Natural History and British Museum

We visited the Natural History Museum a Victorian building which houses many collections of the natural world: fossils, gems, stuffed animals and the like.

Then to the British Museum which was founded in 1753 and houses artefacts from many cultures around the world.  The Reading Room extension and its glass covered roof were added in 2000.  The museum contains the famous Rosetta Stone which is inscribed in Greek, ancient Egyptian demotic script and Hieroglyphics 196BC.  It was discovered by a French soldier in a place called Rosetta in 1799 and then came into the possession of the British, it has been on display in the British Museum since 1802.  The stone revealed its hieroglyphic meaning after 20yrs of academic translation collaboration.

Natural History Museum

The British Museum 

Lindow man -  remains of a 1st C man found in a bog in England who had been garrotted.

Aztec mosaic mask 

The bass relief from the Parthenon fascia

The Rosetta stone 

Impersonating mummies!