Maybe our time in Africa and the Middle East thinned our blood but I felt chilled to the bone as we walked from the Metro through Russel Park to the British Museum. It seems, though, that the crocuses and daffodils hadn’t gotten the word that it’s still winter.
The Museum was open for business today, as it is almost every day of the year—except when we tried to visit in December. This would be our fourth or fifth visit and there were only a few things we really wanted to see—some again and others for the first time.
The first thing that caught our eye was “Hoa Hakananai’a,” a ‘moai’ from Rapa Nui. We have been to Easter Island and seen the giant moai statues but Hoa Hakananai’a is different. It has been in the Museum for more than 150 years, protected from the elements. And unlike the moai on Rapa Nui, Hoa Hakananai’a has carvings on its back, something we’ve never seen.
Our friend Rose, the archivist, gushed about the Museum’s recently re-opened Reading Room so we had to take a look. Rose wasn’t the only one impressed—there are comments on display from Virginia Woolf, Carl Marx and even Sherlock Holmes.
The dispute between Greece and the British Museum over the Parthenon Sculptures has been on-going since Greek independence in 1830. Previously known as the Elgin Marbles, the sculptures that once adorned the Parthenon were “given” to Lord Elgin by the Ottoman officials who occupied Athens in the early 1800s and Elgin later sold them to the Museum. Greece claims the Ottoman’s had no right to surrender the sculptures and the Museum says they were obtained legally and are better protected right where they are.
While British archeologists have long had a reputation for taking things that are not theirs, the Sutton Hoo treasure is truly a part of British history. The Sutton Hoo hoard, like the famous Lewis Chessmen which we had also seen in Edinburgh, were discovered on (or under) British soil. Both the Chessmen and the Sutton Hoo helmet were part of the Museum’s “History of the World in 100 Objects” which aired on BBC Four back in 2010. It’s worth a listen if you can find the podcast.