British Museum
Monday 08/13/2007 4:07 PM (In the United Kingdom: 9:07 PM)
On Friday, I discovered two more 40-page pamphlets by Milne at the British Library that I hadn't known existed, so I spent Saturday and today typing my own copies of them (they're sticklers about the copyright law in the photocopying room there, and these have been out of print since 1928 and 1941, so this was the only way I could get my own copy). But thankfully, the library isn't open on Sunday, so I had one last long walk around London.
The first stop was the British Museum, which is just down the street from my hotel. This post is all about what I saw there ...
It was packed with people, as you can tell, which made it difficult to follow along with the audio tour, and I ended up just roaming from room to room and looking at what caught my eye:
This is one of the attendant gods that stood at the doorway of the Temple of Nabu, Assyrian god of writing, 800 BC (I should confess up front that I don't have a good enough memory to hold all of this post's info in my head -- I took pictures of the descriptions of exhibits along the way).
This is "Lely's Venus," so named because a 17th-century painter, Sir Peter Lely owned it for a while. According to the museum guide, Venus is surprised by an intruder while she bathes, tries to cover herself, and has turned her head in the intruder's direction. It's made to be seen from all sides, though, as the museum's description states, "Tantalizingly, no perspective is fully revealing." This sculpture is believed to be a 1st or 2nd-century (AD) Roman copy of the Greek original, which no longer exists.
"Three Nereids." These are sea nymph daughters of the sea god Nereus. According to the museum guide, they are riding over the waves on sea monsters (though I don't see the sea monsters ... mabe they've gone the way of the nymphs' heads and hands?). These nymphs were believed to have escorted the soul of the deceased on its journey to the afterlife. 390 BC.
The Rosetta Stone. I guess I don't need to say anything else about this. If you don't know what it is, get yourself to wikipedia and look it up.
Ramesses II -- he ruled for 67years. This bust weighs over 7 tons and dates back to 1250 BC
This is the Shabaka Stone. It was inscribed by order of King Shabaka to preserve for eternity an account of the creation of the world in which Ptah, chief god of Memphis, plays a key role. You can't see it very well at all in this photo, but the entire stone is inscribed with writing. 710 BC, Memphis. (and that would be Memphis, Egypt ... not Memphis, Tennessee)
By this point, I was getting a little slap-happy. The crowd was so thick with people that it was impossible to spend much time with any one exhibit, let alone get a tourist-free photo of them (I've cropped the strangers out of most of these photos), and this museum is so big it could easily take a week to see everything, even if you had it all to yourself. I'd already decided it was time to leave, but on my way out, I discovered this foot. It was literally in a corner by itself, with no one visiting it, so I wandered over. It is called "Colossal Foot," which I think is extremely fitting, don't you? The museum guide had very little to say about it, but it does tell us that it's the foot of a senior god during the Roman empire -- I think it's second-century BC, but I could be wrong because the flash from my camera glared over that part of my photo of the plaque. So I sat with the foot for a few minutes and then snapped a photo of it.
While I was looking for the exit, I discovered the mummy room! Yes, real, live (well, not really alive, but you know what I mean) mummies! I neglected to note who these people were along the way, which I feel pretty bad about now. And really, I felt more than a little uncomfortable with all of these amazing Egyptian artifacts being housed in the British Museum in London. Especially the mummies ... wasn't the idea that they would stay where they were left so many thousands of years ago? It was a little like the sadness I feel for the pacing tigers when I visit the zoo, though I know that's a politically incorrect parallel to draw.
I have no idea where this is from or what it represents, but it's beautiful and a little scary at the same time, so I took a picture of it. After two hours, I still hadn't made it through all of the floors, but I'd finally found the main entrance/exit again, so I used it.
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