Today had probably my favorite thing we have done overall! We left around 10, and it was pouring rain so we had to share the only umbrella and Cailey had a rain jacket. Our pants were soaked on the bottom by the time we got to the train station. Luckily after the train ride it had cleared up and the 20 minute walk from the station to the museum was clear. When we had talked about the British Museum Cailey mainly talked about it from her lens and kind of guessed what my opinions would be. Cailey has a lack of interest in certain old things that I am interested in (particularly religion and ancient civilization minus the art, she loves the art), so I came in to it expecting it to be okay but not as good as Natural History, and my expectations were incredibly wrong.
We started off on the third floor because we wanted to go as high as we could to begin and end on the bottom, and the only way to the fifth floor was from the third. We walked across one side which started off with an amazing selection of old money, and currency and how they were used. It had a lot from multiple different cultures, explain valuation of money and had modern examples and included coins used as propaganda during certain periods of time. My favorites from this section were Chinese coin molds and a duck weight used on a balance to determine the amount of metal in a coin.
Next we went through a lot of old Roman and Greek architecture and artifacts, many that were amazing to see. Lots of old cool Greek writing which I could somewhat say but I don't know the words so it was rather useless lol. They had a lot of really famous artifacts I had no idea were here. Some of my favorites from this section include a stone tablet with a leg as a thank you note to a doctor for helping with a leg issue, how nice lol. I also enjoyed a metal goose and a pot with Phoenician, a language I absolutely love.
Next we went through Ancient Mesopotamian culture and archeology, which was so cool and absolutely fascinating for me to look at. There was an absurd amount of artifacts and unique cultural antiques that I've looked into before or just discovered and got a fascination for. One of the most fascinating cultures and languages for me is Akkadian, and seeing a lot from that was awesome. Some fascinating and favorites of mine were a replica of Jericho Tomb and the bodies inside, a stone with old Phoenician script, the evolution of cuneiform and Akkadian writing, Ur (the oldest game ever with written rules, which is still played today), a massive slab celebrating Nebuchadnezzar II and his finishing of Babylon the city, a tablet describing the construction of the tower of Babel, a world map according to the Babylonians, and probably my favorite and most studied in this section was a tablet with the original Mesopotamian flood myth, and incredible piece of evidence towards documentary hypothesis and mythology of flood myths worldwide (and apparently so exciting that when the person who found it, George Smith, was so excited when he realized what he had that he jumped, yelled and took off his clothes from excitement lol). Easily one of the coolest sections ever.
Next was the Egyptian section, which was also super fascinating and had many close relations to Akkadian and Hebrew (and as I newly learned, Chinese derived from Egyptian too). There was a lot on burials, rituals and the final room had a lot of death and mummification that were fascinating. By war the coolest object there was a replica of Jebel Sahaba, a super old (10,000 BC) burial site of over 60 bodies giving the earliest signs of wars within hominin species, and was absolutely fascinating to see and look at. There was another different body that I didn't get a great picture of due to the large group, but it was a murdered man with hair and skin still there, and it was amazing to apply forensic and archeological knowledge I had to understand a lot of the forensic anthropology that led to the discovery of his murder and how he died. All the mummies were also amazing.
The next section was the Japanese section at the top floor, which had a lot of amazing artifacts and history! The artifacts were Edo Period and beyond, which was amazing but I am really wanting to see Sengoku and earlier, especially Jomon, Muromachi and Yayoi period artifacts would be the best. There was a lot around religion and daily living that I lived. Cailey got a picture of Samurai armor and weapons, and it went all the way up into the modern Reiwa period. My favorites included a tea house replica, leather animals, an old Kami deity set, a mask used for rituals and festivals and old books and art.
When walking out we saw a little bit more Babylonian and religious artifacts within the Islamic section that specifically focused more on Iraq. There was then a small section of British medieval artifacts, which I loved the religious ones. My favorites from these small sections was an observation of Halley's Comet and old British symbols that represented the Alpha and Omega referenced in the Bible.
We then explored the shop cause it was in the center on the bottom floor, which was cool and gave me ideas. We then stopped quickly for lunch in the cafe and I had a delicious BLT sandwich and pink lemonade. We then finally got to see it!!! The Rosetta Stone, arguably one of the greatest and coolest artifacts in the world. It was fascinating to finally see the decoding device used to understand Hebrew and Egyptian. Nearby were more old Egyptian artifacts in relation to the diverging worlds of the Jews, Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. My favorite (obviously) was the Rosetta Stone by far and large, and I loved the Gayer-Anderson Cat too.
We then walked around Assyrian and ancient Greek artifacts, which was cool but I didn't take any photos. My favorite thing was they had moved the walls of the castle for the Assyrian kind in for you to walk through and two guards had carved a game of Ur into an outcropping for when they were bored lol.
The only sections left were all next to each other. The first was a themed room that had life and death and interpretations, causes and ways to remedy disease found throughout cultures and times that I found fascinating. We then went into Mexican and North American archeology and I was praying it would focus on Native America tribes, particularly in Mexico, and luckily it was just that! Mayan, Aztecs, Intuit and more have always been extremely fascinating to me, especially given the possible relations to the Book of Mormon some of them could have (depending on your interpretation of where the Book of Mormon took place, I lean on North America but don't doubt they could have had contact with the massive civilizations that were found all over). Some of my favorites here included Aztec ritual masks, one for ceremony and one for burial, a atlatl which was used to throw spears faster and farther, a Xiuhcoatl carving in stone, a two headed serpent made of Jade and Mayan hieroglyphs.
We then walked through a hall to get out which I originally had no interest in but I spotted Māori artifacts that were amazing to look at, especially given the relation of Grandpa Barnes serving the Māori people on both of his missions, and Hawai'ian/Polynesian cultures are always fascinating.
Ended by getting something for Mom and Emersyn and of course myself lol. My favorite being my Rosetta Stone shirt that is comfy and really cool to look at, maybe one day I'll be able to read a portion of it lol.
Really the only museum stuff I haven't seen yet but would love to one day in early Celtic/Irish and pre-Edo period Japanese culture and artifacts, then my life will be complete, unless I can somehow see the Kuntillet Ajrud inscription of Adonai and His Asherah. Overall and amazing day, especially for being close to the end I'm glad we could do it.
Walking back out it was clear, then we saw lighting, heard a clap of thunder and it instantly started to down pour extremely hard. This time worse than before and it was a 20 minute walk to the station so we were absolutely soaked by the time we were on the train. Stopped at Sainsbury and Morrisons to get some chocolate, which btw my absolute op Copper broke into our room and ate my only Turkish Delight and ruined a flake bar.... Took a nap when home then ate dinner which was meat pies, not my favorite but still good, and was also when we discovered the crime scene Copper created. We then played a game of Sograda, which I need to stop playing lol. I was so extremely confident I would win and I got third... Matt won which was amazing. Cailey needed bonding time so we worked on the puzzle book from Kristin more.
Took me an hour and way too many words (in case you couldn't tell this day was my favorite day by far), but that was the fun day I had today. Cailey enjoyed seeing my enthusiasm and childlike wonder for everything around me, so she had a fun day out of that.
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