The Macquarie University History Museum’s latest exhibition showcases 40 items, including ancient objects and more recent archival material, inspired by society’s ongoing fascination with ancient cultures.

‘Mysteries Revisited – From Ancient Codes to Comic Culture’ is the latest exhibition to arrive at the Macquarie University History Museum. It explores how our constant hunger for news from the ancient world creates both breakthroughs in historical research and demand for antiquities, fakes and replicas.

Among the items on display are rarely-seen cigarette cartons containing index cards made to help decipher the mysterious Linear B script – the writing system used by the ancient Mycenaean civilisation.

On exclusive loan from the University of Texas’ Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory, these cigarette cartons date back to the 1940s.

“They were owned by classicist Alice Kober, who made index cards that fit exactly into the cigarette cartons and served as a low-fi database for decoding Linear B,” says Josephine Touma, Macquarie University History Museum Manager.

Two cigarette boxes containing Alice Kober’s cards. On loan from the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory at the University of Texas, Austin. Image credit: Jesse Taylor

Other highlights of the exhibition include comic books introducing fictitious heroes set in the ancient world, ancient Egyptian tablets and fragments of panels with inscribed hieroglyphs, as well as fakes, replicas and urban myths.

The so-called Gosford Glyphs also form part of the exhibition. These sandstone carvings were found on a site in Kariong on the Central Coast in the 1980s and were said to be hieroglyphs carved by ancient Egyptians.

“Macquarie student Kerri-Ann Meakins completed a project with [Museum director] Professor Martin Bommas, which included visiting Gosford to trace the glyphs. Historians believe that whoever carved the glyphs had some understanding of true Egyptian hieroglyphs, but they are not quite right, and certainly a hoax,” Touma says.

The Macquarie University History Museum is located at 25C Wally’s Walk and is open to the public on weekdays between 10am and 5pm. Read more about the new exhibition on The Lighthouse.