British Museum
Established	1753
Location	Great Russell Street, London WC1, England
Collection size	13+ million objects
Museum area	13. Great Russell Street is a street in Bloomsbury, central London, England. The WC (Western Central postcode area, also known as the London WC postcode area, is a group of postcode districts in central London, England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland 5 acres (5. The acre is a unit of Area in a number of different systems including the imperial and U 5 ha) or 588,000 sq ft (54,600 m²) in 94 Galleries[1]
Visitor figures	4,903,000 (2006–2007)[2]
Director	Neil MacGregor
Nearest tube station(s)	Holborn, Tottenham Court Road, Russell Square
Website	www.britishmuseum.org

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Explanation The hectare is commonly used in most countries around the world especially in domains concerned with land planning and management such as Agriculture, Robert Neil MacGregor (born June 16, 1946 in Glasgow, Scotland) is an Art historian and museum director Holborn is a station of the London Underground in Holborn in London, located at the junction of High Holborn and Kingsway. Tottenham Court Road is a station on the London Underground, serving as an interchange between the Central Line and the Charing Cross branch of the Russell Square is a London Underground station on Bernard Street Bloomsbury in the London Borough of Camden. A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development open to the public which acquires conserves researches communicates and exhibits the London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Its collections, which number more than 13 million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present. ^[a]

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The wonders of the museum brought here to Bloomsbury from all around the world's imagined corners are numberless. Bloomsbury is an area of central London in the south of the London Borough of Camden, developed by the Russell family in the 17th and 18th centuries into How can they be named? As well tally each leaf of a tree. They come here out of the living minds of generations of men and women now dead – Greek and Assyrian, Aztec and Inuit, Chinese and Indian – who have conceived and carved and hammered and tempered and cast these objects to represent the worlds around them, visible and invisible. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who achieved political Inuit (plural the singular Inuk, means "man" or "person" is a general term for a group of culturally similar Indigenous peoples inhabiting Chinese civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River ( valley in the Neolithic era This article is about the history of South Asia prior to the Partition of British India in 1947 [3]

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The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. Sir Hans Sloane 1st Baronet, PRS ( 16 April, 1660 &ndash 11 January, 1753) was an Ulster-Scot Physician and The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. Events 588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah 's reign Year 1759 ( MDCCLIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Montagu House (sometimes spelled "Montague" was a late 17th century mansion in Great Russell Street in the Bloomsbury district of London, which Bloomsbury is an area of central London in the south of the London Borough of Camden, developed by the Russell family in the 17th and 18th centuries into Its expansion over the following two and a half centuries has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the British Museum of Natural History in South Kensington in 1887. The Natural History Museum is one of three large Museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London (the others are the Science Museum South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. Until 1997, when the current British Library building opened to the public, the British Museum was unique in that it housed both a national museum of antiquities and a national library in the same building. The British Library ( BL) is the National library of the United Kingdom. Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical A national library is a Library specifically established by the Government of a country to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country Since 2001 the director of the Museum has been Neil MacGregor. The Director of the British Museum is the head of the British Museum in London, a post currently held by Neil MacGregor. Robert Neil MacGregor (born June 16, 1946 in Glasgow, Scotland) is an Art historian and museum director ^[4]

As with all other national museums and art galleries in Britain, the Museum charges no admission fee, although charges are levied for some temporary special exhibitions. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands ^[5]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum 1.2 Foundation (1753) 1.3 Cabinet of curiosities (1753-78) 1.4 Indolence and energy (1778-1800) 1.5 Growth and change (1800-25) 1.6 The largest building site in Europe (1825-50) 1.7 Collecting from the wider world (1850-75) 1.8 Scholarship and legacies (1875-1900) 1.9 New century, new building (1900-25) 1.10 Disruption and reconstruction (1925-50) 1.11 A new public face (1950-75) 1.12 The Great Court emerges (1975-2000) 1.13 The Museum today 2 Governance 3 Building 4 Departments 4.1 Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan 4.2 Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities 4.3 Department of the Middle East 4.4 Department of Prints and Drawings 4.5 Department of Asia 4.6 Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas 4.7 Department of Coins and Medals 4.8 Department of Prehistory and Europe 4.9 Department of Conservation, Documentation and Science 4.10 Libraries and Archives 5 Controversy 5.1 Disputed Items in the Collection 6 Galleries 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links

History

Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum

Though principally a museum of cultural art objects and antiquities today, the British Museum was founded as a "universal museum". Sir Hans Sloane 1st Baronet, PRS ( 16 April, 1660 &ndash 11 January, 1753) was an Ulster-Scot Physician and "Ancient" redirects here For other uses see Ancient_(disambiguation. Its foundations lie in the will of the physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753). Sir Hans Sloane 1st Baronet, PRS ( 16 April, 1660 &ndash 11 January, 1753) was an Ulster-Scot Physician and During the course of his lifetime Sloane gathered an enviable collection of curiosities and whilst not wishing to see his collection broken up after death, he bequeathed it to King George II, for the nation, for the princely sum of £20,000. For the 2002 novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child see The Cabinet of Curiosities For the 2008 Jane's Addiction box set see A Cabinet of Curiosities George II (George Augustus 10 November 1683 &ndash 25 October 1760 was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg ( ^[6]

At that time, Sloane’s collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds^[7] including some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337 volumes of dried plants, prints and drawings including those by Albrecht Dürer and antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near and Far East and the Americas. A manuscript is any Document that is Written by hand as opposed to being printed or reproduced in some other way An old master print is a work of art produced by a Printing process within the Western tradition (European or New World Albrecht Dürer (ˈalbʀɛçt ˈdyʀɐ ( May 21, 1471 &ndash April 6, 1528) was a German painter, Printmaker Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC The Ancient Near East refers to early Civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq The history of the Americas is the collective history of North and South America, including Central America and the Caribbean. ^[8]

Foundation (1753)

On 7 June 1753 King George II gave his formal assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum. Events 1099 - The First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins Year 1753 ( MDCCLIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year George II (George Augustus 10 November 1683 &ndash 25 October 1760 was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg ( An Act of Parliament is a Law enacted as Primary legislation by a national or sub-national Parliament. ^[b] The Foundation Act, added two other libraries to the Sloane collection. This is an incomplete list of Acts of the Parliament of Ireland for the years 1701 to 1800. The Cottonian Library, assembled by Sir Robert Cotton, dated back to Elizabethan times and the Harleian library, the collection of the Earls of Oxford. The Cotton or Cottonian library was the Library compiled by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571 - 1631 an antiquarian and bibliophile Sir Robert Bruce Cotton 1st Baronet ( 22 January 1570/1 &ndash 6 May 1631) was an English Politician, founder of Romance and reality The Victorian era and the early twentieth century idealised the Elizabethan era Robert Harley 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer ( 5 December 1661 &ndash 21 May 1724) was an English statesman of the Stuart Earl of Oxford was one of the older titles in the English Peerage, and was held for several centuries by the de Vere family from 1141 They were joined in 1757 by the Royal Library, assembled by various British monarchs. TalkCommonewalth realm.--> The monarchy Together these four "foundation collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library^[9] including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving copy of Beowulf. The Lindisfarne Gospels is an illuminated Latin manuscript of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Beowulf is an Old English Heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between ^[c]

The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum - national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection, whilst including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. ^[10] The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary and antiquarian element and meant that the British Museum now became both national museum and library. Sir Robert Bruce Cotton 1st Baronet ( 22 January 1570/1 &ndash 6 May 1631) was an English Politician, founder of Robert Harley 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer ( 5 December 1661 &ndash 21 May 1724) was an English statesman of the Stuart An antiquarian or antiquary is one concerned with Antiquities or things of the past

Cabinet of curiosities (1753-78)

The body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. Montagu House (sometimes spelled "Montague" was a late 17th century mansion in Great Russell Street in the Bloomsbury district of London, which Montagu House (sometimes spelled "Montague" was a late 17th century mansion in Great Russell Street in the Bloomsbury district of London, which Ralph Montagu 1st Duke of Montagu (ca 1638 &ndash March 9, 1709) English Diplomatist was the second son of Edward Montagu 2nd Baron The Trustees rejected Buckingham House, on the site now occupied by Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost and the unsuitability of its location. Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. ^[11][d]

With the acquisition of Montagu House the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759. A library is a collection of information sources resources and services and the structure in which it is housed it is organized for use and maintained by a public body an institution Events 588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah 's reign Year 1759 ( MDCCLIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year In 1757 King George II gave the Old Royal Library and with it the right to a copy of every book published in the country, thereby ensuring that the Museum's library would expand indefinitely. George II (George Augustus 10 November 1683 &ndash 25 October 1760 was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg ( This office in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance The predominance of natural history, books and manuscripts began to lessen when in 1772 the Museum acquired its first antiquities of note; Sir William Hamilton's collection of Greek vases. William Richard Hamilton (1777-1859 was a British Antiquarian and traveller Thanks to its hardy nature pottery bulks large in the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because we have so much of it (some 100000 vases are recorded in the Corpus During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several further gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts and David Garrick's library of 1,000 printed plays, but yet contained few ancient relics recognisable to visitors of the modern museum. The Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts consists of more than 22000 pamphlets broadsides manuscripts books and news sheets most of which were printed and distributed in London David Garrick (born 19 February 1717 in Hereford &ndash 20 January 1779) was an English Actor, Playwright, A relic is an object or a personal item of religious significance carefully preserved with an air of Veneration as a tangible memorial

Indolence and energy (1778-1800)

From 1778 a display of objects from the South Seas brought back from the round-the-world voyages of Captain James Cook and the travels of other explorers fascinated visitors with a glimpse of previously unknown lands. Captain James Cook FRS RN ( – 14 February 1779) was an English Explorer, Navigator and The bequest of a collection of books, engraved gems, coins, prints and drawings by Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode in 1800 did much to raise the Museum's reputation however Montagu House became increasingly crowded and decrepit and it was apparent that it would be unable to cope with further expansion. ^[12]

The museum’s first notable addition towards its collection of antiquities, since its foundation, was by Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), British Ambassador to Naples, who sold his collection of Greek and Roman artefacts to the museum in 1784 together with a number of other antiquities and natural history specimens. William Richard Hamilton (1777-1859 was a British Antiquarian and traveller Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the A list of donations to the Museum, dated 31 January 1784 refers to the Hamilton bequest of a "Colossal Foot of an Apollo in Marble". Events 1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon. 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes Year 1784 ( MDCCLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year It was one of two antiquities of Hamilton's collection drawn for him by Francesco Progenie, a pupil of Pietro Fabris, who also contributed a number of drawings of Mount Vesuvius sent by Hamilton to the Royal Society in London. The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.

