For her artwork 'Suturing Wounds', artist Sara Sallam reprinted archival photographs of textiles torn from the cemetery of Akhmim onto fabric & stitched them together into a single tunic, honouring her ancestors whose graves were desecrated & restoring care to lives long silenced. bit.ly/3L6QX0n

A hand-knotted rug featuring weapons and helicopters against a map of Afghanistan, donated to the Museum in 2009 - just one of the objects on the new 'With These Hands' trail co-curated with MultakaOxford, exploring crafts from different cultures through storytelling. bit.ly/4ojhINP

Don't forget to visit the museum shop for unique gifts - our limited collection of handmade shadow puppets have just arrived from Bali. Beautifully decorated in vibrant colours & highlighted in gold, they make perfect gifts or decorations along with Christmas decorations from Kenya, Nepal & Bali.

The Clothworkers’ Textile team love how textiles tell stories. We were amazed to find this stunning embroidered fabric hidden and being used as a sleeve lining in a dress from Afghanistan. A beautiful handmade secret tucked away! #clothworkerstextileproject

Due to a cancellation, we now have one ticket available for this Friday's Plastic Smithing Workshop with Bronwen Gwillim. Friday 14 November, 10.00-16.30. £90 (includes lunch & refreshments). More info & booking details at: bit.ly/4nQjl5p

As part of the @ox.ac.uk Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology programme, student Liangyu Geo researched a pair of lotus shoes 'worn by a Chinese lady with golden lily feet' donated to the Museum in 1927. Ornately embroidered with gold thread, the shoes are 13cm long. go.glam.ox.ac.uk/t1Wv65GtV

And the answer is an amazing 46 metres - that's a lot of fabric!

TODAY Join us for our Late Night celebrating the launch of the With These Hands trail, exploring crafts from around the world! Pick up a trail & explore the galleries, listen to a Ukrainian choir, plus global music DJ'd by Inspire Sounds, whilst enjoying a relaxed Friday night drink from Tap Social!

Enjoy the museums after dark in our Late Night 'With These Hands: Crafting a Shared Humanity' tomorrow evening! Craft workshops, object handling, food tasting, a Ukrainian choir, Inspire Sounds DJ & a bar by Tap Social! Fri 7 Nov, 7-10pm. Free but booking required. All welcome! bit.ly/46fZNBd

Embroidered shirt made by Arezo Sheykhizad, Iran 2024 - just one of the objects on our new With These Hands trail, being launched at this Friday's Late Night event, 7 Nov, 7-10pm. Craft workshops & activities, music & a bar. Free but booking required. bit.ly/46fZNBd

Craft & Chat left you eager for more? This Friday sees a unique opportunity to spend a night at the museum as @pittriversmuseum.bsky.social hosts an interactive session of crafting from round the world 'With These Hands: Crafting a Shared Humanity' Book now free of charge go.glam.ox.ac.uk/xWiM07O8y

Explore historic cameras from History of Science Museum & build a camera obscura, print symbolic patterns from Ukraine and Iran & make a traditional Ukrainian motanka doll - celebrate global arts & crafts at our Late Night 'With These Hands', Fri 7 Nov, 7-10pm. Free, booking required. bit.ly/46fZNBd

Preparations continue for the MultakaOxford 'With These Hands: Crafting a Shared Humanity' gallery trail, being launched at this Friday's Late Night event. Here we see details of beautiful embroidery on a Ukranian vyshyvanka which we are excited to welcome into the collection and to share with you!

Stitch your own sustainable flower corsage with designer Amy Harris & Oxford Brookes Art & Design students, plus discover Multaka's collaboration with designers Vin + Omi for London Fashion Week at our With These Hands Late Night. Fri 7 Nov, 7-10pm. Free but booking required. bit.ly/46fZNBd

The Pitt Rivers holds about 1,700 photos by John Henry Hutton, British Assistant/Deputy Commissioner in the Naga Hills NE India, 1913-1926. This blog gives an update on cataloguing this vast visual record of life among the Naga hill peoples of northern India in the early 20th century. bit.ly/47osXi4

Handcraft a harvest knot with heritage straw worker Penny Maltby, just one of many craft activities to try at our Late Night launching the new MultakaOxford display & trail 'With These Hands', celebrating crafts from across the globe. Fri 7 Nov, 7-10pm. Free but booking required. bit.ly/46fZNBd

From textiles to beads, masks to soap, find stories that tell us more about the communities making and using these objects on our new With These Hands display and trail, co-curated by MultakaOxford. Launching on Fri 7 Nov at our special Late Night. 7-10pm. Free but booking required. bit.ly/46fZNBd

The Clothworkers’ Textile team have been mounting this stunning embroidered Kuchi dress from Afghanistan for the upcoming MultakaOxford With These Hands gallery trail. Its voluminous skirt is made from many triangular fabric pieces. Can you guess the full hem circumference? Answer coming soon!

