1. Roman gold aureus of Claudius, AD 46/7
Roman Gold display, Gallery 37, The Heberden Coin Room, first floor.

Other Roman gold coins (but not from Oxfordshire!) are on display in the adjacent gallery. The aureus of Claudius is of particular relevance as it depicts the triumphal arch erected at Rome to commemorate the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43.

2. Shakenoak Roman Villa
Gallery 35, Ancient Roman and Dark Age Europe, first floor.

The exhibit displays a range of archaeological finds from a Roman villa close to Finstock. The Shakenoak Villa was founded at about the same time as the Vespasian coin was struck.

3. Oliver Cromwell’s Death Mask
Tradescant Room, Gallery 27, first floor.

The type of historical and natural curio collected by Martha Spriggs is strongly reminiscent of the earlier ‘Cabinet of Curiosity’ style of collecting which formed the basis of the Ashmolean’s own collection in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As Martha Spriggs had ‘portions of the blood’ from Richard the Lionheart’s heart, so the Museum had Oliver Cromwell’s Death Mask. When Oliver Cromwell died, a wax mould was made of his features. Plaster-casts were made from the original wax mould and many now exist in museums both in this country and abroad.