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BRITISH MUSEUM-LONDON-UK

HISTORY:

The British Museum is the world’s oldest national public museum. It was founded in 1753 when Sir Hans Sloane left his collection to the nation. Before the Museum could open to the public, a suitable site needed to be purchased. One of the locations considered was a place called Buckingham House, which was later rebuilt as Buckingham Palace.

Until the late 19th century, the Museum was lit by natural daylight. Candles, oil lamps and gas lamps were not used in the galleries for fear of fire. Therefore, the Museum was often forced to close early. This Museum became one of the first public buildings in London to install electric lighting which was in 1879.

Before World War two, planning for the evacuation of the British Museum’s treasures began in 1933 – a surprisingly early date. In 1938, the Museum and the National Library of Wales started work on a bombproof tunnel at Aberystwyth. The Home Office gave orders to begin the evacuation on the Wednesday 23 August 1939. Heavy sculptures that could not make the journey were housed in the Aldwych Tube tunnel. An air raid on 10 May 1941 resulted in the loss of some 250,000 books, the water from the fire hoses ruining most of those that survived the flames.

FACILITIES:

Opening time: Daily: 10.00–17.00 (Fridays: 20.30) More details

Getting there:

  • Address: Main entrance: The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG

                   Second entrance: Montague Place, London WC1E 7JW

  • Closest to the Museum are:

               Tottenham Court Road: 5-minute walk

               Holborn: 7-minute walk

               Russell Square: 7-minute walk

               Goodge Street: 8-minute walk

  • By bus:

              New Oxford Street: 1, 8, 19, 25, 38, 55, 98, 242 

              Tottenham Court Road (northbound) / Gower Street (southbound): 14, 24, 29, 73, 134, 390

               Southampton Row: 59, 68, X68, 91, 168, 188

Tickets: Free entry. Booking is recommended. If you want you can do the donation.

Floor Map:  You can either download it online or get it from the information centre at the time of arrival

TIPS

  • It is good to book the ticket in advance, even though it is free.
  • There is option for paid guided tour.
  • Library, study rooms and archive are open by appointment
  • Twelve objects to see with children trail
  • Visit the Museums on Friday as most of the London museums open until late.
  • Choose from a selection of object trails around the Museum.
  • Explore the Museum galleries with a FREE themed backpack filled with intriguing items and fun activities for under 5s. ( £10 deposit required, Limited availability)
  • Families with children of all ages can enjoy a range of free gallery activities.
  • Explore the other London attractions
  • BUY ME A COFFEE:  If my work is useful for you in any way and you want to say thank you, you can buy a coffee for me.” No amount is too small…the pennies make the pound😇”

10 things not to miss at the British Museum

  • Rosetta Stone ( on display in Room 4)                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                       (image credit: PICRYL | License details)
Rosetta Stone

The Stone is a broken part of a bigger stone slab. It has a message carved into it, written in three types of writing. It was an important clue that helped experts learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs (a writing system that used pictures as signs). The Rosetta Stone was discovered at Port Saint Julien, el-Rashid (Rosetta) on the Nile Delta in Egypt in 1799 CE by Pierre François Xavier Bouchard. He was an officer of engineers in Napoleon’s army. The stone was extracted from an old wall which was being demolished as part of the construction work on Fort Julien. One of his commanding officers (General Menou) realising its importance and sent it to Alexandria. The stone was later seized by the British general Tomkins Turner and so the artefact eventually found a permanent home in the British Museum in London.

  • SOPHILOS VASE     

                                                                              ( Image credit: ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Barbary lion skull:

This ancient Greek bowl and stand were made in Athens in around 580 BC to hold wine mixed with water for a feast. It got its name from the artist who made it (it is inscribed with the words ‘Sophilos made me’). The vase is decorated with scenes from Greek myth including the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, parents of the hero Achilles. The mythical hero was one of the greatest warriors of the Trojan War, the story of which is told by Homer in the Iliad.

  • The Parthenon Sculptures     

                                 (Image credit- Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
The Parthenon Sculptures

The Parthenon sculptures in London are an important representation of ancient Athenian civilisation in the context of world history. The Parthenon Sculptures are a collection of different types of marble architectural decoration from the temple of Athena (the Parthenon) on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. They believed to be constructed between 447BC and 432BC. They consist of: a frieze which shows the procession of the Panathenaic festival (the commemoration of the birthday of the goddess Athena); a series of metopes (sculpted relief panels). The British Museum houses 15 metopes.

The Parthenon has been a temple, a church, a mosque and is now an archaeological site. It had a significant damage throughout its long history, in particular in an explosion while it was in use as an ammunition store in 1687. Around 50% of the original architectural decoration on the Parthenon is now lost

  •  Bust of Ramesses the Great

                                                         (Image credit-Matt Neale from UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Bust of Ramesses the Great

This colossal bust of Ramesses II is one of the largest sculptures in the British Museum. However, it is only the top part of a much bigger seated statue of the king. The bottom part is still in the Ramesseum, Ramesses’ memorial temple on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes (modern Luxor). This is made of granite, one of the hardest materials to work with. It weighs about 20-tonnes. This monument quarried and chiselled from a single colossal rock from Aswan 200 kms away and transported to Luxor. It has been shaped mainly by sand abrasion technique i.e rubbing sand on it till it achieves the required finish. So, you can imagine the effort behind its construction, lacking the sophistication and tools that we have today.

