The British Museum is the main museum in the UK and one of the largest museums in the world. Founded in 1753, opened in 1759. The magnificent building of the museum, stylized as Greco-Roman classicism, was built in 24 years by architect Robert Smork. It was originally opened as a collection of antiquities from the countries of the Ancient East ( ancient egypt, Ancient Greece, Assyria) but on this moment The museum also contains many drawings, engravings, medals, coins and books from a wide variety of eras, including antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The library of the British Museum contains over 7 million printed books, about 105 thousand manuscripts, about 100 thousand charters and charters, over 3 thousand papyri. Entrance to the British Museum is free. A funny curiosity: the museum staff includes six cats working as rat catchers. Since 1926, the British Museum has published a quarterly magazine, the British Museum Quarterly.
The British Museum in Bloomsbury (London), was established in 1753 on the basis of three collections - the collection of the famous British physician and naturalist Hans Sloan, the collection statesman and Earl of Oxford Robert Harley, as well as the library of the antiquarian Robert Cotton. Sir Hans Sloane Robert Harley Sir Robert Cotton. Base
The museum contains 10 sections, including - Prehistoric - Egyptian - Greek - Roman-British - Medieval - Renaissance - Oriental - Numismatic Section Numismatics includes coins and medals of various countries and eras, including ancient Greek, ancient Roman and Persian, etc. , as well as the royal collection of King George IV.
The extensive ethnographic collections of the British Museum contain monuments of culture of the peoples of Africa, America, Oceania, and others.
Many of the museum's acquisitions (such as the Rosetta Stone) came to England under dark circumstances. Greece and Egypt, from which the ancient monuments were taken, still demand their return back. In the 19th century, the British Museum experienced a particularly turbulent period of growth. The collection was divided into sections and and completely classified. In the first half of the 20th century, the museum expanded its collections of Middle Eastern art through numerous excavations by British archaeologists in Mesopotamia.
British Library (The British Library) Initially, one of the main treasures of the museum was its library, the largest in the UK. It arose in 1753 on the basis of Sir Hans Sloan's book collection, which included Anglo-Saxon and Latin medieval manuscripts, acquired by him from Robert Cotton and Robert Harley. King George II supported the initiative and presented the museum with a royal library, and with it the right of legal deposit for all books published within the UK. The reading room of the British Museum has been located since the 1850s in a separate rotunda building, where Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin worked. In the 20th century, the library received the oldest printed books and Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang, the Codex Sinaiticus from Leningrad, and an exceptional collection of Hebraic texts. In 1972, the British Parliament decided to separate the library from the museum, placing it in a separate building. Thus the British Library was born.
Codex Sinaiticus of the Bible List of the Bible in Greek, with a partial Old Testament and a complete New Testament. It is now considered the oldest uncial parchment manuscript of the Bible. Along with other ancient manuscripts, the Codex Sinaiticus is used by textual critics for constructive or summary criticism in order to restore the original Greek text of the Bible. The codex was discovered by the German scientist Konstantin von Tischendorf in 1844 in the Sinai Monastery. The Codex Sinaiticus, along with the most ancient papyri, as well as the Alexandrian, Vatican and some other ancient codes, is one of the most valuable sources that allow textual critics to recreate original text new testament books.
Ancient Egypt and Nubia - Rosetta Stone - The largest collection of mummies and sarcophagi outside of Cairo - Giant stone statues of Egyptian pharaohs (including the "Younger Memnon" from the Ramesseum) - Obelisk of Pharaoh Nectanebo II - A piece of the beard of the Great Sphinx - Abydos list of pharaohs - 95 of 382 tablets of the Amarna Archive - Mathematical Papyrus of Ahmes. Collection gems:
Granodiorite slab found in 1799 in Egypt near small town Rosetta (now Rashid), not far from Alexandria, with three texts identical in meaning engraved on it, including two in ancient Egyptian - inscribed ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Egyptian demotic writing, and one in ancient Greek. Rosetta stone e. Egyptian priests addressed Ptolemy V Epiphanes, another monarch from the Ptolemaic dynasty. The stone is a fragment of a large stele. Subsequent searches did not find any additional fragments. Due to damage, none of the three texts is absolutely complete. The Greek text contains 54 lines, of which the first 27 are preserved in their entirety, while the rest are partially lost due to a diagonal spall in the lower right corner of the stone.
