I should start by saying that this warning is for anyone planning to visit the British Museum, but maybe even more so for those visiting with me. Suppose you have a long weekend, perhaps 5 days in London. Somewhere in your program there may be a little time for a visit to the BM. Don't underestimate its vastness in relation to the stamina of your curiosity.
As my university is located around the corner of the museum, and there is no entrance fee, I'm in the fortunate circumstance that I can return for short strolls in preferred galleries, avoiding museum fatigue and information overload. For my latest visit I planned to 'do' one room, 56, in one hour, covering Mesopotamia from 6000 - 1500 BC, thus leaving 1500 - 539 BC and Anatolia, Iran, Arabia, the Levant (rooms 52-59, 6, 9, 10a-c, 89, B, I, G, Z) for future high quality breaks.
The result; Woolley's finds at the Royal Graves of Ur, current southern Iraq, making up only one third of room 56, took both my lunchtime and breath away.
- British Museum: Standard of Ur (2600-2400 BC)
