The British Museum

Website: http://www.britishmuseum.org

Yesterday, after my free Hare Krishna lunch, I visited the British Museum. I've visited the museum before but have never felt that I've seen very much of what's on display. This visit was an attempt to at least get an overview of its collections.

Part of the reason I wanted to visit the British Museum is that I've been listening to a Radio 4 series called The History of the World in 100 Objects. This is presented by the director of the British Museum and each 15 minute episode uses one object from the museum's collections to explain the history of some country or people or empire.

I felt the same sense of surprise as on my previous visits when I walked from the initial old-fashioned building into the modern geodesic-dome-covered courtyard:Even though I know this is what the inside of the museum looks like I always feel a shock - the courtyard and its roof look far too futuristic to be the 257 year old British Museum!

I quickly found a map and a guide to the 100 objects featured in the radio series. The 100 objects were spread all over the museum. This was both good and bad - good because it forced me to walk through displays I wasn't intending to see and bad because it made it very hard to see all 100 objects.

I set off to the first of the 100 objects - the Mummy of Hornedjitef - and found it in the midst of a busy room about the Ancient Egyptians. This was clearly a popular collection and lots of children were excitedly talking about the gory details of mummification.

My heart sank when I saw that the location for object 2 - a stone chopping tool - was a different floor at the opposite end of the building... At that point I decided I wouldn't be able to see all the objects and that perhaps I should just wander the galleries.

I took a detour to see a view of the courtyard and the roof from a high walkway:Dawdling through the galleries I came across some Babylonian clay tablets. I realised that, although I'd read about the Babylonian cuneiform writing system, I'd never actually seen any of it first hand. The first piece that caught my eye was a list of synonyms. I particularly liked the "ditto" marks that are used:Next to this was a piece which detailed the story of a huge flood with similar details to the Biblical flood story:
Pleased that I'd stumbled across something interesting I continued to wander aimlessly and found myself in a gallery about Roman Britain. This included an amazing "golden cape" that was found in a rich Roman's grave in Wales. There was also some very impressive metalwork from Roman times:
At this point I began to feel somewhat overwhelmed. More than that, I realised that this is what happens every time I visit the museum. I arrive in an optimistic mood, I see a few amazing and unique objects which trigger off all sorts of thoughts about the vastness of history, and then I start to feel overwhelmed and lose track of what era I'm looking at. Eventually I leave the museum feeling that I saw hardly any of the collection - I keep thinking about what other treasures I could have seen if I'd paid more attention.

Without following the dates I came across a pair of impressive drinking horns which I liked to imagine drinking from:I stopped taking photos at this point to concentrate on finding my way around. I passed through a whole room about the history of money, a glanced into a room all about clocks, a long gallery about the Ancient Greeks etc. At last I descended a grand staircase and saw that have items on display everywhere, even on the stairs:
When I emerged into a gallery again I was again in Ancient Egypt and saw giant stone sarcophagi, huge scarab statues etc.

By this point I decided to seek out a particular object I'd heard about on the radio show that sounded impressive. This was a double-headed serpent made by the Aztecs from around 2000 pieces of turquoise and shells! Having heard it described on the radio (e.g. how the red shells for the mouth were gathered by deep-sea divers) I felt I could appreciate it's beauty even more:After this I was completely done-in. I'd seen so many ancient and beautiful objects and each one had made me think about who had made it and how old it was and how they made it etc that I couldn't take in any more. I made one last dash through the "Age of Enlightenment" gallery back into the main courtyard. One last look at the postcards and I left.

Summary: A collection of historical artifacts that is exceptional in both quality and quantity. Definitely deserved several more visits.