People Of The British Museum Flashcards
Who donated his farthers collection of 800.000 Books to the British Museum, which also housed the British library
George VI after realising that he needed bigger kitchen space within Buckingham Palace.
Who Created the Enlightenment Gallery?
Sir Robert Smirke (1780-1867)
Who has a Big medal cabinet within the enlightenment gallery?
King George IIIs medal cabinet is on loan from the V+A museum it was donated by his son George VI
Who were the two people heavily involved in the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone?
Jean Francois champollion 1773-1829
young French linguist,
Thomas Hudson 1773-1829
physician, renowned physicist, physiologist of the eye, unlikely expert on life insurance and an all-round astounding polymath.
Who donated the mosaic lamp to the British Museum.?
Charles Drury Edward Fortnum
In 1887
Name 2 people involved in the sutton hoo Discovery in 1938
Edith Pretty ( landowner)
Basil Brown ( self taught Archaeologist)
Hinton St Mary’s was the location of what find and by whom?
A mosaic Roman floor, which depicts Jesus, although some have said its a image of a Roman leader ( Constantine the Great)
Walter John White, the local blacksmith, discovered the Hinton St Mary mosaic on September 12, 1963
Who is the owner of the lewis chessmen that were used in the film Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone?
borrowed from the personal collection of Irving Finkel, the museum’s curator.
Who’s the new director of the British museum?
Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE started as Director of the British Museum in June 2024.
Who Bequithed 71.000 objects , manuscripts , plants, and coins to the British museum the 17 hundred? With terms and conditions.
Sir Hans Sloane . £20.000
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.
The Terms: his daughters became Trusties .
Who donated the statue of “ shiva nataraja to the British Museum and what year?
Purchased from William Wolff and funded by the Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund. 1987
Who created the Great court, and what year?
Foster and Partners who created the 3.312
2000.
How often did the celebration of the Birth of Athina?
It happened every 4 years.
Was the parthenon freeze coloured?
Yes
Reds, Golds, Blues,Yellows to make the Parthenon class and Coloured
What sort of add ons would have been added to the freeze .
Add ons like leather straps on the horse’s reigns.
Who brought the parthenon to the British Museum and what year?
Lord elgin bought the pieces from the Ottoman Turks when they Governored Greece.
1801 but took until 1812 to be set up
How did Lord Elgin pay for the Elgiin marbles?
Lord Elgin financed the delivery of the marbles out of his own money.
In what years was the sculptor ( freeze) in the parthenon room created ?
They were created by an unknown sculptor but they date back to 443 and 437 BC
How many blocks of the freeze does the museum have of the Parthenon.
Where are the rest that survived?
There are 56 Blocks of the freeze within the British Museum.
There are 40 blocks in the Acropolis museum in Athens.
Where can you find casts of the Parthenon freeze?
You can find them in the Ashmolean museum -Oxford.
What is the defining movement of the Parthenon Freeze?
High classical style of Attic Sculpture.
Which animals can you see within the parthenon freeze being led to slaughter for the sacrifice of Athena.
You can see cows being led for sacrifice
Who do they believe to be missing within the middle of the Parthenon pediment?
It was once filed with the colossal statue of zeus the farther of Athena..
What is the parthenon pediment showing us ?
The pediment shows us the birth of Athena.
What is Athena the patron goddess of ?
Athena is the patron goddess of Athens a city in Greece
Who is Zeus wife within the pediment on the parthenon freeze ?
Metis - Goddess of - Prudence, Wisdom, Cunning.
Mother of Athena.
The God of - Blacksmithing - God of fire - and Volcanoes was who?
Hephaestus ( zeus son who split open his farthers head)
On the Parthenon Pediment ‘ who is the God rising from the sea on a chariot drawn by horses?
Helios ( God of sun, moon, dawn)
What year did Parliament pass an act to acquire the sculptors for the British Museum?
Parliament passed the act in 1816 and they still are in the British Museum to this day.
What does the meaning Enlightenment mean?
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in Europe that took place from 1685 to 1815. It was a time when people began to question traditional authority and use reason to understand the world.
Where did the British museum begin ?
The Enlightenment gallery ( which was originally Montague house ) 1759.
What is the flooring made from within the Enlightenment Gallery?
Real Oak and Mahogany
Who was the Architect who designed the Enlightenment Gallery?
The Architect was Sir Henry Smirth
What did the Enlightenment Gallery used to house and where are they now ?
The Cabinets used to house all the kings books .
The books have their own house, which is the British Library in 1990
How many drawers did the King George III medal cabinet have ?
135 shallow drawers were on the cabinet
How many medals could the Cabinet of King George III hold?
It could accommodate more than 6 thousand coins and medals
Who were the two wood carvers who designed King George III cabinet.
A joint partnership of
Willam Vile and John Cobb.
Cabinet makers to the Royals from 1765-1770
Where are there two split off cabinets that originally were from the George III cabinet?
