A Most Remarkable Inventory!

Just walking along the rod iron gates surrounding the British Museum, you feel the magnanimity of it all.  The Brits, presumably to the regret of many countries throughout the world, did an amazing job keeping track of all their countless pillages!  I think it's worth noting that the English certainly do not have a monopoly on pillaging; even someone as relatively unread as I can read just a few of ancient history's pages to know that the British only did what every civilization has done since the beginning of time when they were victorious in battle.  The primary difference is that they built a massive & fantastic museum to house it all & invited their public, & all others, in for viewing & learning.  Or at least, this is the case today & has been for much of the modern age.  Perhaps the fact that they were so dominant for so long & so typically victorious in pillaging the very best of what so many cultures produced, has not aided their long term public relations among the international community, but no one can deny that they've certainly done so with compelling style.  And did I mention that admission is free?!  At the risk of sounding Anglo-centric, the reality is that had it not been for the British, the treasures & gems of the world's civilizations would be lost to the world today & most of what we know of our world's history would be lost as well.  There is much to mourn in the suffering & persecution that came as a result of the colonization period, & the above is not intended to dismiss it, but it would be foolish to overlook & miss the world's good fortune that so many of man's collective treasures have been preserved & are available for those who care to seek them out.

On a much lighter note:  Fish & Chips!!  It would be a shame, & foolish on my part to head into the British Museum on grumbling stomachs, so we stopped at this spot on the way & picked up 3 boxes to go, to enjoy on site in the gardens outside the museum.  Kids thought these tables were the coolest: "can we get Union Jack tables for the backyard at our house?!"  

This is a rather tragic picture in my opinion; nonetheless, it is THEE Rosetta Stone!  The real one!!  It's heavily cased of course & there was no way to get a picture without multiple reflections, or at least not for this amateur!  This was also the point when my camera battery was dying, so the camera was acting up too.  Heading into this museum is really a bad time to realize that one's battery won't last!  Such is life.

How in the world does something like this get loaded onto carts, hauled down to a ship, loaded, & then sailed to London, then unloaded, then put on display in their museum, & actually make it through all that in seemingly one piece?!  Impressive.  Just flat out impressive.  The statuary & artifacts seemed endless & all of it is part of the timeline that the kids are learning with their Classical Conversations friends this semester, so it was especially exciting for them to see items made by Egyptians, Minoans, Myceneans, Babylonians, Hittites, those in Nineveh, Kush, the Assyrians, Israelites, Caainites, Phoenicians & countless others!

This is simply one of hundreds on display of course; it's also the last picture my camera took before the battery went completely dead!  It's hard enough for me to pull it together to simply mail domestic packages; how does one send something like this home??!!