Growth and change (1800-25)

In the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. After the defeat of the French Campaign in the Battle of the Nile, in 1801, the British Museum acquired more Egyptian sculpture and in 1802 King George III presented the Rosetta Stone - key to the deciphering of hieroglyphs. By 1799, the French Revolutionary Wars had resumed after a period of relative peace in 1798. The Battle of the Nile or Aboukir Bay (August 1-2 1798 saw a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson defeat a French George III (George William Frederick 4 June 1738 George III's long reign was marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdom much of the rest of Europe and places The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact (حجر رشيد in Arabic which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing ^[13] Gifts and purchases from Henry Salt, British Consul General in Egypt, beginning with the Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, laid the foundations of the collection of Egyptian Monumental Sculpture. Henry Salt ( June 14, 1780 &ndash October 30, 1827) was an English artist traveler diplomat and Egyptologist. A consul general heads a Consulate general and is a consul of the highest rank serving at a principal location and usually responsible for other consular offices within The Younger Memnon statue is one of two colossal granite heads from the Ancient Egyptian mortuary temple called the Ramesseum at Thebes, depicting the ^[14] Many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the Charles Towneley collection, much of it Roman Sculpture, in 1805. Charles Townley or Towneley (1737–January 3 1805 English antiquary and collector of marbles was born at Towneley, the family seat near Burnley In 1806, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803 removed the large collection of marble sculptures from the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens and transferred them to Britain. Thomas Bruce 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine ( July 20, 1766, Broomhall Fife - November 14, 1841, Paris) The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish The Parthenon ( Ancient Greek:) is a temple of the Greek goddess Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the Athenian Acropolis The Acropolis of Athens is the best known Acropolis (high city The "Sacred Rock" in the world Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's In 1816 these masterpieces of western art, were acquired by The British Museum by Act of Parliament and deposited in the museum thereafter. ^[15] The collections were supplemented by the Bassae frieze from Phigaleia, Greece in 1815. Bassae (Latin or Bassai, Vassai or Vasses ( Greek, Modern Βάσσες, Ancient Βάσσαι) meaning "little Phigalia, or Phigaleia (Greek Φιγαλεία or Φιγάλεια is an ancient Greek city in the south-west angle of Arcadia. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία The Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from the widow of Claudius James Rich. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Claudius James Rich ( March 28, 1787 - October 5, 1821) British business agent traveller and antiquarian scholar was born near ^[16]

In 1802 a Buildings Committee was set up to plan for expansion of the museum, and further highlighted by the donation in 1822 of the King's Library, personal library of King George III's, comprising 65,000 volumes, 19,000 pamphlets, maps, charts and topographical drawing. The King’s Library was the original name applied both to the British Royal Collection of over 60000 books and to the room in the British Museum that housed them George III (George William Frederick 4 June 1738 George III's long reign was marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdom much of the rest of Europe and places A pamphlet is an unbound Booklet (that is without a hard cover or binding) A topographic map is a type of Map characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief, usually using Contour lines in modern ^[17] The neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke, was asked to draw up plans for an eastern extension to the Museum ". Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century both as a reaction against the Rococo Sir Robert Smirke (1781-18 April 1876 was an English Architect. . .  for the reception of the Royal Library, and a Picture Gallery over it . This office in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance . . "^[18] and put forward plans for today's quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old Montagu House was demolished and work on the King's Library Gallery began in 1823. Montagu House (sometimes spelled "Montague" was a late 17th century mansion in Great Russell Street in the Bloomsbury district of London, which The King’s Library was the original name applied both to the British Royal Collection of over 60000 books and to the room in the British Museum that housed them The extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. However, following the founding of the National Gallery, London in 1824,^[e] the proposed Picture Gallery was no longer needed, and the space on the upper floor was given over to the Natural History collections. Natural history is the Scientific research of Plants or Animals leaning more towards the Observational than Experimental methods ^[19]

The largest building site in Europe (1825-50)

The Museum became a construction site as Sir Robert Smirke's grand neo-classical building gradually arose. Montagu House (sometimes spelled "Montague" was a late 17th century mansion in Great Russell Street in the Bloomsbury district of London, which Sir Robert Smirke (1781-18 April 1876 was an English Architect. Thomas Grenville ( 31 December 1755 &ndash 17 December 1846) was a British politician and bibliophile. Sir Robert Smirke (1781-18 April 1876 was an English Architect. Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century both as a reaction against the Rococo The King's Library, on the ground floor of the East Wing, was handed over in 1827, and was described as one of the finest rooms in London although it was not fully open to the general public until 1857, however, special openings were arranged during The Great Exhibition of 1851. The King’s Library was the original name applied both to the British Royal Collection of over 60000 books and to the room in the British Museum that housed them London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The Great Exhibition, also known as Crystal Palace, was an international exhibition that was held in Hyde Park, London, England, from 1 In spite of dirt and disruption the collections grew, outpacing the new building.

Archaeological excavations

In 1840 the Museum became involved in its first overseas excavations, Charles Fellows's expedition to Xanthos, in Asia Minor, whence came remains of the tombs of the rulers of ancient Lykia, among them the Nereid and Payava monuments. Sir Charles Fellows (August 1799 - 8 November, 1860) was a British Archaeologist. Xanthos ( Lycian: Arñna, Greek: Ξάνθος was the name of a city in ancient Lycia, the site of present day Kınık, Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black "Sidyma" redirects here For the Moth Genus named thus see Sidyma (moth. In 1857 Charles Newton was to discover the 4th-century BC Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Sir Charles Thomas Newton ( September 16, 1816 &ndash November 28, 1894) was a British Archaeologist. The Tomb of Mausolus, Mausoleum of Mausolus or Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (in Greek,) was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC at Halicarnassus In the 1840s and 1850s the Museum supported excavations in Assyria by A.H. Layard and others at sites such as Nimrud and Nineveh. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture The Right Honourable Sir Austen Henry Layard (ˈɔːstɪn ˈhɛnriː lɛəd 5 March, 1817 – 5 July, 1894) was a Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. Nineveh ( Akkadian: Ninua; Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Hebrew נינוה Nīnewē; Arabic نينوى Naīnuwa) Of particular interest to curators was the eventual discovery of Ashurbanipal's great library of cuneiform tablets, which helped to make the Museum a focus for Assyrian studies. Ashurbanipal ( Akkadian: Aššur-bāni-apli, " Ashur has made a son" or "Ashur created an heir" (b Small tablets made out of clay were used from 5500 BC Tărtăria tablets and later from 4th millennium BC onwards as a writing medium in Sumerian Assyriology (from Greek grc Ἀσσυρίᾱ Assyriā; and grc -λογία -logia) is the archaeological historical and linguistic study ^[20]

Sir Thomas Grenville (1755–1846) was a Trustee of The British Museum from 1830 assembled a fine library of 20,240 volumes, which he left to the Museum in his will. Thomas Grenville ( 31 December 1755 &ndash 17 December 1846) was a British politician and bibliophile. The books arrived in January 1847 in twenty-one horse-drawn vans. The only vacant space for this large library was a room originally intended for manuscripts, between the Front Entrance Hall and the Manuscript Saloon. The books remained here until the British Library moved to St Pancras in 1998. St Pancras is an area of London. Historically the name has been used for various officially designated areas but today it is only an informal term and is rarely used

Collecting from the wider world (1850-75)

The opening of the forecourt in 1852 marked the completion of Robert Smirke's 1823 plan, but already adjustments were having to be made to cope with the unforeseen growth of the collections. Sir Robert Smirke (1781-18 April 1876 was an English Architect. Infill galleries were constructed for Assyrian sculptures and Sydney Smirke's Round Reading Room, with space for a million books, opened in 1857. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Sydney Smirke ( 1798 - 8 December[[ 877]] was London born English Architect during the 19th century The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library Because of continued pressure on space the decision was taken to move natural history to a new building in South Kensington, which would later become the British Museum of Natural History. South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. The Natural History Museum is one of three large Museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London (the others are the Science Museum

Roughly contemporary with the construction of the new building was the career of a man sometimes called the "second founder" of the British Museum, the Italian librarian Anthony Panizzi. Sir Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi ( 16 September 1797 – 8 April 1879) better known as Anthony Panizzi, was a naturalized British Under his supervision, the British Museum Library (now the British Library) quintupled in size and became a well-organised institution worthy of being called a national library. The British Library ( BL) is the National library of the United Kingdom. The quadrangle at the centre of Smirke's design proved to be a waste of valuable space and was filled at Panizzi's request by a circular Reading Room of cast iron, designed by Smirke's brother, Sydney Smirke. ^[21]

Until the mid 19th century the Museum's collections were relatively circumscribed but, in 1851, with the appointment to the staff of Augustus Wollaston Franks to curate the collections, the Museum began for the first time to collect British and European medieval antiquities, prehistory, branching out into Asia and diversifying its holdings of ethnography. The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks KCB ( 20 March 1826 &ndash 21 May 1897) was an English Antiquary. Stone Age Paleolithic See also Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens, Early human migrations "Paleolithic" Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive Overseas excavations continued and John Turtle Wood discovered the remains of the 4th century BC Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, another Wonder of the Ancient World. John Turtle Wood ( 13 February 1821 – 25 March 1890) was a British architect engineer and archaeologist The Temple of Artemis ( Greek: Ἀρτεμίσιον Ephesus ( Hittite Apasa; Ancient Greek; Turkish Efes) was a city of ancient Anatolia. ^[22]

