Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #BritishMuseum
Most recents (8)
One-stop statuette to pray to multiple gods! Silver statuette with gilding, of the Gallo-#Roman goddess Tutela, with a double cornucopia and a mural crown worn as a protector of a city. She holds a patera (libation dish) in her right hand. Let's identify the gods ... 1/ 
The double cornucopia holds the heads of Diana and Apollo, and her upright wings carry the busts of the Dioscurii, Castor and Pollux. Above them is a stand with the busts of several other gods ... 2/
The seven gods at the top of Tutela's wings represent the seven days of the week. Starting with Saturn, the eldest, then Sol (sun), Luna (moon), Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus. ALT tag for more.
Ca. 150-220 AD. Excavated in Mâcon, France. #BritishMuseum (1824,0424.1). 3/
Ca. 150-220 AD. Excavated in Mâcon, France. #BritishMuseum (1824,0424.1). 3/
A predictable switch from claiming it's a matter for the #BritishMuseum trustees - to wading right into the issue:
The #ParthenonMarbles "belong here in the UK" & should not be returned to #Greece, Michele Donelan the UK culture secretary has insisted.
bbc.co.uk/news/entertain…
The #ParthenonMarbles "belong here in the UK" & should not be returned to #Greece, Michele Donelan the UK culture secretary has insisted.
bbc.co.uk/news/entertain…
I say predictable - because past actions of this government have indicated that they would be against return of the #ParthenonMarbles - deferring to the British Museum Trustees was always a cheap get-out to avoid answering the question they'd been asked.
And as surely as night follows day, now the trustees are being more proactive the government has revealed their hand - with the exact cards in it that almost everyone had already deduced they'd be holding.
Finally finished! A speculative reconstruction of the 1st c. AD funerary altar of the child Julia Victorina. Beautiful Ionic decorative scheme, with very specific spring flowers. So specific that I think they must have been individually colored. #polychromy #Louvre 1/
The funerary inscription is fairly standard, if not heartbreaking. Julia lived to the age of 10 years and 5 months, and is described as 'sweetest daughter'. My attempt at a translation, below. The letters get wonky on the bottom line! #epigraphy @abby_fecit @Caroline_Barron 2/
Julia's parents were Caius Julius Saturninus and Lucilia Procula. Julia Victorina inherited her name from her father, using the proper name of women born into the gens (family) Julia, the same ancient patrician family as Julius Caesar. 3/
The poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn", with its opening lines “Thou still unravished bride of quietness,/Thou foster child of silence and slow time”, was inspired by John Keats’ viewing of the #ParthenonMarbles in the Elgin Room of the #BritishMuseum in 1817. 1/6
A panel in the #Parthenon frieze arouses Keats’ attention where the procession features "that heifer lowing at the skies", with its upturned tilt and stretch and silken flanks. Keats’ sylvan historian can only but enquire: “What men or gods are these?" 2/6
What the imagination seizes as beauty in the case of the Elgin Marbles is a reflection of the paramount importance of aesthetic integrity. Truly, the Parthenon Sculptures are a "thing of beauty is a joy for ever” as John Keats wrote in the memorable first line of "Endymion". 3/6
"You Hide Me Still: 50 Years On"- An iconic film shot in 1970 in #BritishMuseum by Nii Kwate Owoo which exposed the theft and concealment of African artefacts in the basement of the British Museum. In 2020 the spirit of #restitution beckons. eventbrite.co.uk/e/you-hide-me-… @EventbriteUK
The seminar Lost Heritage was held at Africa Centre London in 1981. A #UNESCO spokesman noted that it was ironic that the conference was being held in UK, a “country which has given a great deal to the world and to other peoples but which has also taken a great deal from them”
The film "You Hide Me" is the filmmaker's recording of a very important segment of African history: the pillage and the plunder of African cultural artefacts by Europeans by reference to what he uncovered in the #BritishMuseum, much of which is stored out of public view.
The Director of the #BritishMuseum Hartwig Fischer has issued a statement that the British Museum "stands in solidarity with the Black community throughout the world." #BlackLivesMatter." That is to be applauded. blog.britishmuseum.org/a-message-from… via @britishmuseum 1/4
However, the #BritishMuseum has never apologised for its shameful part in the British Army's brutal conquest and looting of rare Ethiopian artefacts at the Battle of Maqdala in 1868, in a clear case of officially sanctioned plunder and murder 2/4
Or its part in acquiring the looted #BeninBronzes, some of Africa’s greatest treasures, after a British punitive military expedition in 1897, and maintaining to this day that they were lawfully 'purchased' and will not be returned. 3/4
Hinduism expansion in Asia, from its heartland in Indian Subcontinent, to the rest of Asia, started circa 1st century
Greater India was the historical extent of the culture of Hinduism & Buddhism beyond the Indian subcontinent.
Ruins of Ayutthaya Temple in Wat Cha Wattanaram, Ayutthaya Historical Park, Thailand which was named after Ayodhya.
Ashoka the Great's Empire after Kalinga War C.265 BCE, was the major power at that time.
#IndianHistory
#IndianHistory
Location of #KalingaEmpire. c.261 BCE, Kalinga was an early republic in central East India.
#IndianHistory
#IndianHistory
More than 150,000 #KalingaEmpire warriors & about 100,000 Ashoka's warriors were slain in Kalinga War
#IndianHistory
#IndianHistory
