6 ms·

Every time I go to the British Museum, I always pass by the stone. It captures the imagination, even if you know that it's just a "propaganda piece". Also, Th

Every time I go to the British Museum, I always pass by the stone. It captures the imagination, even if you know that it's just a "propaganda piece". Also, The British Museum is one of the greatest places on earth.

samizdis 4y ago
> Also, The British Museum is one of the greatest places on earth. I second that opinion, but suggest that the museum's deserved popularity - especially with tourists - can often limit enjoyment of the environment, mostly because of queues and crowds. For those who truly enjoy the BM, as a living, evolving resource and venue to be visited regularly, I'd suggest considering membership. It's £69 a year, and grants free access to otherwise paid exhibitions/events. It also grants attendance to members-only events outside usual museum hours. There's something really special about wandering the galleries during advent, with no crowds, and listening to live music (quartets, groups of singers etc) while drinking mulled wine and eating mince pies. Attending lectures, too, in which archaelologists and others discuss their digs and finds, is tremendously engaging. There's also a members' room in which to rest up. For those with children, Young Friends membership for eight- to 15-year-olds is worth considering; I've paid for quite a few kids, and renewed year after year because they got so much out of the activities/experiences. The museum hosts Young Friends sleep-overs - some in the Egyptian section with the mummies. Membership info: https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership Young Friends: https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership/young-friends https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership/young-friends
- Ensorceled 4y ago
  > the museum's deserved popularity - especially with tourists - can often limit enjoyment of the environment I'm always on vacation when in London so I try to go early morning on a weekday. > I'd suggest considering membership. It's £69 a year, and grants free access to otherwise paid exhibitions/events. I get the membership every time, even though I only go every couple of years. Sometimes it gets me into something but it's good to support the place.
  - londons_explore 4y ago
    > good to support the place British people's taxes support the place. Giving them extra money is a bit like throwing some extra cash to help support the police whenever they stop you...
    - mod 4y ago
      I support the police via donations. I doubt it's all that unusual.
      - walls 4y ago
        You know they already get probably 70% of your cities budget, right?
        cyberlurker 4y ago
        You can view this data online and it is normally the schools that take the majority of the budget, and they still don't have enough money either. I have no idea where they live but it is possible their police are in need of donations, unlike perhaps LAPD/NYPD.
        mod 4y ago
        Since you mentioned it, I looked it up. The sheriff dept I donate to gets about 30% of the county budget. The city police get just over 10% of the city budget.
      - bergenty 4y ago
        It is unusual. You’re giving donations to a fully state funded entity who get to keep what they seize and have one of the strongest unions in the US? Seems like an absolute waste of money.
        mod 4y ago
        I donate to the state police retirement fund occasionally, and I donate to the local shop with a sheriff, which I'm actually intending to go to the kids, but of course the sheriff is all about it and the one soliciting donations. My business actually started the shop-with-a-sheriff in this county, although the new sheriff took it over after a couple of years. I waste plenty of money, but I don't particularly feel like I'm wasting it here. You should meet the kids, and the deputies.
GnarfGnarf 4y ago
I had easy access to the display in 1983. Now it's usually surrounded by visitors 6-deep, very difficult to get near.
- Bakary 4y ago
  You are not in traffic, you are traffic
qazpot 4y ago
> The British Museum is one of the greatest places on earth. Where treasures looted from other cultures are displayed ?
- Accacin 4y ago
  Not that I disagree with the general sentiment, but I'd be surprised if a National Museum of any country didn't have looted treasures. I'm not sure why the British are always singled out for this, and other countries conveniently ignored.
  - Bakary 4y ago
    Other countries are not ignored, it's just that their looting pales in comparison and British culture gets talked about more by virtue of being in English.
  - dopidopHN 4y ago
    CF : the next in line offender, our French friends in the Louvre.
    - TremendousJudge 4y ago
      Where the Rosetta stone would be if the British hadn't stolen it after the battle of Trafalgar.
      - dopidopHN 4y ago
        Oh. As a French I did not know that. Those sneaky little thieves. Stilling our hardly acquired loot. Typical.
- UI_at_80x24 4y ago
  I would rather go to the places these antiquities were from and visit in a museum there. Another thing worth pointing out, the British Museum was founded with the objective of proving events written in the bible were based on historical events. Let's air all this dirty laundry while we are at it.
pazimzadeh 4y ago
Another cool ancient propaganda piece/stone inscription is the Cyrus Cylinder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Cylinder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Cylinder
Ozzie_osman 4y ago
It is worth noting that Egypt has asked for the Rosetta stone back to be displayed in a museum there and the British have refused.
- TremendousJudge 4y ago
  Also technically they stole it from the French
  - photochemsyn 4y ago
    Hmmm... so, thieves who steal from other thieves may view their actions as less reprehensible than thieves who steal from the original owners? European colonialism was just an example of a practice that dates back to prehistory, and can even be seen in the behavior of our chimpanzee cousins - 'raiding' is the word for it.
    - mistrial9 4y ago
      the sands of Egypt are soaked in blood of many nations, peoples and the rest
    - TremendousJudge 4y ago
      Sorry, I didn't mean to justify it. Just to point out that it wasn't only the British engaging in this behavior. Also I find it a pretty funny historical fact, large part of the British Museum's Egypt collection actually comes from French raids.
- Ensorceled 4y ago
  I always find these conversations strange. The stone was erected by a long dead Greek Pharaoh of an ancient civilization that happened to be located on what is now Egypt. The stone was found in 1798 by the French and taken by the British as a spoil of war and, eventually, found it's way to the British Museum. Who has claim? The Greeks? It was ruled by a Greek at the time. The Romans who ruled later? The French? The British? The pre-revolution Egyptians? The post coup Egyptians? Everyone involved is long dead. It's not like WWII looting where the grand child of the former owner wants their property back. At some point this is all the ancient history of us all.