Scholarship and legacies (1875-1900)

The natural history collections were an integral part of the British Museum until their removal to the new British Museum of Natural History, now the Natural History Museum, in 1887. The Natural History Museum is one of three large Museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London (the others are the Science Museum With the departure and the completion of the new White Wing (fronting Montague Street) in 1884, more space was available for antiquities and ethnography and the library could further expand. Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive This was a time of innovation as electric lighting was introduced in the Reading Room and exhibition galleries. ^[23]

In 1882 the Museum was involved in the establishment of the independent Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) the first British body to carry out research in Egypt. The Egypt Exploration Society (usually abbreviated EES) is the foremost learned society in the United Kingdom promoting the field of Egyptology. A bequest from Miss Emma Turner in 1892 financed excavations in Cyprus. In 1897 the death of the great collector and curator, A.W. Franks, was followed by an immense bequest of 3,300 finger rings, 153 drinking vessels, 512 pieces of continental porcelain, 1,500 netsuke, 850 inro, over 30,000 bookplates and miscellaneous items of jewellery and plate, among them the Oxus Treasure. Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks KCB ( 20 March 1826 &ndash 21 May 1897) was an English Antiquary. A finger ring is a band worn as a type of ornamental Jewellery around a finger it is the most common current meaning of the word ring. Netsuke (Japanese根付 are miniature sculptures that were invented in 17th century Japan to serve a practical function (the two Japanese characters ne+tsuke mean "root" An was a case for holding small objects Because traditional Japanese garb lacked pockets objects were often carried by hanging them from the obi, or sash bookplate also known as ex-librīs ] "from the books of"] is usually a small print or decorative label pasted into a book often on the inside The Oxus treasure is a collection of 170 gold and silver items from the Achaemenid period which were found by the Oxus river. ^[24]

In 1898 Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed the glittering contents from his New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor. Ferdinand James Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild ( 17 December 1839 &ndash 17 December 1898) was an English Politician Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. This consisted of almost 300 pieces of objets d'art et de vertu which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass and maiolica, in the tradition of a schatzkammer or treasure houses such as those formed by the Renaissance princes of Europe. Maiolica designates Italian Tin-glazed pottery dating from the Renaissance. Schatzkammer in German translates as Treasury (Chamber/Vault. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere ^[25] Baron Ferdinand's will was most specific, and failure to observe the terms would make it void, the collection should be,

“

placed in a special room to be called the Waddesdon Bequest Room separate and apart from the other contents of the Museum and thenceforth for ever thereafter, keep the same in such room or in some other room to be substituted for it. [25]

”

New century, new building (1900-25)

By the last years of the nineteenth century, The British Museum's collections had increased so much that the Museum building was no longer big enough for them. In 1895 the trustees purchased the 69 houses surrounding the Museum with the intention of demolishing them and building around the West, North and East sides of the Museum. The first stage was the construction of the northern wing beginning 1906.

All the while, the collections kept growing, Emily Torday collected in Central Africa, Aurel Stein in Central Asia, D.G. Hogarth, Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence excavated at Carchemish. Sir Charles Leonard Woolley ( 17 April 1880 &ndash 20 February 1960) was a British Archaeologist best known for his Excavations The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established Carchemish (called Europus by the Greco-Romans) was an important ancient city of the Mitanni and Hittite empires now on the frontier between Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية David George Hogarth (born May 23, 1862, in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire; died November 6, 1927, in Oxford Sir Charles Leonard Woolley ( 17 April 1880 &ndash 20 February 1960) was a British Archaeologist best known for his Excavations Carchemish (called Europus by the Greco-Romans) was an important ancient city of the Mitanni and Hittite empires now on the frontier between In 1918, because of the threat of wartime bombing, some objects were evacuated to a Postal Tube Railway at Holborn, the National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth) and a country house near Malvern. The National Library of Wales (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru is the national Legal deposit library of Wales, located in Aberystwyth. Malvern is a Town and Civil parish in Worcestershire, England. On the return of antiquities from wartime storage in 1919, some objects were found to have deteriorated. A temporary conservation laboratory was set up in May 1920 and became a permanent department in 1931. It is today the oldest in continuous existence. ^[26] In 1923, the British Museum, welcomed over one million visitors.

Disruption and reconstruction (1925-50)

New mezzanine floors were constructed and book stacks rebuilt in an attempt to cope with the flood of books. In 1931 the art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen offered funds to build a gallery for the Parthenon sculptures. Joseph Duveen 1st Baron Duveen ( October 14, 1869 Hull – May 25, 1939 London) was one of the most influential Art The Elgin Marbles, also known as the Parthenon Marbles, are a collection of Classical Greek Marble sculptures inscriptions and architectural members Designed by the American architect John Russell Pope, it was completed in 1938. John Russell Pope ( April_24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an architect most known for his designs of the Jefferson Memorial The appearance of the exhibition galleries began to change as dark Victorian reds gave way to modern pastel shades. ^[f] However, in August 1939, due to the imminence of war and the likelihood of air-raids the Parthenon Sculptures along with Museum's most valued collections were dispersed to secure basements, country houses, Aldwych tube station, the National Library of Wales and a quarry. The English country house is generally accepted as a large House or Mansion, once in the ownership of an individual who also usually owned another Great Aldwych tube station is a disused station formerly on the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground. The National Library of Wales (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru is the national Legal deposit library of Wales, located in Aberystwyth. The evacuation was timely, for in 1940 the Duveen Gallery was severely damaged by bombing. ^[27] The Museum continued to collect from all countries and all centuries: among the most spectacular additions were the 2,600 BC Mesopotamian treasure from Ur, discovered during Leonard Woolley's 1922–34 excavations. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Sir Charles Leonard Woolley ( 17 April 1880 &ndash 20 February 1960) was a British Archaeologist best known for his Excavations Gold, silver and garnet grave goods from the Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo (1939) and late Roman silver tableware from Mildenhall, Suffolk (1946). The garnet group includes a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries Mildenhall Treasure is a major Hoard of 33 Roman Silver objects found in the Mildenhall area of the English county of Suffolk Suffolk (ˈsʌfək is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. The immediate post-war years were taken up with the return of the collections from protection and the restoration of the museum after the blitz. Post-War is the fifth studio album by M Ward. It was released on August 22 2006 by Merge Records. The Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941 in World War II. Work also began on restoring the damaged Duveen Gallery.

A new public face (1950-75)

In 1953 the Museum celebrated its bicentenary. Joseph Duveen 1st Baron Duveen ( October 14, 1869 Hull – May 25, 1939 London) was one of the most influential Art An anniversary (from the Latin anniversarius, from the words for year and to turn meaning (returning yearly known in English since c. Many changes followed: the first full time in house designer and publications officer were appointed in 1964, A Friends organisation was set up in 1968, an Education Service established in 1970 and publishing house in 1973. In 1963 a new Act of Parliament introduced administrative reforms. It became easier to lend objects, the constitution of the Board of Trustees changed and the Natural History Museum became fully independent. A constitution is a system for government often Codified as a written document that establishes the rules and principles of an autonomous political entity Trustee is a Legal term that refers to a holder of property on behalf of a beneficiary. The Natural History Museum is one of three large Museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London (the others are the Science Museum By 1959 the Coins and Medals office suite, completely destroyed during the war, was rebuilt and re-opened, attention turned towards the gallery work with new tastes in design leading to the remodelling of Robert Smirke's Classical and Near Eastern galleries. Sir Robert Smirke (1781-18 April 1876 was an English Architect. ^[28] In 1962 the Duveen Gallery was finally restored and the Parthenon Sculptures were moved back into it, once again at the heart of the museum. ^[g]

By the 1970s the Museum was again expanding. More services for the public were introduced; visitor numbers soared, with the temporary exhibition "Treasures of Tutankhamun" in 1972, attracting 1,694,117 visitors, the most successful in British history. In the same year the Act of Parliament establishing the British Library was passed, separating the collection of manuscripts and printed books from the British Museum. A manuscript is any Document that is Written by hand as opposed to being printed or reproduced in some other way This left the Museum with antiquities; coins, medals and paper money; prints & drawings; and ethnography. Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive A pressing problem was finding space for additions to the library which now required an extra 1 1/4 miles of shelving each year. The Government suggested a site at St Pancras for the new British Library but the books did not leave the museum until 1997.

