BRITISH MUSEUM TASK

On the second day of our trip to London we visited the British Museum. We had some free time in there, to look for some things on a list and take photos of them, as well as visit other parts and elements of the museum, which has a beautiful and illuminated central hall.

In this post I'm going to show and explain a little bit what we had to find in the museum.

The first thing on the list was the Rosetta Stone, which was in the room 4. This stone was found in 1799 and it contains three versions of a Ptolomy V's decree. One is written in greek, the other one in the Demotic Egyptian language and the other one in hieroglyphs. As greek was a known language, this stone allowed the experts to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs, which was a big achievement. 

We also had to find the Egyptian Mummies, in the rooms 62 and 63. And well, as it is known, mummies were a way to preserve bodies, using chemicals and being preserved in dry spaces. The most famous and popular mummies are the Egyptians ones, which were normally pharaohs and were preserved inside the pyramids. 

The next thing we had to find were the Assyrian lion hunt reliefs, in the room 10. This reliefs represent scenes of the Assyrian villages hunting lions. They are so realistic for the time they were done, and they are considered an ancient treasure. It is believed that the objective of these reliefs was to show the power of the Assyrian king and its warriors on the animal world, which was chaotic, and their aim to bring civilization into it. 

In room 18 we had to find the Parthenon sculptures. Those sculptures were in the pediments of the Greek Parthenon and they are considered some of the best examples of Greek sculpture. They represent different moments in Athenea's life, such as her birth or her competition against Poseidon. These sculptures submit to the triangular frame of Parthenon's pediments, that's why the author had to create the figures in different positions that could fit into the pediments. 

The last concrete thing we had to fins was the Cyrus Cylinder, which is considered the first world's declaration of the human rights. It was found in Babylonia in 1879 and it seems to be from the 6th century. The written thing on it is in the name of the king Cyrus and there he denounced the king Nabondius, for his opression of the population of Babylonia. 

We also had to look for something that wasn't ancient. We found an exposition called "Cradle to Grave" and it displays the number of pills a man and a woman took during their lifetime. There are about 14,000 pills, which is the average a British person takes during their life. 

And finally, we had to to find the most surprising or curious object we could. In my case, I found very curious these dresses used during Carnival in ancient civilizations. It was curious and I thought the dresses were well done.