Pitt-Rivers Museum
From Srafopedia
When Lyra looks for a private place to read the alethiometer in Will's Oxford, she is attracted to the University Museum because it looks like a structure she would see in her own world. Through it, she enters the Pitt Rivers Museum and views several exhibits, including a sledge that looks exactly like the one on which she was bound by the Samoyeds who abducted her from the gyptians.
Most interesting to her are the trepanned skulls, identified by the museum as dating from the Bronze Age. The alethiometer tells her that one belonged to a sorcerer who lived 33,254 years ago. She is observed by Sir Charles Latrom, who strikes up a conversation with her.
This museum visit proves important for several reasons. Because she has met Latrom there, Lyra accepts a ride from him when she is fleeing the investigators at Mary Malone's lab; this provides him an opportunity to steal the alethiometer. Secondly, Lyra's report to Mary Malone that the skulls in the Pitt Rivers are mislabeled and are much older makes Malone take an interest in what her strange visitor has to say, since Malone's investigations link the appearance of Shadow Particles to the development of human consciousness 33,000 years back.
