Hrdlička Museum of Humanity introduces evening tours

Don’t want to stand in a queue for the Charles University Museum of Humanity during Prague Museum Night? You don’t have to. Lecturers from the museum will now lead you through the displays after dark on every first Wednesday in the month.

Hrdlička Museum of Mankind open to the public from Wednesday to Friday

“The museum has a very interesting – I would say mysterious – atmosphere. It’s worth visiting at times other than during the Museum Night. Visitors are accompanied on evening tours by experienced lecturers, who explain the exhibits and why a particular object is on display in the museum,” says exhibition curator Marco Stella.

Evening tours of the museum usually take place on every first Wednesday of the month. However, due to two state holidays, in May this will not take place until the third Wednesday. The museum is otherwise open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every Wednesday to Friday. However, according to Marco Stella, anyone passing by can always try ‘having a peek’ outside the official opening hours, as there is usually a lecturer present who can show any visitors round the exhibits.

Visitors to the museum, which is devoted to the history of humanity and is named after its founder, the world-famous anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička, can see a number of rarities, the biggest of which includes the museum’s collection of Egyptian mummies. “They’re around 3,300 years old, dating from the so-called New Kingdom period, during the reign of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. They are most probably the bodies of craftsmen and artists who worked on the royal tombs in the Valley of Kings,” said Stella, describing one of the greatest rarities in the museum’s collection.

“A further valuable exhibit is the collection of trepanned skulls (trepanning is the surgical opening of skulls, a treatment dating back to prehistory – ed.), a truly unique, but little-known, exhibit. It is one of the most comprehensive collections in the Czech Republic,” he added.

Museum employees have also prepared a number of special events, with new weekend workshops primarily intended for children. School groups can also take part in the forensic anthropology workshop, with the inviting title Become a Bone Collector, where children learn how to assemble a human skeleton and recognise various features on it.

??Evening tours have highly unusual atmosphere

“Our Footprints and Shapes workshop, which is about the various techniques for the casting of hands, footprints etc., is also very popular. Both of these workshops are run to order for either for schools for educational purposes or for any group of around ten people,” added Stella.

The Cave Art workshop is intended for children with a gift for art. Once they have learnt something about prehistoric cave paintings, they try to produce some themselves. “During this course the museum is transformed into a cave, where children can paint all sorts of pictures. The skill shown by five to six year-old children is quite surprising, reaching the level of the Palaeolithic masters,” smiled Stella, also noting that the museum runs another course, devoted to the art of detection. Course participants learn how to use a microscope, take records of and compare fingerprints, as well as learning about the basics of trichology, or the study of hair.

Become a Bone Collector workshop very popular with children

Apart from this, the museum’s team of employees is also preparing a number of weekend courses for the wider public. Originally intended for children, adults enjoyed the courses, too. Participants in the In the Service of the Pharaoh workshop learn how to read some hieroglyphics, learn something about methods of mummification or create their own servant for the world beyond.

Workshops cost between 80 and 300 crowns. For further information and conditions of registration, please see the Facebook page of the Hrdlička Museum of Humanity.

„Velmi populární je také workshop Stopy a odlitky, který je o nejrůznějších technikách odlívání rukou, stop atd. Oba tyto workshopy pořádáme na objednávku buď pro školy v rámci výuky, nebo pro jakékoliv skupinky zhruba o deseti lidech,“ podotkl Marco Stella.

Workshop Umění v jeskyni je zase určen dětem s výtvarným nadáním. Poté, co se dozví něco o pravěkých jeskynních malbách, zkusí si je také namalovat. „Při tomto kurzu muzeum přeměňujeme v jeskyni, kde si děti mohou malovat nejrůznější obrazce. Překvapuje mě, jak šikovné jsou už i pěti až šestileté děti. Svým uměním se dotahují až na paleolitické mistry,“ usmíval se Marco Stella a upozornil na další kurz, tentokrát věnovaný umění detektivnímu. Jeho účastníci se v něm naučí pracovat s mikroskopem, snímat a porovnávat otisky prstů a seznámí se také se základy trichologie, tedy nauky o vlasovém vláknu.

Vedle toho tým pracovníků muzea nově připravuje množství víkendových kurzů pro širokou veřejnost. Původně byly určeny dětem, ukázalo se však, že baví i dospělé. Na workshopu Ve službách faraóna se jeho účastníci naučí číst některé hieroglyfy, dozví se něco o způsobech mumifikace nebo si vytvoří svého služebníka na onom světě.

Workshopy stojí od 80 do 300 korun. Ten, kdo by se některého z nich chtěl zúčastnit, najde veškeré informace i podmínky registrace na facebookových stránkách Hrdličkova muzea člověka.