Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm a big Night at the Museum fan, so when the third film actually took place in the British Museum I knew it was a travesty that I hadn't been there yet.

Yes, all the exhibits were alive,I grant you, but they were so cool. The sheer variety on display was more than I'd ever thought about. It reminded me that the place existed, basically, and I had a hunger to get my backside down south and experience the real deal: arguably the biggest and best museum in the country.

And I was not disappointed.

The British museum itself is free, situated on Russel street, which is easily reached from the major stations via the tube or bus. For me, it was a 20 min ride on the Piccadilly line (westbound) from St Pancras station and a short walk. The museum itself is a large traditional building with Edwardian classical styling, but as soon as you walk through into the main hall you can see that this is no ordinary structure. The entrance hall is sweeping and beautiful in a loose circle, with the temporary exhibits occupying the upper floor of the central circle, and with all the other steady exhibits spread around it across five levels.

Luckily there are plenty of facilities and cafes (and gift shops!), so while nothing's cheap you can easily spend all day having a good explore. Personally we spent well over 6 hours there, until our howling feet and fatigue claimed us and we had to call it a day. Even then, there is plenty to come back for.

"Six Hours?! How Much is There to See, Really?"

A whole world. Despite the name, The British Museum really isn't just about the history of Britain, or even the British Empire, but exists as a capsule of the whole world's cultures. You can find treasures from the Ancient Near East, the Islamic World, Africa, Egypt, China, South & South East Asia, Japan, Korea, The Pacific and Australia, Mesoamerica, Central and South America, North America, Prehistoric Europe, The Greek World, The Roman Empire, Roman Britain, Medieval Europe, Renaissance and Later Europe, Modern Europe and America, as well as modern examples of art mixed in with each culture. Having almost all of the world's cultures in one place to seamlessly journey through is -to put it bluntly- a goddamned revelation.

This stunning mural of an Assyrian lion hunt went on for several ROOMS at full scale.

"But Colonialism!"

Yes, I know that the British Museum is at the centre of debates on colonialism in museums, and I have mixed feelings on the subject that I have already written about at length here:

http://preludesblogofwords.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/what-can-digital-heist-of-bust-of.html?m=1

But you can't argue against the sheer awe at walking around this whole world of art and history in a day and what this can teach you. Everything is beautifully curated and treated with great respect and value and by holding everything side by side, no one item is treated as being more important than another, or one culture as being 'superior' to another. The end effect is all so amazing that it makes you proud to be human.

"Ok, So What Are The Highlights?"

As well as the general feeling of awe and discovery that comes with experiencing so many cultural treasures side by side, the thing that stuck out most to me were the sheer sense of scale that the museum was able to accommodate. 

For example, there were plaques of the beautifully intricate Assyrian lion hunt, snaking through rooms in a  dramatic tableaux. There were panels from the flipping Patheon (!), in full scale, wrapping around the whole building. Huge Egyptian pharaohs stared down at you, and Assyrian gatekeepers smiled next to the storeys-high gates themselves. Noble totem poles stood as markers and full-floor mosaics decorated the stairwells. Reams upon reams of orange and black pottery, and intricate gold-work, fabulously detailed islamic tiles, ticking timepieces and curios nestled against one another in displays. I have never seen anything like it.

One of the many Pharaohs keeping an eye on us.

In addition to the scale, what really excited me was finally seeing in person so many of the treasures that I has viewed in countless picture books about history while I was growing up. It was like encountering a celebrity!

"Look! A real easter island figure!"

"oh my god it's the jade-mosaic aztec snake. I've never seen it in real life!"

"Oh Jesus that's THE Lindlow bog man!"

"HOLY BALLS THAT'S THE GODDAMNED ROSETTA STONE!!!"

In the end, It's just very hard to describe how the sheer wonder of the place hits you right in the gut. All you can do is to go see it for yourself.

A beautiful part of the African exhibit

Bonus feature: One very happy blogger.

It's hard to imagine getting by in life without writing nowadays...

While of course there is still illiteracy in the world, nevertheless a huge number of societies wouldn't be able to function without writing, whether it's the imaginative novels that sustain our spirits or the complex data entry that keeps our bureaucracies ticking.

It all started with accountancy

The Kushim Tablet

The oldest recognised piece of writing dates to around c3,400-3,000 BC by the Sumerians in the city of Uruk. Recorded on a stone tablet it made use of a measurement system for numbers as well as well known symbols for words - a form of 'cuniform' writing.  Before cuniform writing there was a manner of recording types of objects and numbers by using token pebbles; for example one with a cross carved on it meant a sheep. But if you has 38 sheep you needed 38 tokens and it was hardly efficient. this new cuniform writing enabled far more detail with far less effort.

Unfortunately there is no great piece of history or story recorded on the stone tablet: it served a wholly practical purpose. Scholars, after much study, managed to translate the tablet as reading:

"29,086 measures barley 37 months Kushim"

What is the most interesting about the Kushim tablet - aside from it serving a a snapshot of an ancient business transaction - is the word 'Kushim'. It seems not to fit with any other symbol, but is instead made up of two separate symbols that make two separate sounds: 'ku'  and 'shim'. We can assume, then, that the Sumerian people made use of not just symbols that represent their literal origin, but something more phonetic. By using symbols that corresponded to the words as spoken, you could mould them together to make new words. 'Kushim' could the the official title of the transaction or official occupation of the person handing out the transaction. Or, most interestingly, it could be a name. If so, 'Kushim' is the first name in recorded history. 

