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Kelsey in Focus

The Kelsey Museum has over 100,000 objects in its collection but can only display a small fraction of them at any given time. A generous donor has provided funds for Kelsey in Focus, a rotating space dedicated to showcasing seldom-seen objects and highlighting the research of our curators, faculty, staff, and students.

Installment #8 | Donation: A Pompeii Temple Reconstructed & Its Historic Honoree

Reconstruction of the Doric Temple in the Triangular Forum at Pompeii; watercolor, ink, pencil; 19th century AD; donated by Professor Michele Valerie Ronnick, 2021

Installment #7 | The Experience of a Roman Soldier

Kelsey in Focus Installment #7 explores the lives of soldiers in the Roman army.

Installment #6 | Out-of-Place Ushabtis in Roman Karanis

no 1 - Ushabti of Pahemnetjer. Faience, ink. ca. 1275 BCE (​​New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty). KM 24263. no 2 - Ushabti of Hor[udja?]. Faience. Late Period (664–332 BCE). KM 87990.

Installment #5 | Ancient Abstraction in Textiles from Late Roman Egypt

Wool and linen textile fragment depicting horses and riders. Roman Egypt, 5th–6th century CE, possibly earlier. Purchased in Egypt by Aziz Atiya, 1953. KM 91061.
Wool textile fragment depicting a horse and rider. Roman Egypt, 5th–6th century CE, possibly earlier. Purchased in Egypt by Aziz Atiya, 1953. KM 90782.
Wool and linen textile fragment depicting a warhorse. Roman Egypt, 5th–6th century CE, possibly earlier. Purchased in Egypt from Phocion Tano, 1953. KM 94443.

Installment #4 | New Gifts to the Kelsey Museum

Bronze Hermes/Mercury. Roman, 1st c. BCE–2nd c. CE. KM 2018.3.1.
Bronze female votary. Etruscan, 6th–5th c. CE. KM 2018.3.1.

Installment #3 | Keeping Cool in Roman Egypt: Fans from Karanis

Palm fiber and wood fans from Karanis, Egypt. 4th–5th centuries CE. U-M Excavation, 1924–1925. KM 3390, 3479, 3480.

Past Installments

Installment #2 | Coptic Ostraka: Writings from Christian Egypt

Clay ostrakon inscribed in ink with excerpts from Psalm 104. 7th–8th century CE. Egypt. Carl Schmidt purchase, 1936. KM 25165.

Slipped clay ostrakon inscribed in ink with quotations from Psalms. 7th–8th century CE. Egypt. Carl Schmidt purchase, 1936. KM 25049.

Limestone ostrakon inscribed in ink with a literary letter of Severus. 7th–8th century CE. Egypt. Carl Schmidt purchase, 1936. KM 25120.

Installment #1 | Ducks from Seleucia (by way of Toledo)

Head of a duck, clay. 1st–2nd century CE. Seleucia-on-the-Tigris excavations, KM 2018.1.106.

Figure of a duck, clay. 1st century CE. Seleucia-on-the-Tigris excavations, KM 2018.1.105.

Head of a duck; clay, slip, paint. 2nd century CE. Seleucia-on-the-Tigris excavations, KM 2018.1.104.