British Museum

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Hi Everyone!
This is a detail of my trip to the British Museum and Library. Established in 1753 it is over 250 years old! The museum itself could be in a museum! It has artifacts from over 3,000 years ago. And Admission is FREE! It is truly a pleasure to be surrounded by so much culture and history! They have the Rosetta Stone! I got to see it in person! (I almost bought one of those cheesy Rosetta Stone paper weights, but I restrained myself.) Apparently it was found built into another building, someone was trying to reuse the stone. Very environmentally conscious of them. And I guess we are glad they did because otherwise, who knows what might have happened to it.

The collection of Egyptian artifacts is amazing. Apparently, British scholars went to Egypt 200 years ago and got permission to excavate and just took everything home with them! Great Plan!
Someone once described it as the best collection of artifacts that anyone every stole!
There was a special room displaying Chinese Pottery. There was beautiful intricate designs. It reminds me of a book I read recently called Wild Swans about three generations of women in China. The author lived through the cultural revolution. They burned books, destroyed temples and cultural centers, closed schools, defaced monuments, renamed streets, and did I mention they burned books? And the Chinese invented paper!
Imagine, if the pottery held in the British museum had been in China at the time, it would have been destroyed. Never to be seen again.

I also went to the British Library. I wanted to see the Magna Carta, but it is out being examined. I did get to see Shakespear's Folio, the Codex Sinaiticus: one of the first compilations of the Bible, the Diamond Sutra, and Beatles composition manuscripts!
Books are Wonderful!

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Photos

Rosetta Stone!
Discovered in 1799 by French Troops invading Egypt. Surrendered to the British Army in the Treaty of Alexandria 1801. Sent to the British Museum. Finders Keepers I guess.

Assyrian
Gigantically huge sculptures that Assyrians used to guard their doorways. There are at least 3 different sets of them in the Museum. They date to about 865 BC.

Sphinx Beard
They stole the beard from the Sphinx! I always wondered where that went!

Venus
Statue of Venus bathing. On loan from Queen Elizabeth.

Alexander the Great
From about 200 BC.

Alexander on a Stamp
He's so famous that, not only do people carve his head into rocks, they put it on stamps too!

Nereid Monument
A Lykian tomb monument found in Xanthos near Turkey. The style shows the influence of Greek and Roman culture on the Lykians. I had never heard of the Lykians before now! Apparently they had tombs and everything. I complete culture!

Elgin Marbles
Room full of sculptures take from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin. Museum claims he preserved them from damage.

Cute figurines
Terracotta figurines From Carchemish. 12-7th century BC. Scholars think they were toys. They are found buried with children. They are cute

Cowboy guy
A haniwa tomb figure from Japan. 500 AD. I like the hat.

Gourd sculpture
It looks like a sword, but its a gourd!

modern sheild
From Papua New Guinea. 1990

Scary sculpture
Garuda. From Tibet 19th century. Suposed to be a guardian figure. It would defiantly keep me away.

Ceiling sculputes
I have no idea what these are. But they were hanging from the ceiling! Interesting! Decorations perhaps?

War in Iraq
I hope you can read the text here. It is very sad.

British Library
View from in front of British Library

Comments

[John]

Elgin Marbles
I'm glad the British Musuem preserved this historical artifact but I wish the Greeks could have a piece of their history back.