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- 4 sept. 2022, 21:54
- ⛅ 20 °C
- Altitude: 27 m
- AngleterreLambethVauxhallVauxhall Station51°29’9” N 0°7’30” W
The British Museum
4 septembre 2022, Angleterre ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
I really wasn't sure what to expect. I knew the British Museum was famous, that it was good to visit, that I would probably become excited by something I saw in there, but dear reader, I was unprepared for this vast collection to have such a powerful impact. It utterly blew me away. The branding of the Museum says that 'it is a museum of the world, for the world'. I think it makes that grade admirably.
We started our journey through its cavernous halls with its ancient China collection. Dragons, jewellery, jade, warrior uniforms, pagodas, Buddhas, some dating back to the time of Christ and Caesar, some even before that. I was stunned by just how beautiful some of these Chinese artifacts were.
We had already decided not to try to see the whole Museum. You could not do it justice scooting through its halls in such a manner, so we purposed to see just a few things. Next was the ancient Persian exhibition, the forerunner of modern Iran. The size of the Persian Empire surprised me. It was vast.
We skipped Egypt, as we had seen Egyptian antiquities before. From here we went into early Roman Britain and saw the Roman garrisons and towns in early Britain. An amazing set of artifacts.
Then onto Anglo-Saxon Britain, the highlight of which was the Sutton Hoo collection. I used to teach Sutton Hoo to junior High Schoolers, so to see the famous Suton hoo mask with its dark bottomless eyes looking back at me was just stupendous. The mask is of course exactly like every picture I have ever seen of it; shiny, golden, foreboding, scary.
Finally, our feet, apropos of their surroundings, declared 'satis est satis' and we decided to have a sit down and work out which of the many exhibitions we would finish off on. The decision was made; the Rosetta Stone (yes, they have it there), and the Elgin Marbles, although the Museum seems to have read the room on the taking of priceless artifacts from their indigenous coutries, as Lord Elgin did of the Parthenon steles from 1801 to 1812, and now calls them, the Parthenon Marbles.
The Rosetta Stone, another piece of exciting hsitory I used to teach to junior High Schoolers, was there with lots of people standing in front of it. I waited patiently, wove myself in, and took the shot. I got it. The Rosetta Stone of course was the key to unlocking the secret to reading Egyptian hieroglyphics. It has an inscription on it written in three languages: hieroglyphics, Demotic, the vernacular of the ancient Egyptians, and ancient Greek. The scholars were able to use the Greek as a key to decipher the hieroglyphics opening up the whole discipline of Egyptology. What a story!
Finally, the Parthenon Marbles. What can I say? They are the originals straight off both ends of the Parthenon, dating from the fifth century BCE. They are incredible. Depicting various scenes of the Greek gods as well as warriors, and even a set showing a fight between a human and a centaur. The Marbles collection is large. There's a lot to see. They have their own purpose-built wing.
We couldn't help but take a quick look through the other ancient Greek and Hellenic wing where there were statues of the gods and giant columns and jewellery to excite the last curious school child. Fabulous stuff.
We left the British Museum all the richer for our experience and thinking that if we ever get back here again, it would be worth another visit.
By that time, hunger had hit, so it was off to a local pub, The Plough, which was frequented in times past by the Bloomsbury Group, poets, thinkers and writers all, including Virginia Woolf. Fish and Chips for me and a half pint of Camden's Lager to wash it all down.En savoir plus
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