The Great Court emerges (1975-2000)

The departure of the British Library to a new site at St Pancras, finally achieved in 1998, provided the space needed for the books. The central quadrangle of the British Museum in London was redeveloped to a design by Foster and Partners to become the Queen Elizabeth II Sir Robert Smirke (1781-18 April 1876 was an English Architect. St Pancras is an area of London. Historically the name has been used for various officially designated areas but today it is only an informal term and is rarely used It also created the opportunity to redevelop the vacant space in Robert Smirke's 19th-century central quadrangle into the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court – the largest covered square in Europe – which opened in 2000. Sir Robert Smirke (1781-18 April 1876 was an English Architect. The central quadrangle of the British Museum in London was redeveloped to a design by Foster and Partners to become the Queen Elizabeth II

The ethnography collections, which had been housed in the short-lived Museum of Mankind at 6 Burlington Gardens from 1970, were returned to new purpose-built galleries. 6 Burlington Gardens is a building in Piccadilly, London that has been used by various London institutions in its history including the University of London

The Museum again readjusted its collecting policies as interest in "modern" objects: prints, drawings, medals and the decorative arts reawakened. Ethnographical fieldwork was carried out in places as diverse as New Guinea, Madagascar, Romania, Guatemala and Indonesia and there were excavations in the Near East, Egypt, Sudan and the UK. New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the world's second largest island, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar (older name Malagasy Republic) is an Island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Guatemala (República de Guatemala) is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west the Pacific Ocean to the southwest The Republic of Indonesia ( (Republik Indonesia is a Country in Southeast Asia. B Syria - Belka Woman from Damascus Arab from Baghdadjpg|thumb|Inhabitants of the Near East late nineteenth century The Weston Gallery of Roman Britain, opened in 1997, displayed a number of recently discovered hoards which demonstrated the richness of what had been considered an unimportant part of the Roman Empire. The Weston family of Canada and the United Kingdom are prominent businesspeople with global interests in food and clothing businesses In Archaeology, a Hoard is a collection of artifacts purposely buried in the ground The Museum turned increasingly towards private funds for buildings, acquisitions and other purposes. ^[29]

The Museum today

The Museum was founded 250 years ago as an encyclopædia of nature and of art. Ground Force was a BBC "lifestyle" or "makeover" television programme in which a team of gardeners descend on an individual's Garden Today it no longer houses collections of natural history, and the books and manuscripts it once held now form part of the independent British Library. Natural history is the Scientific research of Plants or Animals leaning more towards the Observational than Experimental methods The Museum nevertheless preserves its universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and modern. The original 1753 collection has grown to over thirteen million objects at the British Museum, 70 million at the Natural History Museum and 150 million at the British Library. The Natural History Museum is one of three large Museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London (the others are the Science Museum

The Round Reading Room, which was designed by the architect Sydney Smirke, opened in 1857. The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library Sydney Smirke ( 1798 - 8 December[[ 877]] was London born English Architect during the 19th century For almost 150 years researchers came here to consult the Museum's vast library. The Reading Room closed in 1997 when the national library (the British Library) moved to a new building at St Pancras. St Pancras is an area of London. Historically the name has been used for various officially designated areas but today it is only an informal term and is rarely used Today it has been transformed into the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre. The Annenberg Foundation, a charitable family trust was created on July 1, 1989 by media magnate and former Ambassador to the Court of St This contains the Paul Hamlyn Library of books about the Museum's collections, which is open to all visitors. Lord Paul Hamlyn ( 12 February 1926 – 31 August 2001) CBE, was a German-born British Publisher and Philanthropist ^[30]

With the bookstacks in the central courtyard of the museum now empty, the process of demolition for Lord Foster's glass-roofed Great Court could begin. Norman Robert Foster Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM, FRIBA, RDI, (born 1 June 1935) is a British architect whose company The central quadrangle of the British Museum in London was redeveloped to a design by Foster and Partners to become the Queen Elizabeth II The Great Court, opened in 2000, while undoubtedly improving circulation around the museum, was criticised for having a lack of exhibition space at a time when the museum was in serious financial difficulties and many galleries were closed to the public. At the same time the African and Oceanic collections that had been temporarily housed in 6 Burlington Gardens were given a new gallery in the North Wing funded by the Sainsbury family. David John Sainsbury Baron Sainsbury of Turville FRS (born 24 October 1940) is a British businessman politician and Peer in the ^[31]

Governance

See also: Director of the British Museum

In technical terms, the British Museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport through a three-year funding agreement. The Director of the British Museum is the head of the British Museum in London, a post currently held by Neil MacGregor. The acronyms Qango and Quango, variously spelt out as QUAsi Non-Governmental Organization, QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organization, and The Department for Culture Media and Sport ( DCMS) is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport Its head is the Director. The British Museum was run from its inception by a 'Principal Librarian' (when the book collections were still part of the Museum), a role that was renamed 'Director and Principal Librarian' in 1898, and 'Director' in 1973 (on the separation of the British Library). ^[32]

A board of 25 trustees (with the Director as their accounting officer for the purposes of reporting to Government) is responsible for the general management and control of the Museum, in accordance with the British Museum Act of 1963 and the Museums and Galleries Act of 1992. Trustee is a Legal term that refers to a holder of property on behalf of a beneficiary. A company's Chief Accounting Officer (CAO is typically responsible for overseeing all aspects of an organization's accounting function ^[33] Prior to the 1963 Act, it was chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor is a senior and important functionary in the Government of the United Kingdom. The board was formed on the Museum's inception to hold its collections in trust for the nation without actually owning them themselves, and now fulfil a mainly advisory role. In Common law legal systems a trust is an arrangement whereby Property (including real tangible and intangible is managed by one person (or persons or organizations Trustee appointments are governed by the regulatory framework set out in the code of practice on public appointments issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. For a list of current trustees, see here.

Building

The Greek Revival façade facing Great Russell Street is a characteristic building of Sir Robert Smirke, with 44 columns in the Ionic order 45 ft (13. The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries predominantly in northern Europe and the United States Sir Robert Smirke (1781-18 April 1876 was an English Architect. The Ionic order column forms one of the three '''orders''' or '''organizational systems''' of Classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the 7 m) high, closely based on those of the temple of Athena Polias at Priene in Asia Minor. ATHENA was an Antimatter research project that took place at the AD Ring at CERN. Priene ( Ancient Greek: Πριήνη, Priēnē was an ancient Greek city of Ionia (and member of the Ionian League) at the base Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black The pediment over the main entrance is decorated by sculptures by Sir Richard Westmacott depicting The Progress of Civilisation, consisting of fifteen allegorical figures, installed in 1852. A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure ( Entablature) typically supported by Sir Richard Westmacott, Jr RA (1775&ndash1856 was a British sculptor. An allegory (from αλλος allos "other" and el αγορευειν agoreuein "to speak in public" is a figurative mode of representation

The construction commenced around the courtyard with the East Wing (The King's Library) in 1823–1828, followed by the North Wing in 1833–1838, which originally housed among other galleries a reading room, now the Wellcome Gallery. The King’s Library was the original name applied both to the British Royal Collection of over 60000 books and to the room in the British Museum that housed them Work was also progressing on the northern half of the West Wing (The Egyptian Sculpture Gallery) 1826–1831, with Montagu House demolished in 1842 to make room for the final part of the West Wing, completed in 1846, and the South Wing with its great colonnade, initiated in 1843 and completed in 1847, when the Front Hall and Great Staircase were opened to the public. Montagu House (sometimes spelled "Montague" was a late 17th century mansion in Great Russell Street in the Bloomsbury district of London, which ^[34] The Museum is faced with Portland stone, but the perimeter walls and other parts of the building were built using Haytor granite from Dartmoor in South Devon, transported via the unique Haytor Granite Tramway. Haytor or Hay Tor is a Granite Tor on Dartmoor in the English County of Devon. The Haytor Granite Tramway was a unique granite-railed tramway running down from Haytor Down Dartmoor, Devon. ^[35]

In 1846 Robert Smirke was replaced as the Museum's architect by his brother Sydney Smirke, whose major addition was the Round Reading Room 1854–1857; at 140 feet (42. Sydney Smirke ( 1798 - 8 December[[ 877]] was London born English Architect during the 19th century The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library 6 m) in diameter it was then the second widest dome in the world, the Pantheon in Rome being slightly wider. The Pantheon ( Latin Pantheon, from Greek Πάνθειον Pantheon, meaning "Temple of all the gods" is a building in Rome Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2

The next major addition was the White Wing 1882–1884 added behind the eastern end of the South Front, the architect being Sir John Taylor. Sir John Taylor KCB FRIBA ( 15 November 1833 &ndash 30 April 1912) was a British Architect.

In 1895, Parliament gave the Museum Trustees a loan of £200,000 to purchase from the Duke of Bedford all 69 houses which backed onto the Museum building in the five surrounding streets - Great Russell Street, Montague Street, Montague Place, Bedford Square and Bloomsbury Street. ^[36] The Trustees planned to demolish these houses and to build around the West, North and East sides of the Museum new galleries that would completely fill the block on which the Museum stands. The architect Sir John James Burnet was petitioned to put forward ambitious long-term plans to extend the building on all three sides. Sir John James Burnet (1857 - 1938, son of the architect John Burnet, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Most of the houses in Montague Place were knocked down a few years after the sale. Of this grand plan only the Edward VII galleries in the centre of the North Front were ever constructed, these were built 1906-14 to the design by J. J. Burnet, and opened by King George V and Queen Mary in 1914. Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes 26 May 1867 – 24 March 1953 was the queen-empress consort of George V of the United Kingdom They now house the Museum's collections of Prints and Drawings and Oriental Antiquities. There was not enough money to put up more new buildings, and so the houses in the other streets are nearly all still standing.

The Duveen Gallery, sited to the west of the Egyptian, Greek & Assyrian sculpture galleries, was designed to house the Elgin Marbles by the American Beaux-Arts architect John Russell Pope. Joseph Duveen 1st Baron Duveen ( October 14, 1869 Hull – May 25, 1939 London) was one of the most influential Art Beaux Arts architecture denotes the academic classical Architectural style that was taught at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. John Russell Pope ( April_24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an architect most known for his designs of the Jefferson Memorial Although completed in 1938, it was hit by a bomb in 1940 and remained semi-derelict for 22 years, before reopening in 1962. Other areas damaged during World War II bombing included: in September 1940 two unexploded bombs hit the Edward VII galleries, the King's Library received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb, incendiaries fell on the dome of the Round Reading Room but did little damage; on the night of 10 to 11 May 1941 several incendiaries fell on the south west corner of the Museum, destroying the book stack and 150,000 books in the courtyard and the galleries around the top of the Great Staircase – this damage was not fully repaired until the early 1960s. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Events 330 - Byzantium is renamed ''Nova Roma'' during a dedication ceremony but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. ^[37]

The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court is a covered square at the centre of the British Museum designed by the engineers Buro Happold and the architects Foster and Partners. For the ship see RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Context States headed by Elizabeth II Buro Happold is a professional services firm providing Engineering consultancy Design, planning project management and consulting services for all aspects of Foster + Partners is a leading Architectural firm in the United Kingdom. ^[38] The Great Court opened in December 2000 and is the largest covered square in Europe. The roof is a glass and steel construction with 1,656 uniquely shaped panes of glass. At the centre of the Great Court is the Reading Room vacated by the British Library, its functions now moved to St Pancras. The Reading Room is open to any member of the public who wishes to read there.

Today, the British Museum has grown to become one of the largest Museums in the world, covering an area of over 13. 5 acres or 75,000 m² of exhibition space, showcasing approximately 50,000 items from its collection. ^[39] There are nearly one hundred galleries open to the public, representing 2 miles (3. 2 km) of exhibition space, although the less popular ones have restricted opening times. However, the lack of a large temporary exhibition space has led to the £100 million North West Development Project to provide one and to concentrate all the Museum's conservation facilities into one Conservation Centre. This project was announced in July 2007, with the architects Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, and is expected for completion by 2011. Richard George Rogers Baron Rogers of Riverside, CH, FRIBA (born 23 July 1933) is a British Architect noted ^[40]

Departments

Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan

The British Museum houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiquities outside the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Amenhotep III (sometimes read as Amenophis III meaning Amun is Satisfied was the ninth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. Ancient Egyptian art refers to the style of painting sculpture crafts and architecture developed by the Civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to the most extensive collection of Ancient Cairo () which means "the Vanquisher" or "the Triumphant" is the capital and largest city of Egypt. ^[41][h] A collection of immense importance for its range and quality, it includes objects of all periods from virtually every site of importance in Egypt and the Sudan. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now The history of Sudan is marked by influences (military and cultural on Sudan from neighboring areas (e Together they illustrate every aspect of the cultures of the Nile Valley (including Nubia), from the Predynastic Neolithic period (c. The Nile (النيل, Ancient Egyptian iteru or Ḥ'pī, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing River This article is about the region in Africa for other uses see Nubia (disambiguation. The Predynastic Period of Egypt (prior to 3100 BC is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King The Neolithic (from Greek νεολιθικός — neolithikos from νέος neos, "new" + λίθος lithos 10,000 BC) through to the Coptic (Christian) times (12th century AD), a time-span over 11,000 years. History of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Apostolic foundation Egypt is identified in the Bible as the place of refuge that the

Egyptian antiquities have formed part of the British Museum collection ever since its foundation in 1753 after receiving 160 Egyptian objects^[42] from Sir Hans Sloane. Ancient Egyptian art refers to the style of painting sculpture crafts and architecture developed by the Civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 Sir Hans Sloane 1st Baronet, PRS ( 16 April, 1660 &ndash 11 January, 1753) was an Ulster-Scot Physician and After the defeat of the French forces under Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile in 1801, the Egyptian antiquities collected were confiscated by the British army and presented to the British Museum in 1803. By 1799, the French Revolutionary Wars had resumed after a period of relative peace in 1798. Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 was a French military and political leader who had a significant impact on the History of Europe. The Battle of the Nile or Aboukir Bay (August 1-2 1798 saw a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson defeat a French The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. These works, which included the famed Rosetta Stone, were the first important group of large sculptures to be acquired by the Museum. The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact (حجر رشيد in Arabic which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing Thereafter, Britain appointed Henry Salt as consul in Egypt who amassed a huge collection of antiquities. Henry Salt ( June 14, 1780 &ndash October 30, 1827) was an English artist traveler diplomat and Egyptologist. A consul general heads a Consulate general and is a consul of the highest rank serving at a principal location and usually responsible for other consular offices within This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Most of the antiquities Salt collected were purchased by the British Museum and the Musée du Louvre. The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France By 1866 the collection consisted of some 10,000 objects. Antiquities from excavations started to come to the Museum in the later 19th century as a result of the work of the Egypt Exploration Fund under the efforts of E.A. Wallis Budge. The Egypt Exploration Society (usually abbreviated EES) is the foremost learned society in the United Kingdom promoting the field of Egyptology. Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge ( July 27, 1857 &ndash November 23, 1934) was an English Egyptologist, The collection stood at 57,000 objects by 1924. Active support by the Museum for excavations in Egypt continued to result in useful acquisitions throughout the 20th century until changes in antiquities laws in Egypt led to the suspension of policies allowing finds to be exported. The size of the Egyptian collections now stands at over 110,000 objects. ^[43]

In autumn 2001 the eight million objects forming the Museum's permanent collection were further expanded by the addition of six million objects from the Wendorf Collection of Egyptian and Sudanese Prehistory. The Predynastic Period of Egypt (prior to 3100 BC is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King The history of Sudan is marked by influences (military and cultural on Sudan from neighboring areas (e Stone Age Paleolithic See also Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens, Early human migrations "Paleolithic" ^[44] These were donated by Professor Fred Wendorf of Southern Methodist University in Texas, and comprise the entire collection of artefacts and environmental remains from his excavations between 1963 and 1997. Southern Methodist University ("SMU" is a private, Coeducational University in University Park, Texas (an enclave Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. They are in the care of the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan.

The seven permanent Egyptian galleries at the British Museum, which include its largest exhibition space (Room 4, for monumental sculpture), can display only 4% of its Egyptian holdings. The second-floor galleries have a selection of the Museum's collection of 140 mummies and coffins, the largest outside Cairo. A mummy is a Corpse whose Skin and Flesh have been preserved by either intentional or Incidental exposure to Chemicals extreme The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to the most extensive collection of Ancient A high proportion of the collection comes from tombs or contexts associated with the cult of the dead, and it is these pieces, in particular the mummies, that remain among the most eagerly sought after exhibits by visitors to the Museum. For the New York prison see The Tombs. A Tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead.

Key highlights of the collections Include

The Rosetta Stone (196 BC) Limestone statue of a husband and wife (1300 BC) Colossal bust of Ramesses II, the "Younger Memnon" (1250 BC) Colossal granite head of Amenhotep III (1350 BC) Colossal head from a statue of Amenhotep III (1350 BC) Colossal limestone bust of Amenhotep III (1350 BC) Fragment of the beard of the Great Sphinx (1300 BC) Mummy of 'Ginger' which dates to about 3300 BC

List of the kings of Egypt from the Temple of Ramesses II (1250 BC) Limestone false door of Ptahshepses (2380 BC) Granite statue of Senwosret III (1850 BC) Mummy of Cleopatra from Thebes (100 AD) Amarna tablets (Collection of 95 out of 382 tablets found, second greatest in the world after the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (203 tablets)) (1350 BC)[45] Obelisk of Pharaoh Nectanebo II (360–343 BC)

The British Museum, Room 4 - Egyptian Sculpture

Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities

The Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the British Museum has one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections of antiquities from the Classical world, with over 100,000 objects. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural History centered on the Mediterranean These mostly range in date from the beginning of the Greek Bronze Age (about 3200BC) to the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine I in the 4th century AD, with some pagan survivals. The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period (starting at about 27 BC Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus (27 February ca. 272 &ndash 22 May 337 commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller rustic" is a word used to refer to various religions and religious beliefs from across the world

The Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean cultures are represented, and the Greek collection includes important sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens, as well as elements of two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos. The CYCLADES Packet switching network was an extremely influential French network system in the early 1970s similar to the ARPANET. The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete. Mycenaean Greece is a cultural period of ancient Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca The Parthenon ( Ancient Greek:) is a temple of the Greek goddess Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the Athenian Acropolis Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's The Seven Wonders of the World (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a well known list of seven remarkable constructions of Classical antiquity. The Tomb of Mausolus, Mausoleum of Mausolus or Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (in Greek,) was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC at Halicarnassus The Temple of Artemis ( Greek: Ἀρτεμίσιον Ephesus ( Hittite Apasa; Ancient Greek; Turkish Efes) was a city of ancient Anatolia.

The Department also houses one of the widest-ranging collections of Italic and Etruscan antiquities and extensive groups of material from Cyprus. Roman sculpture refers to the Sculpture of Ancient Rome. Roman sculpture often involved copying of Ancient Greek sculpture. Ancient peoples of Italy are all those peoples that lived in Italy (including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia) before the Roman domination Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy This article treats the History of Cyprus in Classical Antiquity, from the 8th century BC to the Middle Ages. The collections of ancient jewellery and bronzes, Greek vases and Roman glass and silver are particularly important. Thanks to its hardy nature pottery bulks large in the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because we have so much of it (some 100000 vases are recorded in the Corpus Glass in the common sense refers to a Hard, Brittle, transparent Solid, such as that used for Windows many

Key highlights of the collections include:

Athenian Akropolis

The Parthenon Gallery (Elgin Marbles)

• The Parthenon Marbles are one of the finest manifestations of human creation. The Acropolis of Athens is the best known Acropolis (high city The "Sacred Rock" in the world The Elgin Marbles, also known as the Parthenon Marbles, are a collection of Classical Greek Marble sculptures inscriptions and architectural members The Magnificent Relief Frieze showing the Panathenaic procession, from Ancient Greece, often praised as the finest achievement of Greek Architecture, its decorative sculptures are considered one of the high points of Greek art. A relief is a Sculptured Artwork where a modeled form is raised (or alternatively lowered from a flattened background without being disconnected from it In Architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an Entablature and may be plain or &ndash in the Ionic or Corinthian order &ndash The Panathenaea (Παναθήναια "all-Athenian festival" was the most important festival for Athens and one of the grandest in the entire ancient Greek The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Architecture was extinct in Greece from the end of the Mycenaean period (about 1200 BC to the 7th century BC when urpeppeeban life and prosperity recovered Greece has a rich and varied artistic history spanning some 5000 years

