On sunday, we went to the British Museum
Jan. 21st, 2008 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emmelinemayWe're keeping a map of the museum, so we can keep a track of what we've seen and what we haven't.
I've always loved the Egyptian sections - in particular the colossus statues. The giant head and arm that have been there as long as I can remember are probably favourites. The idea that this dude was so rich and famous and wealthy that he could afford two colossal statues made of himself - and yet all these years later the statues have crumbled and fallen apart, the inscription is lost, and no one really knows who the statue is of.
OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Click on the pic for the gallery!
We also headed to the HSBC 'money' exhibition, which was really interesting. Africa was the last continent to develop a cohesive and widespread system of currency - while in America the first credit card was being developed, many parts of Africa were still using rock salt and metal tools as currency.
We also saw the 'Chancery Coins' - a pretty much priceless collection of coins that were sat in the vaults of the Bank Of England for 250 years. No one knows who they belong to. They were a deposit for a court case (Jones Vs Lloyd) which was never settled, and the money never claimed. The coins dates span hundreds of years, and display ever monarch from Henry VIII through the commonwealth to Charles II. It was probably someone's life savings (about £75).
I've always loved the Egyptian sections - in particular the colossus statues. The giant head and arm that have been there as long as I can remember are probably favourites. The idea that this dude was so rich and famous and wealthy that he could afford two colossal statues made of himself - and yet all these years later the statues have crumbled and fallen apart, the inscription is lost, and no one really knows who the statue is of.
OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
We also headed to the HSBC 'money' exhibition, which was really interesting. Africa was the last continent to develop a cohesive and widespread system of currency - while in America the first credit card was being developed, many parts of Africa were still using rock salt and metal tools as currency.
We also saw the 'Chancery Coins' - a pretty much priceless collection of coins that were sat in the vaults of the Bank Of England for 250 years. No one knows who they belong to. They were a deposit for a court case (Jones Vs Lloyd) which was never settled, and the money never claimed. The coins dates span hundreds of years, and display ever monarch from Henry VIII through the commonwealth to Charles II. It was probably someone's life savings (about £75).
