Antiquities

[ewx]

I came back from the British Museum with a Rosetta Stone jigsaw. I've finished the Hieroglypics and Demotic and am working on the Greek at the moment.

Last night my eyes were picking out Greek letters in the texture on the ceiling.

I took a lot of photos.

The parthenon frieze - perhaps better known as the Elgin marbles - provide a good opportunity to reflect on the rights and wrongs of carrying this stuff off to Britain, the same question applying to much of the material on display. Putting it all on display in one place certainly has value for the people who can get to that place, and London is not exactly out of the way; but I still can't help but feel that the Greeks and Egyptians have a point in wanting things back.

(The fairly numerous Assyrian artefacts are surely better off in London than today's Iraq, mind.)

Comments

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

The British Museum bookshop is a highly dangeorus place not to be attended too often, or too long before closing time, in my experience. The one round the back of the bit in the middle under the new roof. last time I was there I sadly failed to get into the museum at all.. Well done for getting away with bank account mostly intact!