samizdis 4y ago

> Also, The British Museum is one of the greatest places on earth. I second that opinion, but suggest that the museum's deserved popularity - especially with tourists - can often limit enjoyment of the environment, mostly because of queues and crowds. For those who truly enjoy the BM, as a living, evolving resource and venue to be visited regularly, I'd suggest considering membership. It's £69 a year, and grants free access to otherwise paid exhibitions/events. It also grants attendance to members-only events outside usual museum hours. There's something really special about wandering the galleries during advent, with no crowds, and listening to live music (quartets, groups of singers etc) while drinking mulled wine and eating mince pies. Attending lectures, too, in which archaelologists and others discuss their digs and finds, is tremendously engaging. There's also a members' room in which to rest up. For those with children, Young Friends membership for eight- to 15-year-olds is worth considering; I've paid for quite a few kids, and renewed year after year because they got so much out of the activities/experiences. The museum hosts Young Friends sleep-overs - some in the Egyptian section with the mummies. Membership info: https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership Young Friends: https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership/young-friends https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership/young-friends

Ensorceled 4y ago
> the museum's deserved popularity - especially with tourists - can often limit enjoyment of the environment I'm always on vacation when in London so I try to go early morning on a weekday. > I'd suggest considering membership. It's £69 a year, and grants free access to otherwise paid exhibitions/events. I get the membership every time, even though I only go every couple of years. Sometimes it gets me into something but it's good to support the place.
- londons_explore 4y ago
  > good to support the place British people's taxes support the place. Giving them extra money is a bit like throwing some extra cash to help support the police whenever they stop you...
  - mod 4y ago
    I support the police via donations. I doubt it's all that unusual.
    - walls 4y ago
      You know they already get probably 70% of your cities budget, right?
      - cyberlurker 4y ago
        You can view this data online and it is normally the schools that take the majority of the budget, and they still don't have enough money either. I have no idea where they live but it is possible their police are in need of donations, unlike perhaps LAPD/NYPD.
      - mod 4y ago
        Since you mentioned it, I looked it up. The sheriff dept I donate to gets about 30% of the county budget. The city police get just over 10% of the city budget.
    - bergenty 4y ago
      It is unusual. You’re giving donations to a fully state funded entity who get to keep what they seize and have one of the strongest unions in the US? Seems like an absolute waste of money.
      - mod 4y ago
        I donate to the state police retirement fund occasionally, and I donate to the local shop with a sheriff, which I'm actually intending to go to the kids, but of course the sheriff is all about it and the one soliciting donations. My business actually started the shop-with-a-sheriff in this county, although the new sheriff took it over after a couple of years. I waste plenty of money, but I don't particularly feel like I'm wasting it here. You should meet the kids, and the deputies.

GnarfGnarf 4y ago

I had easy access to the display in 1983. Now it's usually surrounded by visitors 6-deep, very difficult to get near.

Bakary 4y ago
You are not in traffic, you are traffic

qazpot 4y ago

> The British Museum is one of the greatest places on earth. Where treasures looted from other cultures are displayed ?

Accacin 4y ago
Not that I disagree with the general sentiment, but I'd be surprised if a National Museum of any country didn't have looted treasures. I'm not sure why the British are always singled out for this, and other countries conveniently ignored.
- Bakary 4y ago
  Other countries are not ignored, it's just that their looting pales in comparison and British culture gets talked about more by virtue of being in English.
- dopidopHN 4y ago
  CF : the next in line offender, our French friends in the Louvre.
  - TremendousJudge 4y ago
    Where the Rosetta stone would be if the British hadn't stolen it after the battle of Trafalgar.
    - dopidopHN 4y ago
      Oh. As a French I did not know that. Those sneaky little thieves. Stilling our hardly acquired loot. Typical.
UI_at_80x24 4y ago
I would rather go to the places these antiquities were from and visit in a museum there. Another thing worth pointing out, the British Museum was founded with the objective of proving events written in the bible were based on historical events. Let's air all this dirty laundry while we are at it.

pazimzadeh 4y ago

Another cool ancient propaganda piece/stone inscription is the Cyrus Cylinder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Cylinder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Cylinder

Ozzie_osman 4y ago

It is worth noting that Egypt has asked for the Rosetta stone back to be displayed in a museum there and the British have refused.

TremendousJudge 4y ago
Also technically they stole it from the French
- photochemsyn 4y ago
  Hmmm... so, thieves who steal from other thieves may view their actions as less reprehensible than thieves who steal from the original owners? European colonialism was just an example of a practice that dates back to prehistory, and can even be seen in the behavior of our chimpanzee cousins - 'raiding' is the word for it.
  - mistrial9 4y ago
    the sands of Egypt are soaked in blood of many nations, peoples and the rest
  - TremendousJudge 4y ago
    Sorry, I didn't mean to justify it. Just to point out that it wasn't only the British engaging in this behavior. Also I find it a pretty funny historical fact, large part of the British Museum's Egypt collection actually comes from French raids.
Ensorceled 4y ago
I always find these conversations strange. The stone was erected by a long dead Greek Pharaoh of an ancient civilization that happened to be located on what is now Egypt. The stone was found in 1798 by the French and taken by the British as a spoil of war and, eventually, found it's way to the British Museum. Who has claim? The Greeks? It was ruled by a Greek at the time. The Romans who ruled later? The French? The British? The pre-revolution Egyptians? The post coup Egyptians? Everyone involved is long dead. It's not like WWII looting where the grand child of the former owner wants their property back. At some point this is all the ancient history of us all.