Erechtheion

• One of six remaining Caryatids
• Surviving Column

Athena Nike

• Surviving Frieze Slabs

Bassae Sculptures

• Twenty three surviving blocks of the frieze from the interior of the temple are exhibited on an upper level. The Tomb of Mausolus, Mausoleum of Mausolus or Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (in Greek,) was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC at Halicarnassus The Erechtheum (Έρέχθειον Erechtheion) is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens in Greece Origins The origins of the term are unclear It is first recorded in the Latin form caryatides by the Roman architect Vitruvius. Nike means "Victory" in Greek, and Athena was worshiped in this form as goddess of victory on the Acropolis in Athens, In Architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an Entablature and may be plain or &ndash in the Ionic or Corinthian order &ndash Bassae (Latin or Bassai, Vassai or Vasses ( Greek, Modern Βάσσες, Ancient Βάσσαι) meaning "little

Mausoleum of Halikarnassos

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

• Two colossal free-standing figures identified as Maussollos and his wife Artemisia. The Tomb of Mausolus, Mausoleum of Mausolus or Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (in Greek,) was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC at Halicarnassus The Seven Wonders of the World (or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) is a well known list of seven remarkable constructions of Classical antiquity. Artemisia I of Caria (in Greek, Αρτεμισία) ( fl 480 BC became the ruler after the death of her husband as a client of the
• Part of an impressive horse from the chariot group adorning the summit of the Mausoleum
• The Amazonomachy frieze - A long section of relief frieze showing the battle between Greeks and Amazons

Temple of Artemis at Ephesos

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Asia Minor

Nereid Monument

• Partial reconstruction of the Monument, a large and elaborate Lykian tomb from the site of Xanthos in south-west Turkey
• Payava Tomb from Xanthos in south west Turkey

Wider Museum Collection

• Material from the Palace of Knossos
• Portland Vase
• The Warren Cup
• Discus-thrower (Discobolos)^[46]
• Towneley Sculptures

Department of the Middle East

Formerly the Department of the Ancient Near East, the Department recently became the Department of the Middle East when the collections from the Islamic world were moved from the Department of Asia into this department.

With approximately 330,000 objects^[47] in the collection, the British Museum has the greatest collection of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. The holdings of Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian antiquities are among the most comprehensive in the world. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar

The collections represent the civilisations of the ancient Near East and its adjacent areas. These include Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria, Palestine and Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean from the prehistoric period until the beginning of Islam in the 7th century. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-jazīra al-ʻarabīya or جزيرة العرب jazīrat al-ʻarab) Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black The Caucasus ( also referred to as North Caucasus) is a geopolitical region located between Europe Asia & Middle East Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Phoenicia ( Phoenician: Phoenician nunsvg|12px|נ]]Phoenician nun Stone Age Paleolithic See also Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens, Early human migrations "Paleolithic" For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. The collection includes six iconic winged human-headed statues from Nimrud and Khorsabad. The Sumerian word lama, which is rendered in Akkadian as lamassu, refers to a beneficient protective female deity Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon" present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Stone bas-reliefs, including the famous Royal Lion Hunt relief's (Room 10), that were found in the palaces of the Assyrian kings at Nimrud and Nineveh. A bas-relief (baʁəljɛf in French; French for "low relief" derived from the Italian basso rilievo) or low relief is a Sculpture Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. Nineveh ( Akkadian: Ninua; Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Hebrew נינוה Nīnewē; Arabic نينوى Naīnuwa) The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh and Sumerian treasures found in Royal Cemetery's at Ur of the Chaldees. The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of Clay tablets Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar Ur Kaśdim or Ur of the Chaldees (אור כשדים is the town in the Hebrew Bible and related literature where Abraham ( origin

The earliest Mesopotamian objects to enter collections purchased by the British Museum in 1772 from Sir William Hamilton. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding Sir William Hamilton, KB ( 13 December 1730 &ndash 6 April 1803) was a Scottish diplomat, Antiquarian The Museum also acquired at this early date a number of sculptures from Persepolis. Persepolis ( Old Persian: Pārsa, Modern Persian: تخت جمشید/پارسه Takht-e Jamshid or Chehel Minar) was the ceremonial The next significant addition (in 1825) was from the collection of Claudius James Rich. Claudius James Rich ( March 28, 1787 - October 5, 1821) British business agent traveller and antiquarian scholar was born near The collection was dramatically enlarged by the excavations of A.H. Layard at the Assyrian sites of Nimrud and Nineveh between 1845–1851. The Right Honourable Sir Austen Henry Layard (ˈɔːstɪn ˈhɛnriː lɛəd 5 March, 1817 – 5 July, 1894) was a Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. Nineveh ( Akkadian: Ninua; Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Hebrew נינוה Nīnewē; Arabic نينوى Naīnuwa)

At Nimrud, Layard discovered the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, as well as three other palaces and various temples. Ashur-nasir-pal II ( Transliteration: Aššur-nâṣir-apli, meaning " Ashur is guardian of the heir" was king of Assyria from 884 BC-859 He also opened in the Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh with 'no less than seventy-one halls'. Sennacherib ( Akkadian Sîn-ahhe-eriba "(moon god Sîn has replaced (lost brothers for me" was the son of Sargon II, whom he As a result a large numbers of Lamassu's, bas-reliefs, stelae, including the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III were brought to the British Museum. The Sumerian word lama, which is rendered in Akkadian as lamassu, refers to a beneficient protective female deity A stele (from Greek:, stēlē, ˈstiːli plural stelae,, stēlai, ˈstiːlaɪ also found Latinised singular stela For the band see Black Obelisk (band The "Black Obelisk" of Shalmaneser III (reigned 858-824 BC is a black Shalmaneser III ( Šulmānu-ašarēdu, "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent" was king of Assyria (859 BC-824 BC and son of the previous ruler Layard's work was continued by his assistant, Hormuzd Rassam and in 1852–1854 he went on to discover the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh with many magnificent reliefs, including the famous Royal Lion Hunt scenes. Hormuzd Rassam (1826 &ndash 16 September, 1910) was an Assyriologist and traveller who made a number of important discoveries including the stone tablets He also discovered the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, a large collection of cuneiform tablets of enormous importance. The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of Clay tablets Small tablets made out of clay were used from 5500 BC Tărtăria tablets and later from 4th millennium BC onwards as a writing medium in Sumerian W.K. Loftus excavated in Nimrud between 1850–1855 and found a remarkable hoard of ivories in the Burnt Palace. William Kennett Loftus (b 13 November 1820, Linton Kent; d 27 November 1858, at sea was a British geologist naturalist explorer Ivory carving is the ornamentation of Ivory by using sharp cutting tools either mechanically or manually Between 1878–1882 Rassam greatly improved the Museum's holdings with exquisite objects including the Cyrus Cylinder from Babylon, the bronze gates from Balawat, and a fine collection of Urartian bronzes. The Cyrus cylinder, also known as the Cyrus the Great cylinder, is a document issued by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the form of a clay Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq Balawat is a village in Northern Iraq, 25 km (15 miles southeast from the city of Mosul. Urartian (also called Vannic, in older literature also "Chaldean" is the conventional name for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom Rassam collected thousands of cuneiform tablets, today with the acquisition of further tablets in the 20th century, the collection now numbers around 130,000 pieces. In the 20th century excavations were carried out at Carchemish, Syria between 1911–1914 and in 1920 by D.G. Hogarth and Leonard Woolley, the latter assisted by T.E. Lawrence. Carchemish (called Europus by the Greco-Romans) was an important ancient city of the Mitanni and Hittite empires now on the frontier between Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية David George Hogarth (born May 23, 1862, in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire; died November 6, 1927, in Oxford Sir Charles Leonard Woolley ( 17 April 1880 &ndash 20 February 1960) was a British Archaeologist best known for his Excavations The Mesopotamian collections were greatly augmented by excavations in southern Iraq after the First World War. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All From Tell al-Ubaid in 1919 and 1923–1924, directed by H.R. Hall came the bronze furnishings of a Sumerian temple, including life-sized lions and a panel featuring the lion-headed eagle Indugud. The Tell (mound of Ubaid (عبيد near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the Prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic Dr Henry Reginald Holland Hall MBE, FBA, FSA ( 30 September 1873 — 13 October 1930) was an English Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar Woolley went onto to excavate Ur between 1922–1934, discovering the 'Royal Cemeteries' of the 3rd millennium BC. Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Some of the masterpieces include the 'Standard of Ur', the 'Ram in a Thicket', the 'Royal Game of Ur', and two bull-headed lyres. The Standard of Ur (also known as the "Battle Standard of Ur" or the "Royal Standard of Ur" is a Sumerian artifact excavated from what had The Royal Game of Ur refers to two game boards found in Royal Tombs of Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s The lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in Classical Antiquity and later

Although the collections centre on Mesopotamia most of the surrounding areas are well-represented. The Achaemenid collection was enhanced with the addition of the Oxus Treasure in 1897, by acquisition from the German scholar Ernst Herzfeld, and then by the work of Sir Aurel Stein. The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire ( haχɒmaneʃijɒn (558–330 BC was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of The Oxus treasure is a collection of 170 gold and silver items from the Achaemenid period which were found by the Oxus river. Ernst Emil Herzfeld ( July 23, 1879 – January 20, 1948) was an German archaeologist and Iranologist. From Palmyra there is a large collection of nearly forty funerary busts, acquired in the 19th century. Palmyra ( Arabic: تدمر Tadmor) was in ancient times an important city of central Syria, located in an Oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus A group of stone reliefs from the excavations of Max von Oppenheim at Tell Halaf, purchased in 1920. A relief is a Sculptured Artwork where a modeled form is raised (or alternatively lowered from a flattened background without being disconnected from it Max Freiherr von Oppenheim ( July 15, 1860, Köln - November 17, 1946, Landshut) was a German Ancient historian Tell Halaf ( Akkadian: Guzana; تل حلف, Syria) More excavated material from the excavations of Max Mallowan at Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak in 1935–1938, and from Woolley at Alalakh in the years just before and after the Second World War. Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, CBE ( 6 May, 1904 – 19 August, 1978) was a prominent British Archaeologist, specialising Chagar Bazar is an ancient site in northern Syria, occupied from the sixth to the second millennium BC Nagar (modern Tell Brak, Syria) was an ancient Late Neolithic, Sumerian and Akkadian city on the Khabur River. Alalakh (or Alalah, modern Tell Atchana near Antakya (ancient Antioch) Turkey) is the name of an ancient Amorite World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The collection of Palestinian material was strengthened with the acquisition in 1980 of around 17,000 objects found at Lachish by the Wellcome-Marston expedition of 1932–1938. Palestinian people or Palestinians ( الشعب الفلسطيني, ash-sha`b al-filasTīni; الفلسطينيون, al-filasTīnīyyūn Lachish (לכיש was a town located in the Shephelah, or maritime plain of Philistia ( Joshua 103 5 1211

A representative selection, including the most important pieces, are on display in 13 galleries and total some 4500 objects. The remainder form the study collection which ranges in size from beads to large sculptures. They include approximately 130,000 cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia. Small tablets made out of clay were used from 5500 BC Tărtăria tablets and later from 4th millennium BC onwards as a writing medium in Sumerian ^[48]

The museum's collection of Islamic art, including archaeological material, numbers about 40,000 objects,^[49] one of the largest of its kind in the world. As such, it contains a broad range of Islamic pottery, paintings, tiles, metalwork, glass, seals, and inscriptions.