The Abydos list Was found in the area now bearing the name of Arabat-el-Madfune, on the left bank of the Nile, by the French consul general Milio. Here, in the ancient temple of the city of Abtu (Abydos), Ramses II inscribed an inscription in which he pays tribute to his ancestors. All the names of the ancestors were up to fifty, but of them no more than thirty survived; Ramesses' own cartouches have twenty-eight repetitions. This list is a selection from the entire series of Ramesses' ancestors, made arbitrarily or for some reason that is not available to us; the beginning of this table has not been preserved. Enumerating the ancestors of Ramesses, the list suddenly passes from the pharaohs of the XVIII dynasty to the kings of the XII dynasty, as if linking these dynasties. Then in the list are 14 cartouches of more ancient pharaohs. The table of Abydos helped Champollion place the pharaohs of the 18th dynasty and later served as a guide for Lepsius to identify the kings with the names Amenemhat and Senusret with the kings of the 12th dynasty of Manetho. The Abydos table was thoroughly analyzed by the scientists Deveria and Rouger. A list listing the names of the pharaohs from the temple of Ramesses II.
The Papyrus of Ahmes is an ancient Egyptian textbook of arithmetic and geometry from the Middle Kingdom period, transcribed c. 1650 BC e. by a scribe named Ahmes on a papyrus scroll 5.25 m long and 33 cm wide. The papyrus includes conditions and solutions for 84 problems and is the most complete Egyptian problem book that has survived to this day. Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, located in the State Museum fine arts named after A. S. Pushkin, is inferior to the papyrus of Akhmes in completeness (it consists of 25 tasks), but surpasses it in age. It has been established that the original from which the papyrus of Ahmes was copied belongs to the second half of the 19th century BC. e. ; the name of its author is unknown. Some researchers suggest that it could be compiled on the basis of even more ancient text III millennium BC. e.
The Amarna Archive The Tel el-Amarna Archive is a collection of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the government of Ancient Egypt and its representatives in Canaan and Amur during the New Kingdom. The correspondence was found in Amarna (the modern name of the capital founded by Pharaoh Akhenaten in Upper Egypt). Among the writing systems, Akkadian cuneiform predominates, although it is more of a script ancient Mesopotamia rather than Ancient Egypt. To date, 382 tablets are known. The Amarna correspondence is written primarily in Akkadian, the language of international communication in the Middle East during the New Kingdom. The archive was discovered by local residents in 1887. The finds were secretly taken out and sold to antique dealers. The first archaeologist to undertake a systematic study of the site of the discovery of the correspondence was William Flinders Petrie in 1891-1892. Under his leadership, 21 fragments of correspondence were discovered. Emile Chassina, who headed the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, found 2 more tablets in 1903.
