Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (English: National Museum of Antiquities) is the national archaeological museum of the Netherlands. It is located in Leiden. The Museum grew out of the collection of Leiden University and still closely co-operates with its Faculty of Archaeology. The museum calls itself the national center for archaeology, and focuses on ancient Egypt, the ancient Near East, the classical world of Greece, Etruria and Rome and the early (prehistoric, Roman and Medieval) Netherlands.

The current collection of the museum is divided in the following categories:

In the central hall of the museum stands an original Egyptian temple, the Temple of Taffeh, which was taken apart in Egypt and reconstructed in the museum.

The collection of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden began with an inheritance in 1743. After the death of Gerard van Papenbroek his collection was bequeathed to Leiden University. The bequest comprised about 150 antiquities and was published in 1746 by a professor of the university. It was put on public display, but poorly taken care of until half a century later it would finally get an official curator. This curator was classicist dr. Caspar Reuvens, the world's first archaeology professor. Along with his duties as a professor at the university came the care of the archaeological cabinet, then consisting mainly of the Papenbroek inheritance.

Reuvens quickly added other collections from both within and outside Leiden to the university's antiquities. Antiquities from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam were transferred to Leiden with government support in 1825. Some pieces from the Thoms Collection were among the favorites of the director of the Amsterdam museum. It was agreed that these would not be moved to Leiden until after his directorship. These became part of the Leiden collection in 1844. In 1826 a collection of prehistorical materials arrived from the Museum of Natural History.

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