London: British Museum

 Let's go to the British Museum!

  Loved the slogan on the ice cream truck....
...Often Licked but Never Beaten.

 The British Museum has an open courtyard in the center that now has a glass roof.
Admission is free technically, but they do have a boatload of greeters at the door encouraging you to donate. Or look cheap.

As opposed to the Louvre and the Vatican which are in extremely ornate, beautiful buildings, the British Museum has very simple decor. Both have their advantages: Louvre/Vatican give you the chance to admire a beautiful building along with the art, while the British Museum tries not to compete with the art and lets the displays be the stars.

 Interesting story along with this hoard...enlarge the picture and read the text.

 True to their reputation for being very punctual, the British Museum has a large display of clocks.

 They even have newer clocks on display. We waited around until noon to hear them all go off. They didn't.

This 100 year old clock can go about 400 days between windings.

 A clock created in the Black Forest.

 Cartier boxes.

 The Portland Font, made in 1797 of 22 carat gold. Commissioned by the Third Duke of Portland following the birth of his first grandson. What a grandpa!

 Marble busts from the 2nd century AD, from the Lullingstone Roman Villa in Kent. They are probably portraits of a rich family.

 They were found in a sealed basement where they were probably put for safekeeping, and probably left untouched for hundreds of years.

 From the Ribchester Hoard, found in 1796 by a clogmaker's son who was playing in the field behind their house. He found a mass of Roman military equipment including this spectacular bronze face mask. The hoard dates from the late first century or early second century AD.

 An iron tire and hoop found buried along with the accompanying cart at Garton Station, East Yorkshire. This probably dates to 300-200 BC.

 Here is a reconstruction of the cart, based on the impressions and pigments left in the soil from the rotted wood.

 They even had the history of money on display. Right up to the current year.

They did have a large Asian exhibit, but we didn't make it back to that area.

 Zeus

 Martin Folkes

Hercules

 Their rotating exhibit while we were there was on clothing from various regions of the world.

 For example, Oman.

 The Balkans

 More from Oman.

We could even purchase a replica of the Horse of Selene at the gift shop.

Not cheap though.

London: British Museum, Egyptian Collection

 The British Museum has an amazing Egyptian collection, and I've only captured a small fraction of it here.

 An Egyptian mummy.

A

  very interesting exhibit shows the animal mummies made by the Egyptians.

 Mummies of a fish and a kitten.

 Baboon mummy, with an alligator mummy partially visible also.

 Mummy of a young bull.

 Falcon mummy.

 The British Museum has an exhibit of Egyptian skulls.

 I put this on par with the Vatican displaying Egyptian mummies, but no Italian corpses. "It's okay to show theirs, but not ours."

 Until I found this display - a skeleton from Barnack, Cambridgeshire, England dating to 2350-2100 BC. At least the British Museum also showed a skeleton of someone native to England!

London: British Museum, Greek and Roman Collection

 Let's take a look at the Greek/Roman/Etruscan section of the British Museum. Here are some limestone Cypriot sculptures from 640-630 BC.

 I thought these two faces staring at each other was kinda cool.

Julius Caesar.

 Roman swastika-inlaid serving dish, from about 230 AD.

 My wife.

 Here's a tie-in to our trip to Rome: A photo of the Pantheon and a description of Hadrian.

Why, there's Hadrian now! On the left.

 An old Roman potty chair. Doesn't look comfortable.

 Roman dog tags. Woof!