Advertisement
On our second day in London our main target was The British Museum. This fabled collection has long haunted my imagination. From my two visits to the Parthenon, I well understood that I could not really envision the reality of the original Parthenon without seeing the marbles that formed the friezes and under the gables and pediments of that ancient shrine. The collection in London also includes one of the caryatids from the Erechtheum as well as pieces from the Propylaea and the Temple of Athena Nike. Better known, perhaps, is the Rosetta Stone that allowed translation of hieroglyphics.
The museum collection is more comprehensive than comprehensible. It seems to be arranged more by date than by geography, which to me seemed somewhat startling. There is a large room filled with Egyptian sculpture near the bespoke Parthenon room, and then Egypt appears again on the upper level near the treasures from Sutton Hoo. Nonetheless, like a giant cabinet of curiosities, it eventually grabs you with its wonders.
We started with the Rosetta Stone, that storied piece of stone carved in granite-like rock during the Hellenistic Age (323 BCE-31 CE, dated from the death of Alexander the Great to the
the Battle of Actium, which began the Roman Empire period). It reports a decree issued in Memphis Egypt in 196 BCE. Its importance lies in the fact that with a few minor changes, it gives the same wording in three different languages: Demotic Egyptian, Hieroglyphic Egyptian, and Greek. Since Greek was well known, the stone allowed translation of hieroglyphics, which had until this time defied understanding. Although it originally was probably displayed in a temple near Sais, some hundreds of years later it was moved, eventually finding utility as building material near Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile delta. There is was discovered by a French officer in Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. In 1801 it devolved to the British when the defeated French signed the Capitulation of Alexandria. Since 1802 it has been on display in The British Museum, and is the most visited object in the Museum.
Two rooms away from the Rosetta Stone is the giant torso of Ramesses II has been said to have inspired the sonnet Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Modern scholarship suggests that he never saw it, although he may have been well-known to him since it was not received in London until 2 years
British Museum 017 London UK 050522
Boy removing thorn from foot - Roman marble copy of Greek bronze original after Shelley's sonnet was composed. However, Shelley may have known about it from news reports. It was internationally know even form its time in Luxor.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Another fascinating exhibit is a collection of artifacts found in the excavations at Sutton Hoo. This set of artifacts was retrieved from excavations carried out just before World War II at a site first discovered as an ancient ship burial, then later as a series of
cemetery sites. Its real importance lies in the fact that it offers information about the Anglo-Saxon world which is without historical documentation.
In any discussion of museum collections such as this one must acknowledge the multi-ton elephant in the room: much of what is displayed came to the museum under circumstances that are dubious at best. In some cases, the required result is obvious. If artworks were stolen during wartime and later sold by the thieves, then they should be restored to the original owners. Frequently, the buyers knew or should have known that the works were purloined and should not have purchased them. It becomes much more difficult in other instances. The Parthenon marbles were collected from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin who claimed he had removed them from the Acropolis under a valid decree from the ruling Ottoman Empire, in control of Greece at that time (1801-1812). They had come to be scattered there when the invading Venetians lobbed a shell into the Parthenon which the occupying Turks were using to store gunpowder, causing a massive explosion that severely damaged the building and sent the pieces of the frieze flying all over the hill. At the time
of Elgin's recovery of the pieces, they were beginning to deteriorate from weathering and in some case being taken as building material. The Ottoman decree that Elgin claimed has never been found. But whether that decree actually existed or not, some might reasonably make the argument that Elgin saved the marbles from being lost. He paid for their transport using his own funds, and the British government has expended quite a bit of money to keep them safe and on display where they can be enjoyed. But they are Greek treasures, and Greece never gave them up.
There are other such examples of antiquities that are housed far from their place of origin, such as the magnificent Ishtar Gate in Berlin. Had this been left in place, would it have been destroyed in the Iraq war, or perhaps by religious zealots as happened to the ancient Buddhas in Afghanistan under the Taliban?
In this country we have had skeletons and mummified remains which museums have considered archaeological treasures while Native Americans have considered desecrated relatives.
I think these are difficult questions, and I don't pretend to have answers. Hopefully negotiations will result in acceptable outcomes for all.
I could go on and on about the objects in the Museum, but after several hours we bade it farewell and left for another wonderful place - Harrod's. At a time when large box retail stores are struggling, Harrod's appears to be doing quite well. It appears to specialize in top-of-the-line goods. It comprises 330 departments occupying 5 acres and 1.1 million sq ft of retail space. We finished our day of tourism with a drink in the Baccarat Bar, featuring hand-crafted cocktails using unusual ingredients and served in the eponymous crystal. If you go to Harrod's, you must go to the food section. It is astounding.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.375s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 60; dbt: 0.1175s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb