London Past Papers The British Museum

Question 1

From which century does the Mildenhall Treasure date?

Answer 1

Fourth century AD

The Mildenhall Treasure is a large hoard of 34 masterpieces of Roman silver tableware from thefourth century AD, and by far the most valuable Roman objects artistically and by weight of bullion in Britain. It was found at West Row, near Mildenhall, Suffolk, in 1942.

Question 2

a) In approximately which year was
Gebelein Man buried?
b) How did he probably die?

Answer 2

a) He was buried in about 3500 BC (if not earlier) at the site of Gebelein in Upper Egypt.
b) Stabbed in the back

Question 3

What is the family relationship between Assyrian kings Sargon and Ashurbanipal?

Answer 3

Sargon II’s three immediate successors; Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal
Making Sargon II Ashurbanipal’s great grandfather

Question 4

What name is given to the form of ceramic decoration, developed in China during the Tang Dynasty, in which colouring agents are
added to a low-fired lead-based glaze to give a polychrome effect?

Answer 4

Tang sancai– ‘egg and spinach’

The origins ofTang sancai– polychrome lead-glazeddecorated Tang dynasty pottery – were in the northern Chinese cities of Shaanxi and Loyang and for the most part the process used varying shades of yellow, green and white, earning the nickname ‘egg and spinach’ in the west, although other colours were used.

Question 5

What was the likely reason for the Battersea Shield ending up in the River Thames?

Answer 5

It was dredged from the bed of the RiverThamesatBatterseain London in 1857, during excavations for the predecessor ofChelsea Bridge; in the same area workers found large quantities ofRomanandCeltic weaponsand skeletons in the riverbed, leading many historians to conclude that the area was the site ofJulius Caesar’s crossing of the Thames during the 54 BCinvasion of Britain, although it is now thought that the shield was a votive offering, which probably predates the invasion.

Question 6

Name the new Director of the British Museum.

Answer 6

Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE

Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE, Director of the British Museum.

Question 7

Which Frenchman published a paper on the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone in 1822?

Answer 7

Jean-François Champollion, also known asChampollionle jeune(the Younger), was a Frenchphilologistandorientalist, known primarily as thedeciphererofEgyptian hieroglyphsand a founding figure in the field ofEgyptology.

Question 8

In which Assyrian city was Ashurbanipal’s palace, where the lion hunt reliefs were created?

Answer 8

City of Nineveh

Nineveh (in the north of present-day Iraq)

Question 9

What name was given to the former King’s Library when it was reopened in 2003?

Answer 9

The King’s Library, now theEnlightenment Gallery?

Question 10

During which Chinese dynasty was the bronze ritual vessel commissioned by Mei Situ Yi created?

Answer 10

?

Question 11

What rules apply if you are asked to guide Rooms 62 and 63 ‘Egyptian death and afterlife’?

Question 12

Which object carries the inscription: ‘a decree passed by a council of priests, one of a series that affirm the royal cult of the 13 year-old Ptolemy V’?

Answer 12

The Rosetta Stone

Question 13

What is the largest size of group you may take to the Museum without booking?

Question 14

From which material are almost all the Lewis Chessmen carved?

Answer 14

Walrus ivory

Question 15

Which empire governed Athens at the time Lord Elgin removed the sculptures?

Answer 15

Ottoman Empire

Question 16

What did Gordon Butcher find whilst ploughing a field in 1942?

Answer 16

The Mildenhall Treasure

Question 17

Name the poem Shelley wrote when he heard that the British Museum had acquired a bust of Rameses II.

Answer 17

Ozymandias

Shelley’s poem’Ozymandias’is a meditation not on imperial grandeur, but on the transience of earthly power, and in it Ramesses’ statue becomes a symbol of the futility of all human achievement.

Question 18

Which Italian circus strong-man
transported the head of
Ramesses II back to London?

Answer 18

Giovanni Battista Belzoni,
aka The Great Belzoni

At the height of the summer in 1816Belzoniused his circus-proven, weight-levering know-how to succeed where Napoleon and his troops had failed: He lifted the bust of Ramses ii from the Ramesseum, the pharaoh’s mortuary temple in Thebes, and hauled it to the nearby Nile.

Question 19

Who was King of Assyria 668-627BC?

Answer 19

Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal(flourished 7th century bce) was the last of the great kings of Assyria (reigned 668 to 627 bce), who assembled inNinevehthe first systematically organized library in Mesopotamia and the ancient Middle East.

Question 20

Until what time is much of the British Museum open on Fridays?

Answer 20

On Fridays the Museum is open until20.30 (last entry at 20.15).

Question 21

What was the name of the woman who donated Sutton Hoo to the National Trust?

Answer 21

Edith May Pretty

Question 22

What was Easter Island called before it was ‘discovered’ by European sailors in 1722?

Answer 22

Rapa Nui

The name Easter Island originated with the European explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who first saw the island on Easter Sunday, 1722. Today, the Easter Islanders call themselves and their homelandRapa Nui.

Question 23

Two tube stations are located 500m from the front entrance of the Museum? Which ones?

Answer 23

The nearest London Underground stations are;
Holborn, a five-minute walk away,
and
Tottenham Court Road, a two-minute walk away.

Question 24

Name the firm of architects which
designed the Great Court, which
opened in 2000.

Answer 24

Foster and Partners

Designed byFoster and Partners, the Great Court is a two-acre space enclosed by a spectacular glass roof with the world-famous Reading Room in the middle.

Question 25

Which TWO languages are displayed on the Rosetta Stone?

Answer 25

(i) Egyptian
(ii) Greek

The inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone are in two languages,Egyptian and Greek, and three writing systems,hieroglyphics, demotic script (a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphics), and the Greek alphabet, which provided a key to the translation of the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.

Question 26

Who left the Waddesdon bequest to the British Museum?

Answer 26

Baron Ferdinand Rothschild

The Waddesdon Bequest is a collection of nearly 300 objects, left to the Museum in 1898 byBaron Ferdinand Rothschild. It consists of exceptionally important medieval and Renaissance pieces, as well as a number of 19th-century fakes.

Question 27

In which English county was the Sutton Hoo treasure discovered?

Answer 27

Suffolk

Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge,Suffolk, England. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when an undisturbedship burialcontaining a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artifacts was discovered.

Question 28

Residents of Rapa Nui (Easter
Island) recently petitioned the
British Museum for the return of
the Hoa Hakananai’a statue. In
which ocean is Easter Island?

Answer 28

southeastern Pacific Ocean

Easter Island, a territory of Chile, is located in the southeasternPacific Oceanabout 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) west of the Chilean mainland.

Question 29

Name the king of Yaxchilan who is
shown in the Mayan blood-letting
lintel.

Answer 29

Itzamnaaj Bahlam III
(also known as Shield Jaguar)

Lintel 24is the designation given by modern archaeologists to anancient Mayalimestone sculpture fromYaxchilan, in modernChiapas,Mexico. The lintel dates to about 723–726 AD, placing it within the MayaLate Classic period. Itsmid-reliefcarving depicts the ruler of Yaxchilan,Itzamnaaj Bahlam III (also known as Shield Jaguar), and his consortLady K’abal Xoc, performing a ceremony ofbloodletting; the imagery is also accompanied bydescriptive captions, and (unusually for a Maya monumental text) asignatureby the sculptor, Mo’ Chaak.

Question 30

Name the author, more commonly
known for children’s fiction, who
wrote an account of the discovery
of the Mildenhall Treasure.

Answer 30

Roald Dahl

Question 31

Name the physician whose
collection of 71,000 objects
became part of the foundation of
the British Museum after his
death in 1753.

Answer 31

Sir Hans Sloane

A physician by trade,Sir Hans Sloanewas also a collector of objects from around the world. By his death in 1753 he had collected more than 71,000 items. Sloane bequeathed his collection to the nation in his will and it became the founding collection of the British Museum.

Question 32

What story is told on the East Pediment of the Parthenon?

Answer 32

The east pediment of the Parthenon showedthe birth of goddess Athena from the head of her father Zeus. The sculptures that represented the actual scene are lost.

Question 33

What is the Portland Vase made of?

Answer 33

Glass

ThePortland Vaseis aRomancameo glassvase, which is dated between AD 1 and AD 25, though low BC dates have some scholarly supportIt is the best known piece of Roman cameo glass and has served as an inspiration to many glass andporcelainmakers from about the beginning of the 18th century onwards. It was first recorded in Rome in 1600–1601, and since 1810 has been in theBritish Museumin London. The museum held it on loan from thedukes of Portlanduntil 1945, and bought it from them that year. It is normally on display in Room 70.

Question 34

Who bequeathed the Holy Thorn Reliquary to the British Museum in 1898?

Answer 34

Baron Ferdinand Rothschild

This superb collection of nearly 300 medieval and Renaissance masterpieces was bequeathed to the British Museum byBaron Ferdinand Rothschildin 1898.

Question 35

Name the poet whose poem
‘Ozymandias’ was inspired by the
arrival of the statue of Rameses II
in 1817.

Answer 35

“Ozymandias” is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poetPercy Bysshe Shelley. It was first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of The Examiner of London.

Question 36

Name the ancient copper mine
near the site where the Mold Gold
Cape was found.

Answer 36

The Mold Cape was buried only a matter of miles away from the largest Bronze Age copper mine in northwest Europe,the Great Orme.

Question 37

How many days does it take to mummify a body?

