Allard Pierson Museum

The Allard Pierson Museum, part of the University of Amsterdam, showcases artifacts from ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece, Etruria, and Rome. Visitors can explore mummies, sculptures, and interactive exhibits that bring ancient cultures to life. The museum also features a plaster-cast gallery and a reading room for research purposes.

Planning your visit

The Allard Pierson is the archaeological museum of the University of Amsterdam, holding collections from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Greek world, Etruria and Rome — mummies and coffins, Greek vases, Roman glass and sculpture, Etruscan bronzes, coins and papyri.

Its scale is modest by comparison with the great national collections, and that is an advantage: it is possible to look at things properly rather than being overwhelmed. The Egyptian material is the strongest, and the plaster-cast gallery holds nineteenth-century casts of classical sculpture, once standard teaching equipment in universities and now largely discarded elsewhere.

Because it is a university museum, the emphasis falls on how objects are studied — provenance, dating, conservation and interpretation — which gives the displays a different character from purely aesthetic presentation.

It merged with the university's special collections, so exhibitions also draw on manuscripts, maps and printed books.

It sits on the Oude Turfmarkt in the centre.

Bookable options are entry tickets. Current availability is shown below.