ISN’T a museum just a dusty building about the ancient past?

This is a question the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology seeks to answer in advertising its first exhibition since a radical, �1.9 million refurbishment.

But it need not bother as it opens its doors to an incredibly-varied, impressive array of old, new, small, tall, sharp, hairy and rude artefacts.

In a vast exploration of life, death and sex through the age of man, the museum’s line-up includes a 14-metre high totem pole from British Columbia (its tallest item), the rodent-nibbled ankle bones of a Roman skeleton (its only item which inspired a Sylvia Plath poem) and, perhaps most importantly, a jug covered in ornate penises - some of them with chicken feet pulling naked women around on chariots (its rudest thing).

All in all, it is a veritable smorgasbord of anthropological insight, each item more interesting than the last.

From around the world and spanning two million years of history, the museum boasts around 1 million objects - only 1 per cent of which can be on display at any one time - but you can rest assured this exhibition will include a Viking ironing board, a rare Snakes and Ladders board and some freeze-dried potatoes from Ancient Peru.

“This refurbishment is about more than reopening the galleries. It represents our desire to be open in other ways,” said director Nicholas Thomas.

“To be open about what we don’t know about some of our objects (are some fakes?); to invite the public in from the street via our new entrance, and to be open about the way in which many of our objects arrived here, which was a lot more ethical than many assume.”

The museum was founded in 1884 as a collaboration between town and gown in Cambridge.

The exhibition opens at the museum in Downing Street, Cambridge, on May 25.