The Museum of Ancient Cultures is the flagship museum of Macquarie University . It houses a collection of over 5,000 artefacts from the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds, and is recognised as a leader in teaching, research, community access, and museology. The Museum of Ancient Cultures, formerly known as the Ancient History Teaching Collection, began in 1974 with a small collection of artefacts to support the teaching of Ancient History at Macquarie. It has been growing ever since.
Artefacts come from a number of sources.
The Museum emphasises everyday, utilitarian items in its collection of artefacts, and therefore the more common items from antiquity are to be found on display. This is because the function of the Museum is seen as dynamic rather than static in that University staff and students, as well as school groups, can handle and study artefacts from the Museum rather than merely gaze at them in a glass case. The Museum contains over 5,000 objects, consisting of items from the ancient Near East, Egypt, and many parts of the Graeco-Roman world, grouped according to geographical area and cultural similarities. It is one of the best presented university museums in Australia.