Key Highlights of the Collections include

Nimrud:

Alabaster bas-reliefs from: The North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II Central- Palace of Tiglath-Pileser III South-West Palace of Esarhaddon Palace of Adad-Nirari III South-East Palace ('Burnt Palace') The Nabu Temple (Ezida) The Sharrat-Niphi Temple Temple of Ninurta

Sculptures: Pair of Human Headed 'Lamassu' Lions (883-859 BC) Human Headed 'Lamassu' Bull (883-859 BC), sister piece in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Human Headed 'Lamassu' Lion (883-859 BC), sister piece in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Colossal Statue of a Lion (883-859 BC) Rare Head of Human Headed 'Lamassu', recovered from the South-West Palace of Esarhaddon The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC)

Nineveh:

Alabaster bas-reliefs from: North-Palace of Ashurbanipal Royal Lion Hunt Scenes The 'Dying Lion', long been acclaimed as a masterpiece The 'Garden Party' Relief South-West Palace of Sennacherib

Royal Library of Ashurbanipal: A large collection of cuneiform tablets of enormous importance approximately 22,000 inscribed clay tablets The Flood Tablet, relating part of the famous Epic of Gilgamesh

Khorsabad: Alabaster bas-reliefs from the Palace of Sargon II Pair of Human Headed Winged 'Lamassu' Bulls

Wider Collection: Cyrus Cylinder, from Babylon The Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III A fine collection of Urartian bronzes, which now form the core of the Anatolian collection The Oxus Treasure The Standard of Ur The 'Ram in a Thicket' The Royal Game of Ur Queen's Lyre

Department of Prints and Drawings

The Department of Prints and Drawings holds the national collection of Western Prints and Drawings. Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. A bas-relief (baʁəljɛf in French; French for "low relief" derived from the Italian basso rilievo) or low relief is a Sculpture Ashur-nasir-pal II ( Transliteration: Aššur-nâṣir-apli, meaning " Ashur is guardian of the heir" was king of Assyria from 884 BC-859 Tiglath-Pileser III (from the Hebraic form of Akkadian: Tukultī-apil-Ešarra, "my trust is in the son of Esharra" was a prominent king Esarhaddon (Greek and Biblical form Akkadian Aššur-ahhe-iddina " Ashur has given a brother to me" was a king of Assyria who reigned Adad-nirari III (also Adad-narari) was King of Assyria from 811 to 783 BC Nabu is the Babylonian god of Wisdom and Writing, worshipped by Babylonians as the son of Marduk and his consort Sarpanitum, Ninurta ( Nin Ur: Lord of the Earth/Plough in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology was the god of Nippur, identified with Ningirsu The Sumerian word lama, which is rendered in Akkadian as lamassu, refers to a beneficient protective female deity The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, Esarhaddon (Greek and Biblical form Akkadian Aššur-ahhe-iddina " Ashur has given a brother to me" was a king of Assyria who reigned For the band see Black Obelisk (band The "Black Obelisk" of Shalmaneser III (reigned 858-824 BC is a black Shalmaneser III ( Šulmānu-ašarēdu, "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent" was king of Assyria (859 BC-824 BC and son of the previous ruler Nineveh ( Akkadian: Ninua; Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Hebrew נינוה Nīnewē; Arabic نينوى Naīnuwa) A bas-relief (baʁəljɛf in French; French for "low relief" derived from the Italian basso rilievo) or low relief is a Sculpture Ashurbanipal ( Akkadian: Aššur-bāni-apli, " Ashur has made a son" or "Ashur created an heir" (b Sennacherib ( Akkadian Sîn-ahhe-eriba "(moon god Sîn has replaced (lost brothers for me" was the son of Sargon II, whom he The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of Clay tablets Ashurbanipal ( Akkadian: Aššur-bāni-apli, " Ashur has made a son" or "Ashur created an heir" (b Small tablets made out of clay were used from 5500 BC Tărtăria tablets and later from 4th millennium BC onwards as a writing medium in Sumerian The story of a Great Flood (also known as the Deluge) sent by a Deity or deities to destroy Civilization as an act of Divine retribution is a The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literary fiction. Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon" present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Sargon II ( Akkadian Šarru-kinu "legitimate king" reigned 722 – 705 BC was an Assyrian king The Sumerian word lama, which is rendered in Akkadian as lamassu, refers to a beneficient protective female deity The Cyrus cylinder, also known as the Cyrus the Great cylinder, is a document issued by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the form of a clay Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq Balawat is a village in Northern Iraq, 25 km (15 miles southeast from the city of Mosul. Shalmaneser III ( Šulmānu-ašarēdu, "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent" was king of Assyria (859 BC-824 BC and son of the previous ruler Urartian (also called Vannic, in older literature also "Chaldean" is the conventional name for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black The Oxus treasure is a collection of 170 gold and silver items from the Achaemenid period which were found by the Oxus river. The Standard of Ur (also known as the "Battle Standard of Ur" or the "Royal Standard of Ur" is a Sumerian artifact excavated from what had The Ram in a Thicket is one of a pair of figures excavated in Ur, in southern Iraq, and which date from about 2600-2400 BC. The Royal Game of Ur refers to two game boards found in Royal Tombs of Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s The lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in Classical Antiquity and later An old master print is a work of art produced by a Printing process within the Western tradition (European or New World Drawing is a Visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium Also see articles History of painting, Western painting Western Art' redirects here It ranks as one of the largest collections in existence alongside the Musée du Louvre and the Hermitage as one of the top three collections of its kind. The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France The State Hermitage Museum (Государственный Эрмитаж Gosudarstvennyj Èrmitaž) in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest ^[52]

Since its foundation in 1808 the Prints and Drawings collection has grown to international renown as one of the richest and most representative collections in the world. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all The word cartoon has various meanings based on several very different forms of Visual art and Illustration. There are approximately 50,000 drawings and over two million prints. ^[53] The collection of Drawings covers the period 14th century to the present, and includes many works of the highest quality by the leading artists of the European school. The history of Painting reaches back in time to artifacts from pre-historic humans and spans all cultures Also see articles History of painting, Western painting Western Art' redirects here The collection of Prints covers the tradition of fine printmaking from its beginnings in the 15th century up to the present, with near complete holdings of most of the great names before the 19th century. Printmaking is the Process of making artworks by Printing, normally on Paper.

There are magnificent groups of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, (including his only surviving full-scale cartoon), Dürer (a collection of 138 drawings is one of the finest in existence), Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Claude and Watteau, and virtually complete collections of the works of all the great printmakers including unsurpassed holdings of prints by Dürer (99 engravings, 6 etchings and a substantial number of his 346 woodcuts), Rembrandt and Goya. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28 1483 – April 6 1520 was an Italian painter and Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all Albrecht Dürer (ˈalbʀɛçt ˈdyʀɐ ( May 21, 1471 &ndash April 6, 1528) was a German painter, Printmaker Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15 1606 &ndash October 4 1669 was a Dutch painter and etcher. Claude Lorrain (also Claude Gellée or Le Lorrain) ( Lorraine, c Jean-Antoine Watteau ( October 10, 1684 – July 18, 1721) was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of Albrecht Dürer (ˈalbʀɛçt ˈdyʀɐ ( May 21, 1471 &ndash April 6, 1528) was a German painter, Printmaker Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it For other uses of etch or etching, see Etching (disambiguation, for the history of the method see Old master prints. For the origins of the technique and non-artistic use see Woodblock printing; for the related technique invented in the 18th century see Wood engraving More than 30,000 British drawings and watercolours include important examples work by Hogarth, Sandby, Turner, Girtin, Constable, Cotman, Cox, Gillray, Rowlandson and Cruikshank, as well as all the great Victorians. Watercolor ( US) or Watercolour ( UK) (and "aquarelle" in French is a Painting method William Hogarth (10 November 1697 &ndash 26 October 1764 was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic Paul Sandby (1731 (baptised - 9 November 1809) was an English Map -maker turned landscape painter in Watercolours who Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 &ndash 19 December 1851 was an English Romantic landscape painter, Watercolourist and Thomas Girtin ( 18 February 1775 – 9 November 1802) was an English painter and Etcher, who played a key role John Constable ( 11 June 1776 &ndash 31 March 1837 John Sell Cotman ( 16 May 1782 &ndash 24 July 1842) was an artist of the Norwich school and an associate of John Crome David Cox ( April 29, 1783 - June 7, 1859) was an English landscape painter. James Gillray, sometimes spelled Gilray (born August 13, 1757 in Chelsea; died June 1, 1815) was a British Thomas Rowlandson ( July 14, 1756 – April 22, 1827) was an English artist and Caricaturist. George Cruikshank ( September 27, 1792 — February 1, 1878) was an English Caricaturist and book illustrator praised as Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities There are about a million British prints including more than 20,000 satires and outstanding collections of works by William Blake and Thomas Bewick. Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827 was an English poet, painter, and Printmaker. Thomas Bewick (12 August 1753 – November 8, 1828) was an English wood engraver and ornithologist.

