Into the Past
by fimbulvetr
Today marks the final day of my planned London adventures. That doesn’t mean to say that my adventures are over, simply that I will need to improvise for the next two days. I saved the best for last in my plan today, that magnificent collection of history that is the British Museum. I arrived just as the museum opened so I could snag tickets to the Pompeii Exhibition, but my entry time was in the afternoon so I had 4 hours to explore the rest of the museum.
The best place to start was with Egypt, since the British Museum is known for their collection of Egyptian artifacts, most of all the Rosetta Stone. I continued on through Ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome before taking a detour for some small galleries on Japan, Korea, and China. By 12:00 I had finished about 2/3 of the museum so I decided to take a break for lunch and some tea. The museum restaurant had a special high tea service but with the price of 20 pounds I opted for a simpler cup of sencha tea from the cafe. I quickly wrapped up the rest of the museum by 1:30 with just enough time to queue up for the exhibition.
While the exhibition was supposedly about Pompeii, it was really looking beyond the disaster and focusing more on everyday life in the Roman empire. Many artifacts that would have otherwise been lost to the ages were preserved within the volcanic ash and rock. It was a good way to wrap up my time at the museum, being reminded that even the mundane aspects of the past can be revealing. If one is to trace the progress of humanity, should it not be by the progress of the everyday person? Versus the brightest and wealthiest people of an age. The few can be uplifted by the many in any society, but for humanity to progress, we must learn to uplift each other.
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