Now, in the metropolitan museum, New York
What was the stipulation of SIr Hanns Sloane to the British parliament when he sold his collection of things to the British Museum for a Sum £20.000
The stipulation was that his daughters would be trustees to the British Museum.
How did King George III donate to the British Museum?
To show his appreciation, he donated 65.000 books and manuscripts to the British Museum.
The reading room has been used by many a famous person please tell me 5?
Arthur conan doyle.
Virginia Wolf.
Mahatma gandhi.
H.G. Wells.
Bram stoker’s.
George Orwell.
Rudyard Kipping.
Karl Marx.
Mark Twain.
How many panes of glass are in the Glass roof within the Great Court at the British museum?
There are 3,312 pains and all different sizes.
How many weeks does the roof take to clean in the Great Court at the British museum.
It takes 2 weeks to clean all the panes.
How many objects are housed within the British Museum?
80.000 objects.
What does mesopotamia mean in Greek?
Between two rivers
What is the oldest civilization on Earth.
Mesopotamia 4000-3500 BC
What are the names of the rivers that run down the sides of mesopotamia?
The Tigris and Euphrate rivers.
Which other historical regions of mesopotamia were there ?
Iran 🇮🇷 Turkey 🇹🇷 Syria 🇸🇾 Kuwait 🇰🇼
Who was the Assyrian king of 706 AD
King Sargon II who built a palace in Knorsabad
What is the name of the Winged Bulls of khorsabad?
Lamassu
How many years did Ramasses II reign for ?
66 years a long reign
Where was the statue of shiva nataraja created?
Tamil Nadu is the southern most state of Indian.
The statue of shiva nataraja is holding a instrument ‘ what is it ?
Shivas hand is holding a drum called a Damaru which beats the Rhythm of his dance
What is Agni ?
Agni is the fire that will destroy the universe.
What does it represent when the foot of the statue of shiva natarajas foot is on top of a demon?
Shiva nataraja foot represents ignorance and Evil
Two tube stations are located 500m from the front of entrance to the museum? Which ones ?
Tottenham Court Road station
Holborn station
What is the largest you can take in a group to the British Museum without Booking?
Groups of 10 people or more need to book in advance to visit the British Museum. Groups without a booking may be denied entry.
How did the government raise the money needed to purchase Sir Hans Sloane’s collection?
The money required was raised by lottery. Sloane died in 1753 having donated his collection to the nation at a greatly reduced valuation and on condition that Parliament create “a new and freely accessible public museum to house it”.
Name the building in which the collection that Hans Sloane bequeathed to and opened in
Montague house
10th July 1749
Who was the architect who built the great court at the British museum?
Sir Norman Foster in 2000
Until what time is much of the British museum open on Fridays?
The Museum is open daily, 10.00–17.00 (last entry at 16.45). On Fridays the Museum is open until 20.30 (last entry at 20.15)
In Approximately which year was Gebelein man Buried? And how did he probably die?
3.5000 BC
A puncher wound in his back tells us he was stabbed in the back.
18-20 years old
How many days does it take to mummify a Body?
Mummification Process. The mummification process took seventy 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.
What name was given to the former kings library when it was reopened in 2003?
The Enlightenment Gallery
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 .?
It’s on the Rossetta Stone
What is the Egyptian name of the village which gave the Rosetta Stone its name ?
The Egyptian name for the village that gave the Rosetta Stone its name is Rashid (Rašīd). The village is also known as Rosetta to Europeans.
Which two Languages are displayed on the Rossetta Stone.?
The Rosetta Stone displays inscriptions in two languages: Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek.
Which Frenchman published a paper on the Decipherment of the Rossetta Stone in 1822
The Frenchman who published a paper on the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone in 1822 was Jean-François Champollion.
Where in Egypt was the head and body of Ramasses II found ?
+3
The head and body of the statue of Ramesses II were found at the archaeological site of El Ashmunein in Egypt. The site is located in the Minya Governorate, about 150 miles south of Cairo.
Where was Ramasses II Buried?
The tomb of Ramesses II is in the Valley of the Kings, west of the Nile, near Luxor, Egypt. It’s also known as KV7.
Name the type of stone from which the Ramasses II statue was carved from.
Red granite
Which Italian circus strongman transported the head of Ramasses II back to London
Giovanni Belzoni
Name the poet whose poem Ozymandias was inspired by the arrival of the statue of Ramasses II in 1817
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) wrote the poem Ozymandias in response to a fragment of the statue of Ramesses II arriving in London in 1817.
Name the city in modern day Iraq which is near the ancient Assyrian citadel of Khorsabad?
Assyrian antic site of Dûr-Sharrukin. The city of Dûr-Sharrukin, modern-day Khorsabad, is situated in the north of Iraq, around 15km from Mosul, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
What is the carved figure standing behind the Winged bulls of khorsabad?
Who was Sir Joseph Hotung ?
British Hong-Kong citizen who gave majority of his Asian collection to the BM when he died in 2021
How far back does the history of China go within the BM through artifacts?
5000 BC
Name 2 dynasties within the China and South Asia galleries ?
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
Tang Dynasty 618-908