Department of Asia

Main article: The British Museum Department of Asia

The scope of the Department of Asia is extremely broad, its collections of over 75,000 objects covers the material culture of the whole Asian continent (from East, South, Central and South-East Asia) and from the Neolithic up to the present day. The Department of Asia in the British Museum is one of the largest collections of historical artifacts from Asia, consisting of over 70000 objects covering the material ^[55][56][57]

Key highlights of the collections include:^[58]

• One of the biggest collections of the Korean culture in the world
• The most comprehensive collection of sculpture from the Indian subcontinent in the world, including the celebrated Buddhist limestone reliefs from Amaravati^[59]
• An outstanding collection of Chinese antiquities, paintings, and porcelain, lacquer, bronze, jade, and other applied arts
• A fine collection of Buddhist paintings from Dunhuang and the Admonitions Scroll by Chinese artist Gu Kaizhi (344–406 AD)
• The most comprehensive collection of Japanese pre-20th century decorative arts in the western world

Painting by Chinese artist Gu Kaizhi, c. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Dunhuang ( also written as 燉煌 till early Qing Dynasty; is a City (pop Gu Kaizhi ( (ca 344-406 is a celebrated painter of ancient China. Gu Kaizhi ( (ca 344-406 is a celebrated painter of ancient China. 380 AD.

Painting by Chinese artist Gu Kaizhi, c. Gu Kaizhi ( (ca 344-406 is a celebrated painter of ancient China. 380 AD.

Portrait of Ibrâhîm 'Âdil Shâh II (1580–1626), Mughal Empire of India, 1615 AD. The Mughal Empire ( Persian and self-designation گورکانی; مغلیہ سلطنت) was an Islamic imperial power which ruled most

A Hamsa sacred swan vessel made of crystal, from Gandhara, 1st century AD. In Materials science, a crystal is a Solid in which the constituent Atoms Molecules or Ions are packed in a regularly ordered repeating Gandhāra ( Sanskrit: गन्धार Urdu: گندھارا Gandḥārā; also known as Waihind in Persian is the name of an ancient

Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas

The British Museum houses one of the world's greatest and most comprehensive collections of Ethnographic material from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, representing the cultures of indigenous peoples throughout the world. Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the Continents of North America and South America The term Indigenous Peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any Ethnic group who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest historical Over 350,000 objects^[61] spanning two million years tells the story of the history of man, from three major continents and many rich and diverse cultures.

The Sainsbury African Galleries display 600 objects from the greatest permanent collection of African arts and culture in the world. The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health Hoa Hakananai'a is a Moai ( Easter Island statue housed in the British Museum in London. The three permanent galleries provide a substantial exhibition space for the Museum's African collection comprising over 200,000 objects. A curatorial scope that encompasses both archaeological and contemporary material, including both unique masterpieces of artistry and objects of everyday life.

Highlights of the African collection include a magnificent brass head of a Yoruba ruler from Ife, Nigeria; Asante goldwork from Ghana and the Torday collection of Central African sculpture, textiles and weaponry.

The Americas collection mainly consists of 19th and 20th century items although the Inca, Aztec, Maya and other early cultures are well represented; collecting of modern artefacts is ongoing. Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who achieved political The Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican Civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the Pre-Columbian Americas

Department of Coins and Medals

The British Museum is home to one of the world's finest numismatic collections, comprising about a million objects. Numismatics (numisma nomisma "coin" from the νομίζειν nomízein, "to use according to law" is the study or collection of Currency The collection spans the entire history of coinage from its origins in the 7th century BC to the present day. There are approximately 9,000 coins, medals and banknotes on display around the British Museum. More than half of these can be found in the HSBC Money Gallery (Gallery 68), while the remainder form part of the permanent displays throughout the Museum.

Department of Prehistory and Europe

The prehistoric collections cover Europe, Africa and Asia, the earliest African artefacts being around 2 million years old. Coverage of Europe extends to the present day.

Department of Conservation, Documentation and Science

This department was founded in 1920. Conservation has six specialist areas: ceramics & glass; metals; organic material (including textiles); stone, wall paintings and mosaics; Eastern pictorial art and Western pictorial art. The science department has and continues to develop techniques to date artefacts, analyse and identify the materials used in their manufacture, to identify the place an artefact originated and the techniques used in their creation. The department also publishes its findings and discoveries.

Libraries and Archives

This department covers all levels of education, from casual visitors, schools, degree level and beyond. The Museum's various libraries hold in excess of 350,000 books, journals and pamphlets covering all areas of the museum's collection. Also the general Museum archives which date from its foundation in 1753 are overseen by this department; the individual departments have their own separate archives covering their various areas of responsibility.

Controversy

It is a point of controversy whether museums should be allowed to possess artefacts taken from other countries, and the British Museum is a notable target for criticism. The Elgin Marbles and the Benin Bronzes are among the most disputed objects in its collections, and organisations have been formed demanding the return of both sets of artefacts to their native countries of Greece and Nigeria respectively. The Elgin Marbles, also known as the Parthenon Marbles, are a collection of Classical Greek Marble sculptures inscriptions and architectural members The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 1000 Brass plaques from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Nigeria, officially named the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal Constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal

The British Museum has refused to return either set, stating that the "restitutionist premise, that whatever was made in a country must return to an original geographical site, would empty both the British Museum and the other great museums of the world". ^[62] The Museum has also argued that the British Museum Act of 1963 legally prevents any object from leaving its collection once it has entered it. Nevertheless, it has returned items such as the Tasmanian Ashes after a 20 year long battle with Australia. ^[63] Critics have particularly argued against the right of the British Museum to own objects which it does not share with the public.

Supporters of the Museum claim that it has provided protection for artefacts that might have otherwise been damaged or destroyed if they had been left in their original environments. While some critics have accepted this, they also argue that the artefacts should now be returned to their countries of origin if there is sufficient expertise and desire there to preserve them.

The British Museum continues to assert that it is an appropriate custodian and has an inalienable right to its disputed artefacts under British law.

Disputed Items in the Collection

• Elgin Marbles - claimed by Greece and backed by UNESCO among others for restitution. The Elgin Marbles, also known as the Parthenon Marbles, are a collection of Classical Greek Marble sculptures inscriptions and architectural members Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on November 16 ^[64]
• Benin Bronzes - claimed by Nigeria, 30 pieces sold already by The British Museum privately in the 1960s. The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 1000 Brass plaques from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. Nigeria, officially named the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal Constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal ^[65]
• Ethiopian Tabots - claimed by Ethiopia. Tabot ( Ge'ez ታቦት tābōt, sometimes spelled tabout) is a Ge'ez (as well as Ethio-Semitic) word referring NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page ^[66]
• 4 stolen drawings (Nazi plunder) - Compensation paid to Uri Peled in the amount of £175,000 by the British Museum. Nazi plunder refers to Art theft and other items stolen as a result of the organized spoliation of European countries during the time of the Third Reich ^[67]
• Achaemenid empire gold and silver artefacts from the Oxus Treasure - claimed by Tajikistan. The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire ( haχɒmaneʃijɒn (558–330 BC was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of The Oxus treasure is a collection of 170 gold and silver items from the Achaemenid period which were found by the Oxus river. Tajikistan (təˈdʒɪkɨstæn or /təˈdʒiːkɨstæn/ Тоҷикистон tɔʤikɪsˈtɔn or, Persian تاجیکستان‎ taajikestaan officially the Republic of ^[68]
• Aboriginal human remains - returned to Tasmania by the British museum. The Tasmanian Aborigines ( Aboriginal name Palawa) are the indigenous people of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Tasmania is an Australian island and state of the same name It is located south of the eastern side of the Continent, being separated from it by Bass ^[63]
• Mold's Golden Cape - claimed by Wales^[69]
• Rosetta Stone - claimed by Egypt^[70]

Galleries

Building

Main Staircase, Discobolus of Myron (the Discus-Thrower)

BM; 'MF' RM1 - The King's Library, Enlightenment 1 'Discovering the world in the 18th century ~ View South. The Mold cape is a solid sheet- Gold object dating from about 1900-1600 BC in the European Bronze Age. The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact (حجر رشيد in Arabic which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. The Discobolus of Myron (" Discus thrower " Greek Δισκοβόλος "Diskobolos" is a famous Roman marble copy of a lost jpg Room 1 - The King's Library, Enlightenment Permanent Exhibition

Floor Plans

Upper Floors (Rooms 36-73, 90-94)

Museum Galleries

Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Room 4 - Egyptian Sculpture, view towards the Assyrian Transcept

Room 4 - Egyptian Sculpture

Room 4 - Egyptian Sculpture

Room 4 - Egyptian Sculpture

Department of the Ancient Near East

Room 10 - Khorsabad Palace Reliefs

Room 9 - Nineveh Palace Reliefs

Room 10 - Nineveh, The Royal Lion Hunt

Room 89 - Nimrud & Nineveh Palace Reliefs

Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities

Room 18 - Parthenon Freize

Room 18 - Ancient Greece

Room 84 - Towneley Sculptures

Room 19 - Athens, Erechtheion Sculptures from the Acropolis

Exhibitions

Forgotten Empire Exhibition (October 2005 - January 2006)

Room 5 - Exhibitions Panorama

Room 5 - The Persepolis Casts

Room 5 - Exhibitions Relics

Room 5 - The Cyrus Cylinder

See also

• Employees of the British Museum
• People associated with the British Museum

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

• Official website of the British Museum
• A list of important dates in the British Museum's history from the official website

Coordinates: 51°31′10″N 0°7′37″W / 51.51944, -0.12694 (British Museum)

A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system.

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