The Ancient East The largest collection of antiquities from Mesopotamia outside of Iraq: - Standard of war and peace from the Sumerian city of Ur - One of the Ur harps and the board game of the king of Ur - "Sheep in the thicket" - paired statuettes 4500 years ago - The prism of Sennacherib, the cylinder of Nabonidus and the cylinder of Cyrus - Collection of bas-reliefs from Nimrud, Nineveh, Dur-Sharrukin - Cuneiform archive of Ashshurbanipal, including a clay tablet describing the flood - Black obelisk of Shalmaneser III - Oxus treasure from the territory of modern Afghanistan - Balavat gates of Shalmaneser III
The standard of war and peace is a pair of inlaid decorative panels discovered by the expedition of Leonard Woolley during excavations of the Sumerian city of Ur. On each of the plates, on a lapis lazuli background, scenes from the life of the Sumerians are lined with mother-of-pearl plates in three rows. The artifact dates from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Dimensions 21, 59 by 49, 53 cm. Standard of War and Peace "War" "Peace"
Prism of Sennacherib A hexagonal clay prism found among the ruins of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Height - 38 cm, width - 14 cm. Created during the reign of the Assyrian king Sennacherib. Dated 691 BC. e. Cyrus Manifesto The Cyrus Cylinder is a clay cylinder on which Cyrus the Great ordered to engrave in cuneiform a list of his victories and merciful deeds, as well as a list of ancestors. The artifact was discovered during the excavations of Babylon in 1879 and entered the British Museum. The cylinder became widely known after the last Shah of Iran in the 1960s proclaimed the text applied to it as the first ever declaration of human rights: Cyrus speaks for the abolition of slavery and freedom of religion. Shah promised to build his policy in accordance with the precepts of the founder of Persian statehood.
Black obelisk of Shalmaneser III The black obelisk is an obelisk 198 cm high, carved from black limestone by order of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III and installed in Nimrud c. 825 BC e.
Oxus Treasure A collection of 170 gold and silver items dating back to the reign of the Achaemenids (from 550 to 200 BC), found in 1877 on the ruins of an ancient settlement on the banks of the Amu Darya (Oxus) River in the territory of modern Tajikistan (Ancient Bactria). Stored in the British Museum. Contains 1300 coins, vessels, figurines, bracelets, medallions, plaquettes, magnificent gems. The products of the Amu Darya treasure reflect the traditions of Achaemenid art, as well as local Greco-Bactrian art and the Scythian "animal style".
Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome— Elgin marbles from the Athenian Acropolis — One of the six caryatids of the Erechtheion — Fragments of the frieze of the Temple of Nike Apteros — Sculptural frieze of the Temple of Apollo in Bassae — Fragments of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: statues of Mausolus and Artemisia, a frieze depicting Amazonomachia — Nereid monument from Xanthos — Materials from the excavations — Townley's collection of antiquities from Hadrian's Villa, including the Discus Thrower - Warren Cup, Lycurgus Cup and Portland Vase
An unsurpassed collection of ancient Greek art, mainly from the Acropolis of Athens, which was brought to England in early XIX century by Lord Elgin and is now kept in the British Museum. Lord Elgin, being the British ambassador in Constantinople at the time Napoleonic Wars, after long negotiations with the Turkish government, he began to collect fragments of ancient Greek art (mainly plastic). Marbles of Elgin The Turkish government, which showed no interest in the masterpieces of antiquity, allowed the export of everything collected by Elgin to London. It took 10 years - from 1802 to 1812, and part of the cargo in 1804 sank near the island of Kiefer, but was subsequently raised to the surface. In 1806, Elgin returned to his homeland, and for 10 years the collection remained his private property, after which it was bought by the state and placed in the British Museum.
Temple of Nike Apteros (that is, wingless victory) Ancient Greek temple on Athenian Acropolis located southwest of the Propylaea. Built by Callicrates in 427-421 BC. e. according to the project of 450 BC. e. The temple is dedicated to Athena Nike. The building is an amphiprostyle with two Ionic porticos with four columns. The stylobate has three steps. The continuous Ionic frieze depicted episodes of the Greco-Persian wars and the gods - Athena, Poseidon and Zeus. The temple is made of marble. Inside stood a statue of Athena holding a helmet in one hand and a pomegranate in the other, a symbol of the victorious world.
