Make the most of the British Museum

When the British Museum opened in 1753, it was the world’s first national public museum, free (as it still is) to all “studious and curious persons”. It contains a breathtaking collection of over eight million objects that paint an interconnected portrait of the world’s cultures. You could spend weeks here. But if you don’t have time to idly wander, start your visit with these collections. 

Photo: Carole Raddato[CC BY-SA 2.0)]/Wikimedia Commons

ART AND MYTH IN ATHENS

The Parthenon Sculptures | Room 18

These beautiful friezes and sculptures formed part of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens, built between 447 and 438 BC. They were removed in 1805 by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in an attempt to save them from further degradation, but the British Museum’s possession of the Elgin Marbles, as they came to be called, has long been a subject of intense controversy.

What to look for: The rivetting horse’s head, with its bulging eyes and veined cheeks, exhausted from drawing the chariot of the moon across the night sky.

 

Photo: Matt Neale [CC BY 2.0]/Wikimedia Commons

THE KEY TO THE ANCIENT WORLD  

 

The Egyptian Galleries | Room 4

 

This long, spectacular gallery, stretching almost the length of the museum’s west side, houses sculptures and artifacts from about 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian civilisation. It features spectacular busts, elaborately engraved sarcophagi and the museum’s most popular exhibit — the Rosetta Stone, dating from 196 BC and inscribed with near-identical texts in three scripts, which allowed linguists to develop an understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs through comparison.

 

What to look for: A giant sculpture of a scarab beetle, with tenderly carved and curving legs, and an enormous bust of Ramesses II, which inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias.”

Photo: geni [CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0]/Wikimedia Commons

A SPECTACULAR ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY 

 

Sutton Hoo Ship Burial | Room 41

 

The 1937 discovery of an Anglo-Saxon ship dating from around 600 AD was an astonishing find of royal treasures. The 88.5-foot long ship was an archaeologist’s dream, packed with treasures, including gold jewellery, Byzantine silverware, a magnificent casket and an iron helmet. It may have been the burial place for an Anglo-Saxon king.

 

What to look for: Made of iron and covered with copper panels that show a range of scenes, the Sutton Hoo helmet is one of only four surviving helmets from the period. It has a distinctive shape and a menacing face-mask with copper eyebrows that are inlaid with silver wire and garnets, ending in a silver boar’s head.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

THE INVENTION OF PORCELAIN 

 

Chinese Ceramics 

(Sir Percival David collection) | Room 95

 

This stunning collection of more than 1,700 Chinese ceramics is outstanding for its beauty, rarity and historical value. Some pieces date back to the invention of porcelain around 2,000 years ago.

 

What to look for: The David Vases, probably the most important blue-and-white porcelain pieces in existence, have inscriptions near their tops that date them to 1351. Sir Percival David reunited the vases in 1935, after buying them from two separate collections.

Photo: Carole Raddato[CC BY-SA 2.0)]/Wikimedia Commons

THE SPORT OF KINGS

Assyrian Lion Hunts | Room 10

 

The sculpted reliefs on alabaster panels that line this gallery illustrate the extravagant hunting rituals of the last great Assyrian King, Ashurbanipal, who lived between 668 and around 630 BC. The panels depict a full story, from the release of the lions to the subsequent chase, the showering of arrows and the killings that marked the king’s prowess and power.

 

What to look for: The little boy who releases the lions from their cage at the start of the sequence is a small, but charming detail.

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