Answer 37

The mummification process tookseventy days. Special priests worked as embalmers, treating and wrapping the body. Beyond knowing the correct rituals and prayers to be performed at various stages, the priests also needed a detailed knowledge of human anatomy.

Question 38

Name the special type of glassware in the Sutton Hoo clasps.

Answer 38

Millefiori glass

Question 39

With which cult is Hoa
Hakananai’a statue associated?

Answer 39

Tangata manu, or birdman religion

Hoa Hakananai’a (meaning ‘lost, hidden, or stolen friend’) is carved from basalt and dates from about 1000–1200. The back of the statue features intricate petroglyphs associated with thetangata manu, or birdman religion.

Question 40

Where in Egypt was the head and body of Ramesses II found?

Answer 40

Royal Cache?

Question 41

Name the Greek tribe who are
shown battling the centaurs on
the Parthenon metopes.

Answer 41

Lapiths?

Question 42

How did the government raise the
money needed to purchase Hans
Sloane’s collection?

Answer 42

In his will, Sloane bequeathed his entire collection to King George II for the nation in return for the payment of £20,000 to his heirs, and on condition that Parliament create a new and freely accessible public museum to house it.
Parliament accepted Sloane’s terms, raising the money through a national lottery and on 7 June 1753, an Act of Parliament establishing the British Museum received royal assent.

Question 43

Name the building in which the
collection was housed when it first
opened to the public.

Answer 43

Montagu House

The museum’s collections were first housed in a 17th-century mansion,Montagu House, which was extensively refurbished before it opened to the public in 1759.

Question 44

What does Hoa Hakananai’a mean?

Answer 44

Hoa Hakananai’a (meaning ‘lost, hidden, or stolen friend’) is carved from basalt and dates from about 1000–1200.

Question 45

What is the Egyptian name of the
village which gave the Rosetta
Stone its name?

Answer 45

In July 1799, the stone was found in the city ofRosetta (modern el Rashid)by French soldiers during Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. Rosetta was located on a tributary of the Nile near the Mediterranean coast east of Alexandria.

Question 46

The Benin Plaques were cast
mostly in bronze and one other
metal. Name the other metal.

Answer 46

Brass

Question 47

Name the brother of the goddess Athena.

Answer 47

brother Ares

Athena represented the disciplined, strategic side of war, in contrast to her brotherAres, the patron of violence, bloodlust, and slaughter—”the raw force of war”.

Question 48

Name the type of stone from which the statue of Rameses II was carved.

Answer 48

Upper part of ared granitecolossal statueof Ramses II: the middle part of the statue has not been found, and the left elbow is broken.

Question 49

In which year was the Parthenon
partially destroyed by a
gunpowder explosion?

Answer 49

OnSeptember 26, 1687, the Parthenon ofAcropolisin Athens faced a severe blow and was partly destroyed by Francesco Morosini, the leader of the Venetian army, who, as part of the Morean War, led an expedition to attack the Ottomans in Athens.

Question 50

Name the period of discovery and
learning which took place between
1680 and 1820.

Answer 50

The Enlightenmentis the name given to a period of discovery and learning that flourished among Europeans and Americans from about 1680–1820, changing the way they viewed the world.

Question 51

In which year
(i) was the British Museum
established?
(ii) did it open its doors?

Answer 51

(i) 1753
(ii) 1759

Founded in1753, the British Museum opened its doors to visitors in 1759. The Museum tells the story of human cultural achievement through a collection of collections.

Question 52

In which year were the Lewis Chessmen discovered?

Answer 52

In 1831, a hoard of luxury goods—including more than 70 chess pieces and several other objects, all made of carved walrus ivory and dating from the12th century—was unearthed on the Isle of Lewis off the west coast of Scotland.

Question 53

Where was Rameses II buried?

Answer 53

Upon his death, he was buried ina tomb (KV7) in the Valley of the Kings; his body was later moved to the Royal Cache, where it was discovered by archaeologists in 1881. Ramesses’ mummy is now on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, located in the city of Cairo.

Question 54

Name the city in modern day Iraq
which is near the ancient Assyrian
citadel of Khorsabad.

Answer 54

Assyrian antic site ofDûr-Sharrukin. The city of Dûr-Sharrukin, modern-day Khorsabad, is situated in the north of Iraq, around 15km from Mosul, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Question 55

How much does it cost a visitor to leave a coat in the cloakroom?

Answer 55

£2

Use of the cloakroom is charged per-item: Coats –£2. Bags up to 4kg – £2.50.

Question 56

What is the subject of the East Pediment of the Parthenon Sculptures?

Answer 56

The birth of Athena

It is fortunate that the ancient travel writer Pausanias tells us that the subject of the EastPedimentisthe birth ofAthena, since the damage done to theParthenonbefore 1674 makes it impossible to tell from the sculpture that remains.