Statue of Mausolus Mausolus was actually the ruler (satrap and king) of Caria independent of the Achaemenids in 377-353. BC e. He took part in the uprising of the satraps of Asia Minor against Artaxerxes II, but left the struggle in time to avoid defeat. He moved the capital of Caria from ancient Milas to coastal Halicarnassus, thereby emphasizing his intention to expand the boundaries of his possessions at the expense of the nearby Greek islands. He managed to subdue part of Lycia and some of the Greek cities of Ionia. In order to extend his influence to Rhodes and Kos, he supported the islanders in the Allied War with Athens. Mausolus' admiration for the Hellenic culture allows us to consider him the most important forerunner of Hellenism. The Greek arts and sciences flourished in his court. His sister and wife Artemisia III appointed a reward to the one who would compose the best eulogy in honor of Mausolus. Navcrates, Isocrates, Theodect and Theopompus took part in the composition of this epitaph; the last one won. The same Artemisia built in honor of her husband in Halicarnassus a magnificent Mausoleum, a tomb monument ranked among the wonders of the ancient world.
Lycurgus Cup The only diatreta with a figured pattern that has survived from antiquity. It is a glass vessel 165 mm high and 132 mm in diameter, presumably Alexandrian work of the 4th century AD. e. Exhibited in the British Museum. The uniqueness of the goblet lies in the ability to change color from green to red depending on the lighting. This effect is explained by the presence in the glass of the smallest particles of colloidal gold and silver (approximately 70 nanometers) in a ratio of three to seven. The rim of gilded bronze and the foot of the vessel are the latest additions from the early Empire period. Portland vase When an attempt was made in the 19th century to make an exact likeness of it, the work (for which a £1,000 prize was due) proved to be so laborious that art historians concluded that the creation of the original should have taken at least two years. Noteworthy is the high-class technique of cutting on glass - evidence of the extraordinary talent of the glass cutter. The cameo figures he created are difficult to interpret based on our knowledge of ancient Roman mythology. One of the groups was described for a long time as Peleus and Thetis, the other as a prophetic dream of Hecuba about the destruction of Troy, but there are other, no less plausible interpretations. The Portland vase is an exceptional piece from the Hellenistic era.
Great Britain and Continental Europe - Cup from Ringlemere - Drape from Mold - Man from Lindow - Tablets from Vindolanda - Franks Casket - Materials from the excavations at Sutton Hoo - Chess from the Isle of Lewis - Gold Cup of Charles V - Reliquary for the Crown of Thorns - Numerous Anglo-Saxon hoards
Ringlemere Goblet A Bronze Age corrugated gold vessel discovered in a barrow at Ringlemere Farm near Sandwich in Kent, England, in 2001 by amateur archaeologist Cliff Bradshaw, who explored the area with a metal detector. Although the goblet was badly damaged by a plow blow, it can be seen that its original height was 14 cm. The goblet resembles pottery goblets of the late Neolithic Corded Ware culture, but is of a much later period. In Europe, only 5 such goblets have been found (for example, the goblet from Rillaton, discovered in Cornwall in 1837). All these finds date back to the period between 1700-1500. BC e. It is assumed that the goblet was not a funerary gift, but related to votive offerings not associated with burials, and was placed in the mound around 1700-1500. BC e. No burials contemporary to this period were found near the find, however, several later burials of the Iron Age were found, as well as an Anglo-Saxon cemetery.
Cape from Mold It is a product made of a single sheet of gold, dating from about 1900-1600. BC e. Refers to Bronze Age Europe. Discovered in Mold, Flintshire, North Wales, in 1833. Apparently, it was part of the ceremonial attire. The cape was put on the body of the person buried in a crude stone sarcophagus in the barrow. Together with the cape, the remains of coarse fabric and 16 fragments of sheet bronze were found, which, apparently, represented the base of the cape: in some places, gold sheets were attached to bronze with rivets.
The Lindow Man was the name given to a man who died during the Iron Age and was found in the Lindow peat bog near the village of Mobberley, Cheshire, UK. It is one of the best preserved bog bodies and one of the most sensational archaeological finds made in the UK in the 1980s. In order for the police to agree to turn over the body to archaeologists, it was necessary to establish that it belongs to ancient man. Scientists at the British Atomic Energy Research Institute radiocarbon-carbonated bone fragments from the Lindow man and found on August 17 that he had died at least 1,000 years ago. Secondary studies have given a more accurate dating, determining that his death occurred in 20 - 90 AD. e. The multiple and varied wounds have led scholars to speculate that the Lindow Man died during a ritual sacrifice by the Druids.