A plaster impression of a seal of a horned animal with inscription from Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan. Donated to the Museum in 1955. On display in the new #MultakaOxford display 'With These Hands' being launched at our Late Night, Friday 7 November, 7-10pm. bit.ly/46fZNBd

Join us this week for our free half term weaving activity! Test out your weaving skills on the looms which will be on the First Floor Balcony & add your strands to our collaborative weave project. Wednesday 29 & Thursday 30 October, 1-4pm. All welcome, just drop in & have a go!

A new episode of 'Making the Pitt Rivers Museum' is OUT NOW! podcasts.ox.ac.uk/making-repli... Hear about making convincing replicas, the 'sexy hand axe' theory, and why dressing up is useful from Dr James Dilley of @ancientcraftuk.bsky.social Knobbly lumps of stone can be really interesting...

From textiles to beads, masks to soap, hear how communities make and use these objects at our 'With These Hands: Crafting a Shared Humanity' Late Night celebrating crafting from around the world! With activities, music & a bar. Fri 7 Nov, 7-10pm. Free but booking required. bit.ly/46fZNBd

Just installed in the Upper Gallery is 'Suturing Wounds' by Egyptian artist Sara Sallam as part of the #PhotoOxford Festival. Featuring self-portraits of Sallam wearing a tunic made of antique textile fragments, it refers to the extractive practices of European archaeology in Egypt. bit.ly/3L6QX0n

It’s all in the detail! The Clothworkers’ Textile team and MultakaOxford are busy preparing textiles for the launch of the 'With These Hands’ gallery trail on Fri 7 Nov. We've been admiring the beautiful Pashtun embroidery, couching & beadwork as we mount this gun case from Afghanistan for display.

Journey across the globe by exploring craft traditions at our Multaka Late Night - knot and bead Chinese keepsakes, make Ukrainian Motanka dolls, create fabric flowers fit for fashion designers, build a camera obscura & much more! Bar & DJ. Fri 7 Nov, 7-10pm. Free, booking required. bit.ly/46fZNBd

Treat yourself to a piece of bold, contemporary jewellery made by artist/jeweller Bronwen Gwillim, now on sale in the museum shop and learn how to make your own in our Plastic Smithing Workshop, Fri 14 Nov, 10.00-17.00. £90 (incl.lunch & refreshments). bit.ly/3WeVIaE

Explore how handcrafted clothing can play a crucial role in identity, sustainability and expression at the MultakaOxford Museum Late Night! Friday 7 November, 7pm-10pm. Free event, booking essential. Visit the website to find out more information & book your space! bit.ly/46fZNBd

#BlogSpot "Maybe I had been looking at it the wrong way. Rather than waiting for the objects to come to life, I understood that they are already alive, and it’s up to us to ensure they stay that way." - Subhan Aslam, Collections intern pittrivers-object.blogspot.com

Join Mara Gold, scholar of classical representations of gender, sexuality & feminism, for an evening of insight into the lives of remarkable mythological women at the launch of her new book 'Ancient Myths & Legends Without Men'. Thurs 23 Oct, 17.30-19.30. Tickets: £5 (£22 with book). bit.ly/3KtDJdU

Researchers from the Pitt Rivers Museum also shared the work of Proyecto Tsantsa, a partnership between the museum & institutions in Ecuador that seeks to incorporate the Shuar's perspectives & expertise into the study and treatment of their cultural artefacts, including tsantsas, or shrunken heads.

A delegation of Shuar leaders, elders, students and professors from Ecuador concluded their tour of UK museums with a well-attended special public event at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The event included an audience Q&A with the Shuar delegation.

TODAY Join us for a special event, 'The Future of the Shrunken Heads', bringing Shuar delegates & UK museum teams together to discuss the future care of tsantsas (also known as shrunken heads) & other Shuar objects in UK collections. 2-4pm. Free, no booking required. All welcome. bit.ly/4gU52dz

Learn why this stunning Palestinian headdress is adorned with silver and gold coins & explore the beauty of crafting around the world at the MultakaOxford Museum Late Night! Friday 7 November, 7-10pm. Free but booking required. Book your free tickets at bit.ly/3IERqGx

Warp and weft Wednesday! The Clothworkers’ Team have their microscopes at the ready as they zoom in to investigate the construction techniques and materials used to make some of the Kuki shawls held in the collection.

