Wednesday morning it was me-time and alone I set off from the hostel and went to the British Museum. Again, I haven’t been there since 1987, I believe. So much has changed, but I felt embraced when I stepped in.
To be totally honest with you, I “sneaked in before it opened” and so I enjoyed a good 30 minutes alone, really alone, in the museum. I just wanted to see the area devoted to Babylonians and Assyrian (and then the Egyptians). I tell you a little story: I don’t remember much of when I was a young girl but… but… a strong memory that I have is my history book, and of one afternoon of me studying Assyro-Babylonians and the Hanging Gardens, the language, and the Rosetta Stele: I know that that day I was at peace. I remember the smell of the book, my pencilled notes, the underlying. I know I was feeling very happy. And since then, those populations and their language and art have been a constant in my life, up to the point of me deciding to study Akkadian one summer; a hidden language, nomadic populations, symbols and glyphs: what’s not to like, for me?
Hence, picture me, again nose in the air taking it all in! I took many pictures of the experience, so here please find just a small selection of my morning at the Museum, again taking it all in and looking for details. One thing that I admired was a couple of statuettes, just being there, alone. They reminded me of Modigliani’s long necks and faces and the thought of another famous artist “stealing” from the ancients made me smile and comforted me at the same time: there’s really nothing new, isn’t it?
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