The Museum of Antiquities is the last building on the right and was designed by neo-classical architect John Simpson. The dual-entranced façade on South Meadow Lane consists of a rounded, red brick, semi-circular building flanked symmetrically with closed porticos. The windows are covered with decorative timberwork in a diamond pattern which is finer and more complicated in design on in the central section of the building and echoes the diaper patterning of the brickwork seen elsewhere at Eton College.
The family-friendly museum displays objects which cover a vast geographical and chronological range and includes a world-class collection of Egyptian faience, a collection of Egyptian death masks and portraits from the second millennium BCE to the second century CE and a small collection of mummified remains from Ancient Egypt. The core of the museum is a bequest from old boy Major William Joseph Myers, who left his remarkable collection of Egyptian artefacts to the Head Master of Eton College in 1899.
A recent exhibition of 32 objects from the antiquities collection, Ancient Beings, is now available to enjoy online.
The museum is contained within the same building as the Jafar Hall. It is a large stone building with a copper roof, augmented with stone sphinxes and a fountain. Inside is a polychromatic debating chamber based on the council chamber at Priene, one of the best-preserved parliamentary chambers from antiquity.