Franks Casket A carved box made of whalebone. It was found during excavations in France near the city of Clermont-Ferrand and transferred to the British Museum by the English antiquary Franks. The inscription, bordering scenes from ancient Germanic, Roman and biblical tales, carved on the Franks runic casket is the most significant among the early Anglo-Saxon runic monuments.
Chess from the Isle of Lewis 78 Medieval chess pieces from walrus tusk, which were discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland, along with 14 backgammon checkers and a belt buckle. There is an assumption that “figures were used not only for chess, but also for playing hnefatafl. Made in the 12th century by Norwegian carvers, apparently from Trondheim, where similar artifacts were found.
The British Museum in London is one of the most big museums in the world, human history and culture. The museum's largest collection, containing approximately eight million works, is the finest, most comprehensive, and largest in existence, spanning all continents, illustrating and documenting the history of human culture from its beginnings to the present day.
The British Museum was established in 1753 and largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753). Throughout his life, Sloan amassed an enviable collection of rarities and, not wanting to see the collection broken after death, he bequeathed it to King George II and the state. At that time, the Sloan collection consisted of approximately various objects, including approximately printed books, manuscripts, extensive specimens of stuffed animals, birds, as well as 337 herbariums, printed works of art from Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, ancient greece, Ancient Rome, products of medieval masters of Europe and Asia, collections of coins and medals, drawings, engravings, ethnographic collections. In December 1753, an Act of Parliament was adopted establishing the British Museum, and on January 15, 1759, the museum received its first visitors at Montague House in the Bloomsbury area.
The Library The British Museum's Reading Room is the main hall of the British Library and is located in the center of the Great Courtyard of the British Museum. Building a round room in the empty central courtyard of the Museum building was the idea of the Keeper of Printed Books - Antonio Panizzi and designer Sidney Smirke. Work on the Reading Room began in 1854 and was completed three years later. The reading room is surrounded by many shelves for books. They were made of iron to support the weight of books and protect them from fire. In total - three miles (4.8 kilometers) of bookcases and twenty-five miles (forty kilometers) of shelves. domed roof reading room metal and created in segments, the surface of which is made like papier-mâché.
Departments of the Museum 1. Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan 2. Department of Greece and Rome 3. Department of the Middle East 4. Department of Prints and Drawings 5. Department of Prehistory and Europe 6. Department of Asia 7. Department of Africa, Oceania and America 8. Department of Coins and Medals 9. Department of Conservation and Scientific Research 10. Libraries and Archives
Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan Rosetta Stone Statue of Imhotep Bust of Ramsess II The British Museum houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiquities, more than objects apart from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. This collection of great importance and quality includes objects from all periods and touches virtually every important site in Egypt and Sudan. Together they illustrate every aspect of the cultures of the Nile Valley (including Nubia) and span a span of over a year. Hall with mummies
Department of Greece and Rome The British Museum has one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections of antiquities: the Greek collection includes an important sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens, elements of two sculptures from the Seven Wonders Ancient World, Mausoleum in Halicarnassus and the Temple of Artemis. The Department also houses extensive collections of material from Cyprus, collections of ancient jewels and bronzes, Greek vases, Roman glass and silver of particular importance.
The Museum Today Today the Museum maintains its versatility in collections of artifacts representing the cultures of the world ancient and modern people. The original 1753 collection has grown to over thirteen million objects (70 million at the Museum natural history and 150 million in the British Library). As part of a large website, the museum has the largest online database of objects (individual entries and of them illustrated as of early 2012). There is also a "Highlights" database with older entries on more than objects, and several specialized online catalogs and online journals.
