IU’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology will feature more than five million artifacts when it opens this October. The museum uses ancient textiles and jewelry to understand human history.
“When people visit us, we hope that we can offer them a new way of thinking,” assistant director Judy Kirk said. “About not just other people, but also about how we ourselves are reflections of our cultural environments.”
Located at 416 N. Indiana Ave., the IUMAA is organized in an “inside-out” approach. This means visitors will have behind-the-scenes access to collections, virtual reality opportunities and programming spaces for teachers and students.
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The museum’s primary exhibition will be a virtual reality experience, giving visitors the chance to immerse themselves into southern Indiana’s historic Angel Mounds. The Native site dates back to 1250 C.E.
“It helps us to learn more about the people who were here before us and recognize that these were individuals who had fully real lives,” Kirk said.
The Angel Mounds are accompanied by millions of contemporary artifacts from every continent. This includes ancient clothing, accessories, arrows, instruments, canoes and more.
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Aside from the virtual reality dome, most of the objects are contained in glass cases. The museum uses the cases to highlight themes from IU classes, as it is designed not only for public visitors, but also to aid professors in teaching.
“There is a lot of opportunity for all audiences, but particularly for students, because students can utilize our collections for research purposes in a huge variety of topics,” Kirk said.
The lower floor, which is open to visitors, features collections of artifacts students and staff are categorizing into the museum’s archaeology lab.
Because the IUMAA is a collaboration between the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology and the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, it strives to bring public audiences together with the Indigenous descendants of featured artifacts.
This newer approach gives Native populations an opportunity to present their perspectives and traditions, Kirk said.
“We open up the institution to not just our audiences to come and see it, but also to the people who have their legacies represented here,” she said. “That's what's really important to us.”
The museum will feature an auditorium focused on education, where it will host workshops to explain artifacts to visitors. Until it opens in the fall, the IUMAA is offering tours to classes while it continues to prepare exhibits.
