Week of March 14th 2011: The British Museum (London)

Kevin realized it would be easy for him to meet me for lunch most days so he suggested that we go to the British Museum as well. The British Museum is built around historical artifacts that have been stolen collected by the British Empire.

Rosetta Stone

Their prized exhibit is of course, the Rosetta Stone. When I first learned about the Rosetta Stone, I figured it was something that could be carried easily, maybe the size of a large laptop. Boy was I wrong, this thing is about the size of a large child. And made of stone. No one is carrying that thing anywhere. It is always surprising to see these things in person just for that reason - to put a tangible scale to it. If I didn't travel I wouldn't know that Mona Lisa is tiny and the Rosetta Stone is huge. It may seem unimportant but that kind of thing makes these incredible artifacts real.

But I digress... After seeing the Stone, we continued on to the other Egyptian artifacts. Egypt has always seemed a little magical to me. I always loved learning about Pharaohs and pyramids, Egyptian gods and hieroglyphics so I have to admit that its always the first thing I go see in museums. I don't know, maybe its just the mutual love for cats? Anyways, it is always amazing to see giant caskets, tombs and sculptures. It's even more incredible to know that there is a distant land with even larger artifacts that I just can't wait to visit one day.

Sculptures from the Parthenon

After seeing Egypt we went to Greece. The British Museum is also known for having the largest collection of artifacts from the Acropolis outside of Greece. I have been to Athens and seen the Parthenon and Acropolis so I wasn't really expecting much from the exhibit. However, I didn't realize how much it had been missing. Greece has had a slightly tumultuous history with people constantly trying to conquer them and they always start with the highest peak. The Parthenon has seen many conflicts and a few bombs so it's not in the worst shape. When I went to Greece, they were trying to repair it as much as possible while still keeping the original work intact. Part of the problem is that many of the pieces are currently at the British Museum. I'm not going to say who has rights to what but the museum did do an amazing job of displaying the pieces with descriptions, models, and videos so that the veiwer could really get an idea of what it looked like before all of the destruction. I've seen the Parthenon but I had no frame of reference as to what it was supposed to look like until I went to the British Museum.

This was about the time Kevin had to go back to work but I was far from done with my exploring. History was never my strong point in school. It just never interested me then. However, now that I've been traveling more, I love it. I really regret not paying closer attention because I see a lot of things and dont have a huge point of reference. I spend as much time reading the panels as I do looking at the objects because I'm so eager to learn about everything I'm seeing. I could have spent days in that museum, but with a lot of other things to see I didn't have that much time. I did make it through most rooms although not with the same amount of attention. As with any person, I spent more time on the things that interest me.

Modern Money

When I found a special exhibit on money, I felt the need to spend a little time checking it out. It was actually really cool to see how currencies have developed throughout history - from metal to paper to plastic. The best part was that they had a special exhibit where you could handle ancient currencies. Some were big heavy metal bracelets, others were prickly sticks. Its a,azing how currency itself develops to the needs of the people using them. Don't have a wallet? Well, maybe your currency has a hole in it so it can be strung around your neck. Did you know the first pennies were itty bitty? The curator recommended I check out Wells Fargo's museum in San Francisco to see more interesting American coins. I need to get around to that...

Pharaoh skeletons

The other thing that caught my attention really made me kind of sad. I found a second wing of Egyptian artifacts. Thee were smaller items but along one wall they had some actual mummy corpses. While I know these were probably the bodies of some evil Pharoah who built his tomb at the price of many slaves' lives, it still seemed wrong to have them on display in a museum. They were still people who were buried and deserve to stay buried. There is just something disturbing about the idea. Anyways, the British Museum is a really fascinating place. I think it is definitely a spot I want to see again on my next trip to London.