Right Bank (Rive droite) and Left Bank (Rive Gauche) – defined by the flow of the Seine, from East to West. The Eiffel Tower and the Latin Quarter are Rive Gauche. The Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe are Rive Droite. The Musée de Cluny is built on top of a Roman Villa and you can visit the Roman bath-house! It is the medieval museum for France. The Conciergerie was the Prison for those destined to be guillotined. It housed King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette and their children. You can visit the cells. The catacombs are the spooky tour, with millions of tastefully arranged skeletons in a hundred kilometers of subterranean passages – don’t get lost! Entry is near Metro Denfert Rochereau. The sewers – made famous by Hugo in his book, Les Miserables – are a fine working example of 19th century infrastructure. Entry is from a quai on the River Seine near Les Invalides. Chatelet near the Hotel de Ville is the world's largest Metro station covering twelve levels.
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The Hermitage
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One of the world-wide known museums is the Hermitage. The word "Hermitage" means "a place of solitude". This name was given in the XVIII century by Catherine II to her private museum housed in a small building adjacent to the Winter Palace and accessible only to the chosen few.
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In the course of time, the Hermitage grew into one of the greatest museums of the world. At the present, the collections take up five interconnected buildings. The museum retains its old name. The accumulation of artefacts let to the formation of new departments devoted to the culture and art of the Peoples of the East, of the Prehistoric culture, and of the Russian culture. Three other departments are those of Western European art, classical antiquities and numismatics.
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One of the rooms that impressed visitor the most is St. George Hall. The interior of the room is considered by experts to be a perfect example of the Classical Style. The room covers about 800 square meters, but does not seem enormous due to perfect proportions. It is decorated in the whitest marble and gilded bronze. The Throne Hall was used for column assemblies. Members of the Tzar's family, when coming of age, took their oaths here.
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The Leonardo da Vinci Hall is one of the most gorgeous interiors. The hall is decorated in the style of 17th century French Baroque. The Hermitage possesses two, out of 12 or 14 works surviving from Leonardo.
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Madonna Benua
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Madonna Litta
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The Rembrandt collection is one of the most treasured possessions of the museum. It members 24 canvases.
The Return of the Prodigal Son
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“The Holy Family”
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The Malachite Room reflects the style of 1889. The columns, pilasters, and floorlamps are veneered with thin plaques of rich green malachite. About two tons of malachite were used in decoration of the room.
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Story
The British Museum was established in 1753 on the basis of three collections - the collection of the famous British physician and naturalist Hans Sloan, the collection of Earl Robert Harley, and the library of the antiquary Robert Cotton, which became the basis of the British Library. The creation of the museum was approved by an act of the British Parliament.
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In the first half of the 20th century, the British Museum expanded its collections of Middle Eastern art through numerous excavations by British archaeologists in Mesopotamia. The section of Far Eastern art owes the most valuable part of its collection to A. Stein and P. David. The British Museum Quarterly has been published since 1926. At the end of the 20th century, a redevelopment of the interior space was carried out according to the project of Norman Foster.
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Initially, one of the main treasures of the museum was its library, the largest in the UK. The reading room of the British Museum has been located since the 1850s in a separate rotunda building, where Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin worked. In the 20th century, the library received the oldest printed books and Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang, the Codex Sinaiticus from Leningrad, and an exceptional collection of Hebraic texts. In 1972, the British Parliament decided to separate the library from the museum, placing it in a separate building. Thus the British Library was born. Library
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Masterpieces
Rosetta Stone The museum was originally conceived as a collection of antiquities from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Along with archaeological finds and art objects that were brought to London from all over the colonial agents of the British Empire, the museum was replenished with drawings, engravings, medals, coins and books from various eras.
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The pearls of the collection The standard of war and peace from the Sumerian city of Ur one of the Urn harps and the board game of the king of Ur "Sheep in the thicket" - paired figurines of 4500 years ago the prism of Sennacherib, the cylinder of Nabonidus and the cylinder of Cyrus a cup from Ringlemir a cape from Molda a man from Lindow tablets from Vindolanda Franks casket Materials from the Sutton Hoo excavations Chess from the Isle of Lewis Gold goblet of Charles V Reliquary for the Crown of Thorns Numerous Anglo-Saxon hoards