscan civilization

Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

 ceramic

Ceramic

A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...

s and terracottas. Other exhibits include prehistoric pottery, metal and stone artifacts of Greek and Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 dates, and a collection of Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian antiquities, ranging from the Pre-dynastic to the Roman period. These include musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

s, bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 and copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 artefacts and jewellery, a funeral boat and a mummified cat's head.

The Ure Museum was created in 1922 by the first Professor of Classics at the University, Percy Ure

Percy & Annie Ure

Percy Neville Ure M.A. was the University of Reading's first Professor of Classics and the founder of the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology at Reading. His wife and former pupil at Reading, Annie Dunman Ure , was the museum's first Curator from 1922 until her death...

, although it contains an earlier donation of Egyptian antiquities, made by Mrs Flinders Petrie in 1909 to the then Reading University College. It has now grown due to the generosity of various donors, and is recognised as the fourth largest collection of Greek ceramics in Britain. The museum is named after Professor Ure and his wife, Dr Annie Ure

Percy & Annie Ure

Percy Neville Ure M.A. was the University of Reading's first Professor of Classics and the founder of the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology at Reading. His wife and former pupil at Reading, Annie Dunman Ure , was the museum's first Curator from 1922 until her death...

, who was the museum's first curator.

The museum is open to the public on weekdays between 0900 and 1630. It can be found on the ground floor of the north wing of the university's Humanities and Social Sciences building, signed on campus as HumSS. Admission is free.