Museum

The Archaeological Museum at U.C College, Aluva is just 21 km from Cochin. It began as a modest ‘store house of artifacts’ in one of the class rooms in the NR Block of the college near the department staff room. Over the years, the collections grew mostly from donations from beneficiaries and students. The museum is designed as an educational museum and is open not only to the college fraternity but welcomes scholars and general visitors.

The museum was brought to limelight with various projects undertaken by the department as well as the Centre for Cultural and Ecological Studies.  In 2003, with the UGC sponsored Advanced Diploma in Archaeology and Museology, the museum was renovated and shifted to the present location. The museum also has a good record of outreach programmes. Though the floor space available is limiting the collections over past 35 years have been classified into sixteen sections.

The collections in the museum have been classified into the following sections:

  • Prehistoric section
  • Proto historic and Harappan collections
  • Historic section
  • Lower Periyar valley: Megalithic and Iron age section
  • Medieval sculptures
  • Stone inscription and Copper plates
  • Northeast Indian Tribal Collections
  • Urn burials and terracotta section
  • Coins
  • Megalithic stone beads
  • Iron objects: Megalithic grave goods, stylus, Cannon ball
  • Archival material: palm leaf and paper documents
  • Diaries
  • Models
  • Maps and Charts
  • Modern art

Since 2003, it was felt necessary to manage the museum more effectively and it was proposed as the Centre for Historical and Archaeological Studies and hopes to be a centre for excellence in the near future. The museum is managed by the Staff in Charge and a Museum Assistant.

The museum library has a rare collection of books dealing with Archaeology, Museology and Heritage: the library has benefitted from an initial grant from UBCHAE for strengthening the museum and for the Diploma in Archaeology conducted by CCES from 1998 to 2002. The library also has books purchased as per the UGC grant to the ADAM from 2002-07. The library functions along with the Department Library and together has a collection of 1000 books.

The Conservation Laboratory has facilities to conserve the museum objects, pottery restoration and offers consultancy in designing small museums, and for the listing and manitancne of the historical monuments and buildings within the campus. Field lab kit is available for conducting regular archaeological field studies and the artifacts collected are consolidated in the lab before displaying n the museum.

Consultancy Services: The museum is one of the participatory institutions in the National Mission for Monuments and Antiquities, a government of India initiative run by the ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India. It covers listing the antiquities in the college museum, collections scattered elsewhere and also the heritage mapping of the campus.