Dr Paul Roberts was enthralled by the past from a young age: ‘From very early on I would run into the house with handfuls of blue and white china that I had dug up in the garden and shout “Treasure! Treasure!” I think I must have been four or five when I did that.’ His love of archaeology and ancient history flourished through childhood, and it was following an inspirational visit to see Tutankhamun at the British Museum that he knew he was hooked. ‘Museum visits are very, very important,’ he reflects, ‘no matter what the age. You never know where they may lead.’

As Sackler Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean, Dr Roberts is responsible for the smooth running of the Department of Antiquities – an extensive division of the museum that covers Prehistory, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and Britain, and contains art and artefacts from almost the entire span of human history. This famously includes treasures such as The Alfred Jewel and a 300,000-year-old hand axe from Wolvercote, Oxford.

Museum visits are very, very important, no matter what the age. You never know where they may lead.Dr Paul Roberts

‘My job’, Dr Roberts says, ‘is to ensure that those objects are cared for in the broadest sense; that they are researched, shared, conserved, properly stored, and as widely enjoyed as possible. A curator should leave the collections better known, and in a better state than he or she finds them in.’

As one of five museums belonging to Oxford University, and Britain’s first public museum, the Ashmolean is responsible for sharing its collections both with the general public and with its academic partners. ‘We’re a university department, and we’re very proud of that,’ he notes. Exhibitions, for example, play an important role in enabling the department to engage both new and existing audiences, for its curators to share their work, and for academic colleagues to conduct research.

Higher education teaching within the department is also crucial, although as Dr Roberts emphasises, his team ‘facilitates learning with everything they do, even if they’re not formally teaching.’ From public lectures and gallery talks to exhibitions, permanent displays and the publication of books and articles, their purpose remains the same: to encourage engagement with the collections. ‘It’s wonderful to see people getting involved on so many levels,’ he says. ‘I walk about the galleries and see children looking at objects – one of whom may replace me one day.’

It’s wonderful to see people getting involved on so many levels. I walk about the galleries and see children looking at objects – one of whom may replace me one day.Dr Paul Roberts

Dr Roberts believes that stories lie at the heart of connecting people with the past. He explains that the artefacts on display are, in fact, ‘not artefacts at all – they’re possessions. They’re things that people used and touched and bought and loved and broke and threw away, or were even buried with. When we make the objects speak and make that connection with the people behind the objects, that’s the main thing.’

Thanks to generous funding from the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation, Dr Roberts’ post is endowed in perpetuity, ensuring that there will always be someone at the Ashmolean to oversee these outstanding collections of antiquities. ‘It’s great to think that there are people out there who share our enthusiasm for the ancient world,’ he says. ‘And it’s really quite a privilege to be able to do as your job something that you love so much that you’d probably volunteer for – although don’t tell the University that! It’s truly wonderful.’

The Ashmolean has launched an endowment campaign to raise £25 million by 2020, in order to secure key posts and underpin the ongoing conservation, care and display of its collections. Through this campaign, the museum will bring history to life for all of its visitors, for the next 300 years.