For several weeks now, I’ve had a thought in my head, that lead to today. I went to London, for a very specific purpose.
My first port of call was the British Museum. I’ve walked past this grand establishment before, but I have never been in. It almost didn’t happen. It’s best to book a ticket for even a general visit; even though entry is free, it can get very busy, and a ticket ensures entry. I had looked at this a while ago, and I confess, had forgotten all about it. Luckily, when I arrived this morning, there was no queue, and I was straight in.
A check with the enquiries desk told me that what I would be interested in is Gallery 51. This covered England and the Middle East, from 10,000 to 800 BC. The room was full of artefacts from those times. The feelings I had were so much more intense than when looking online. Being almost able to reach out and touch something 10,000 years old was amazing.
One display, relating to blacksmiths, was interesting. Apparently, in the first century, the temperatures they were able to achieve weren’t enough to melt the metal, only soften it. The question that came to me was how they made the anvils on which the metalworking was done?
After I had mostly satisfied myself (I think I will be going back) with the British Museum, I slowly made my way to the Natural History Museum. Here, I could have faced a much worse entry issue. Waiting times for walk-in visits were around an hour and a half. Luckily, I had booked an event. That guaranteed immediate entry.
The event was Visions of Nature, which was an augmented reality experience. It was interesting and very well done. But that was not the reason I was at the museum.
After the experience, I made my way to the other end of the museum (I was clocking up the steps today, and the flights of stairs climbed). This time to Human Evolution.
Whilst the British Museum had been very interesting, the displays in the Natural History Museum were really much closer to what I had been looking for; This representation of the evolution of Sapiens.
That, and some of the artefacts, worked stone tools, gave me a good picture of where we fit into the picture.
Bills Posts 