"As Shuar, we don't have anything against the world knowing our world and for museums to have our souvenirs... What we ask is that museums involve us Shuar, so that it can be us who tell the stories." The Future of the Shrunken Heads, Saturday 11 October, 2-4pm. Free, all welcome. bit.ly/4gU52dz

This beautiful Hawaiian quilt depicts traditional crescent fans called pe'ahi, made of intricately woven coconut fibre, human hair & plaited pandanus leaf, intermingled with pandanus fronds. The Museum has 3 pe'ahi in the collections but elsewhere very few have survived intact. bit.ly/46UZ738

Join us for this special event 'The Future of the Shrunken Heads', in which Shuar delegates from Ecuador and UK museum teams meet to talk about the future care and understanding of Shuar collections in UK museums. Saturday 11 October, 2-4pm. All welcome. bit.ly/4gU52dz

Free tickets now available for our November Late Night 'With These Hands: Crafting a Shared Humanity' on Friday 7 November, 7-10pm. Marking the opening of a new MultakaOxford display, the evening will include craft activities, workshops, a bar & much more! bit.ly/46fZNBd

It has been a colourful treat for the Clothworkers’ Textile Project Team to work with the Gigi Croker collection. Gigi’s photographs bring the collection to life by documenting the skilled crafts people who make the beautiful textiles. Here we see cloth made by Omani weaver Sa'eed Nasser Habeeb.

Join us for the launch of Mara Gold's debut book 'Ancient Myths and Legends Without Men' and discover the women and gender non-conforming characters who shaped and subverted womanhood from the very beginning and whose stories still resonate today! Thurs 23 Oct, 17.30-19.30. £5. bit.ly/3KtDJdU

"Our family have been quietly and patiently telling her story over many decades..knowing how important and faithful the stories from her grandparents were to the future generations. We never imagined that her work would be lauded and acknowledged." June Northcroft Grant www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-09...

"Mākereti was a trailblazer... Her legacy as an inspiration to many people in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Māori community worldwide, and scholars and students internationally, continues to this day." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A plaster cast of the 'Venus of Dolní Věstonice', a Palaeolithic female figure made from a mix of charred powdered bone and clay. The original is c.30,000 years old, making it one of the earliest known manmade ceramic objects & was discovered in a mammoth hunter’s dwelling in Czech Republic in 1925.

Maori scholar, Makereti Papakura writing at her desk c.1910. The room is decorated with a mix of Maori & European mementoes whilst the rafters are painted with traditional kowhaiwhai patterns. Makereti will be awarded a posthumous degree in Oxford tomorrow, almost a century after she died in 1930.

Happy 50th anniversary to DATS - Dress and Textile Specialists! The Clothworkers’ Textile Team are delighted to have our poster on collaborative and community led research into Nigerian adire textiles included in the 50th Anniversary Conference ‘Shaping Culture through Dress and Textiles’.

Tune in to my radio show at 5pm BST today to hear the fascinating Rosa Dyer from @pittriversmuseum.bsky.social telling us all about her research into the usage of bird feathers by indigenous people of South America! I'm so excited! Listen live or catch up here: www.thesourcefm.co.uk/listen-again

Our next Autism-Friendly opening will take place from 9-10am on Saturday 18 October, offering the opportunity for families with members on the Autism spectrum to explore Pitt Rivers & @morethanadodo.bsky.social in a quiet environment. Booking is essential. More info at bit.ly/4pJlscQ.

Amazing to meet so many diverse and brilliant artists in person as we kicked off the Century of Sounds project with @pittriversmuseum.bsky.social with an artist meetup. Can't wait to hear the creative results in a few months!

An Ethiopian priest's crown made from plates of incised tin riveted together & hung with silver ornaments. These rattle and chime as the priest moves, announcing his arrival during solemn processions on feast days such as Timkat (Epiphany), Easter & Christmas. Donated by Wilfred Thesiger in 1995.

Book now for our Plastic Smithing Workshop held behind the scenes in our Conservation Lab & learn a range of cold-working & hot-working techniques for creating jewellery and other small objects from the plentiful waste plastic around us. Fri 14 or Sat 15 November. £90, incl.lunch. bit.ly/4lpj33m