January 14: First Trip to the British Museum

First trip to the British Museum today! We had to meet at the museum at 11, so we took the tube-the Piccadilly line to Holborn, then walked to the museum. The program had arranged for us to meet up with a guide (the same one who had taken us on the walking tour and the bus tour), who took us to some of the "big" artifacts in the museum, and gave us detailed backstory about them. While it was nice to hear detail about such things as the Lindow Man and the Lewis Chessmen, I was pretty familiar with most of the things we saw with the guide: The Rosetta Stone, the Friezes from the Parthenon, the Sutton Hoo Treasure, the Assyrian Lion Hunt panels, and the Lamassu of Nimrud.

After the tour, I split off with a few friends for lunch (a toasted Brie and bacon and greens sandwich...yum!), and then explored a bit. We focused on the Medieval England and Europe galleries, but strayed into 17-18th century British galleries, ancient Roman-Britain galleries, and the ancient Iranian gallery. Wow. Looking at the pre-Roman British Isles artifacts was really interesting. We saw shields, weapons, tools, jewellry, cookware, and everything imaginable. My favorites were, of course, the Sutton Hoo treasure, elaborate Celt carvings in stone and metal, and all the beautiful jewellry. I tried to take pictures of some of what I thought were highlights:

"The Burghead Bull," Pictish carving, 7th Century AD, Scotland

Not sure what this one is; I just really liked this silver brooch

LOVED these earrings!

Rubies, diamonds and emeralds...oh my!

Miniature Figure

"The Great Torque," 100 BC

"Horned Helmet," 150-50 BC, found in the River Thames, possibly an offering to a river spirit

Queen from "The Lewis Chessmen," carved from a walrus tusk, probably 12th Century (One of the best-known pieces in the museum)

Bishop from the "Lewis Chessmen"

6-7th Century AD: famous ship burial and treasure, unearthed near Sutton Hoo, England, 1939

Helmet from Sutton Hoo

Famous Gold Belt Buckle from Sutton Hoo

Purse Ornament from Sutton Hoo (Garnet, Lapis and other inset stones)

Shoulder clasps, Sutton Hoo

I was also very intereested in the museum's collection of jewellry, decorative tile, and glassware from the 17-1800s. The tiles they had on display were absolutely amazing. My favorites were the ones painted with floral designs in rich shades of blue, green and purple. Someday, I'd really like to translate them into stained glass. I also really, really enjoyed the jewellry in this gallery, both the precious pieces and the more ornamental pieces with glass or crystal. One of my favorite pieces in the museum is a little bird brooch, set with bright purple sparkling Bohemian glass chips from the 1800s. I also liked a set of little gold birds with blue flowers in their beaks from the mid-1800s. The plaque said that they once carried messages in them, possibly proposals of marriage. Some of the glassworks in this gallery were incredible. Many were hand-blown with colorful streaked glass and beautiful textures and shapes. I will definitely be re-visiting this gallery in the future.

I just loved this little brooch

One of my favorite tile patterns

Another favorite

A very poor picture, but this piece was really beautiful, with fish swimming above and below brilliantly colored peacocks

Another bad picture, but this phoenix-looking bird was just gorgeous, incorporating more pink tones than most of the other pretty tiles

A picture of the beautiful roof of the Museum's courtyard

The Rosetta Stone!

Scenes from the frieze of "The Lion Hunt" of Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC) at Nineveh. I studied these images extensively in an Art History class at Madison. They're exquisite, but very, very disturbing.

These came from the Parthenon in Greece. Originally, they were the decorations on the front pediment, the triangular bit over the main entrance. They probably depicted Apollo driving his horses out of the sea at the far left, Heracles, Persephone and Demeter, and someone running to tell the news of Athena's miraculous birth. In the center there would have been statues of Athena and Zeus, and on the right hand side, there are more figures of other gods including Aphrodite, and this horse head is one of the team of the moon goddess, who drives her chariot into the far right.

And here's me with my friends Sarah and Allie, in the courtyard in front of a really neat-looking lion whose story I forgot to read.