  • Aztec serpent

                                                                            (Image credit-Andres Rueda, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Aztec serpent

Aztec The Double-headed serpent is an Aztec-Mexico sculpture might have been worn or displayed in religious ceremonies. It is a snake with two heads composed of mostly turquoise pieces applied to a wooden base. The mosaic design is made of pieces of turquoise, spiny oyster shell and conch shell. The teeth in the two open mouths are made from conch shell (Strombus). Two resins are used as adhesive: pine resin and Bursera resin (copal). In the mouths the resin is coloured red with hematite. Beeswax adhesive survives around the eye sockets.

  • Hoa Hakananai’a (Moai statue)

                                                                (Image credit-BabelStone, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Hoa Hakananai'a

Ancestor figure ‘moai’, called Hoa Hakananaiʻa (lost, hidden or stolen friend) made of basalt. It was taken from Orongo, Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in 1868 by the crew of a British ship and is now in the British Museum in London.It has been described as a “masterpiece” and among the finest examples of Easter Island sculpture. Though relatively small, it is considered to be typical of the island’s statue form.The island of Rapa Nui, located some 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from Chile’s Pacific coast, is well renowned for its moai statues, which are said to embody the spirit of a prominent ancestor.Dating back to between 1400 and 1650 AD, many remain on the island to this day, but several have been transferred to museums around the world.

The British Museum has been subject to a campaign by social media users in Chile demanding the return of a stone monument taken from Easter Island. The statue was  given as gifts to Queen Victoria in 1869 by the captain of HMS Topaze, Commodore Richard Powell. The Queen donated it to the British Museum.

  • Egyptian Mummies

                                                                                                      (Image creditGetArchive | License details)
Egyptian Mummies

The British Museum is home to many amazingly preserved mummies. But, perhaps the most impressive is of Katebet, Chantress of Amun which is wrapped in linen and bearing a striking golden mask, it  dates back to 1300BC. Rooms 62 and 63 contain objects connected with funerary practice in ancient Egypt including mummies, coffins, and other tomb artefacts. The galleries also show the use of modern technology for investigating mummies, with x-ray and CAT-scan images of some of the exhibits.

  • The royal Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal 

                                                                  (Image credit:British Museum , CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The royal Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal is shown on a famous group of Assyrian palace reliefs from the North Palace of Nineveh that are now displayed in room 10a of the British Museum. They are widely regarded as “the supreme masterpieces of Assyrian art”. Rooms 10a, 10b and 10c explore about 50 years of Assyrian history, in what is modern-day Iraq. Split across three rooms, these galleries display life during this period in Assyrian culture. On display are lion hunting reliefs, the siege of the city of Lachish and scenes from inside the palace of King Sargon II at Khorsabad. Visitors to Room 10a are greeted by a pair of colossal human-headed winged bulls. Intended as a supernatural guardian, these gigantic figures guarded the palace of King Sargon II at Khorsabad, and were intended to deter evil of all kinds from entering.

                                                                 (Image credit:Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Colossal statues of winged human-headed bulls from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Nimrud 859BC.

  • Samurai armour

                                                            (Image credit: Wikipedia Loves Art participant “Team_A”, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)
samurai armour

Using funds from the JTI Japanese Acquisition Fund, the Department of Asia has recently acquired a fine set of Japanese samurai armour and accessories dating from the 1700s. During the Edo period (1615–1868), Japan was largely at peace, so armour was more for ceremonial occasions than for battle. It was a beautifully decorative ensemble of finely crafted materials, including metal, lacquer, textile, leather and horn. 

  • India: Amaravati

                                                       (Image credit: I, Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Amaravati was one of the most important Buddhist sites in India which is in south-east India.(Room 33a)

Buddhism originated in north India and spread to other parts of the subcontinent in the third century BC.The Great Shrine of Amaravati, founded around 200 BC in what is now the state of Andhra Pradesh in the south-east, was one of the oldest, largest and most important Buddhist monuments in ancient India.

In the shrine, the stupa domed structure) contained a relic – perhaps of a famous teacher. Devotees honoured the enshrined relic by walking around the stupa in a clockwise direction. While doing so, they can benefit by viewing scenes from the Life of the Buddha sculpted on the railing that surrounded the walkway.

The shrine is in India, but here can see some of the sculptures, also known as the Amaravati Marbles. The Amaravati sculptures consist of carved relief panels showing narrative scenes from the life of the Buddha, as well as Buddhist emblems and symbols. They were used to decorate the outside of the stupa.

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