Giglamesh

It wasn't long before the Sumerians began to get creative and the Epic of Giglamesh was born.

The Epic of Giglamesh is largely credited as the first novel ever written, with its earliest copy dating to around 2,100 BC. The most complete version we have was written on twelve stone tablets (one of which currently resides in the British Museum) and tells the story of the King Giglamesh who ruled over Uruk in around 2,700 BC. 
Gilgamesh was worshipped after his death due to his wisdom ans judiciousness and celebrated for his abilities as a warrior and a builder. He even is thought to make a feature in the bible as 'Erech'. To this day the story of Giglamesh's quest for immortality is still being bought and read by scholars and the general public alike.



But not everyone used writing for quite such a 'noble' purpose

Once writing took hold it was here to stay and with great power - and increasingly widening literacy - comes great responsibility. We all know what trouble writing has brought through history as well as what goodness. Perhaps, for the armchair historian, the best pieces of writing are those that were a little rebellious without being grim; those that show us that, no matter when they lived, people have always been people and nothing much ever really changes.

You can find one cute example through Erik Kwakkel's Tumblr page. Here he shows off a discovery from the 1950s from near the city of Novgorod in Russia. Archaeologists dug up hundreds of pieces of birch bark with all sorts of texts written on them. One set were from a medieval classroom where, in the 13th century, young boys were learning to write. Like many students they inevitably got bored and when they did they started to doodle...

Nothing much changes when it comes to children's drawings

Another charming (if crude) example of people using writing for more rebellious purposes are in the infamous pieces of Roman graffiti, the best of which can be found in Pompeii and Herculaneum. If you pardon a little profanity, here are a few gems that would not look out of place scrawled in a nightclub's toilets.

Found on the house of Peascius Hermes:
"Watch it, you that shits in this place! May you have Jove's anger if you ignore this."

"Apollinaris, medicus Titi Imperatoris hic cacavit bene"
"Apollinaris, doctor to the emperor Titus, had a good crap here."

"Oppi, emboliari, fur, furuncle"
"Oppius, you're a clown, a thief and a cheap crook."

Found on the Barracks of the Julian-Claudian gladiators:
"Celadus of Thracian makes the girls moan!"

"Philiros spado"
"Phileros is a eunuch."

Found in the Basilica:
"Chie, I hope your hemorrhoids rub together so much that they hurt worse than when they ever have before!"

A note carved on the door of the Inn of the Muledrivers:
"We have pissed in our beds. Host, I admit that we shouldn't have done this. If you ask why? There was no potty."

In a Herculaneum bar next to a drawing of a phallus (still bizarely popular today!)

"Handle with care."

As ever, turn to 'The Life of Brian' for your Roman history!

For more Roman goodness try these related posts:

How did the Roman Empire begin?
No accounting for taste: the painted statues of ancient Greece and Rome
Review: I Claudius by Robert Graves
Historical hairstyles to try at home

For more ancient history try these related posts:
Was the agricultural revolution the worst mistake in human history?
Historical honey's 'The fascinating history of cosmetic surgery'
Legends of the sun
The golden eyed lady of Shahr-e Suketh
5 Advanced ancient technologies that shouldn't be possible.



Sources
- Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari
-The British Museum: Historic Writing
-The Development of Writing Erik Kwakkel
- The History of Writing, G Carboni
- Medieval Doodles on Birch bark - Erik Kawakkel via tumblr
-The birth of writing: the Kushim tablet
-The first book ever written
-The epic of Giglamesh; Sparknotes
-11 colourful phrases of ancient Roman graffiti
-The bawdy graffiti of Pompeii and Herculaneum

  I've not really reviewed historical fiction here before, but this week I'd like to break the trend by reviewing I Claudius, By Robert Graves


Written in the 1934 ‘I,Claudius’ is the story of the Julio-Claudian royal family of ancient Rome as told by the stuttering ‘half-witted’ Claudius, the uncle of the infamous Caligula and, eventually, reluctant emperor of Rome. A man who is far more resilient than he seems.

If you’re a history fan like me then ‘I,Claudius’ is a great way to learn about the complicated family tree and assassinations of the emperors and their heirs. While of course, even if well researched, you can’t rely on the historical accuracy of it, it does bring a real emotional reality to what often can be a stale list of names and political manoeuvres and murders that one finds in history books or on Wikipedia.


However, as a work of fiction in of itself, the long time period - spanning past emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and finally Claudius - sometimes has a detrimental effect on the narrative. 

Claudius

Often we are marched from event to event, anecdote to anecdote, when sometimes we want instead to dwell more on particular scenes and characters and the emotions and relationships behind them. But the narrator Claudius is a historian, and Graves keeps true to this voice, but for me it left me a little lacking at times when the gems of stories and relationships that Claudius tempts the reader with are often wrapped up quite quickly. 

For example, I was interested by the relationship of Germanicus and Agrippina and the excitements and difficulties of their lives on campaign after being tempted by stories of how the heavily pregnant Agrippina and Germanicus dealt with mutinies. I was intrigued to learn more of Tiberius’ debauchery and his relationship with Caligula. And charismatic minor characters, while given short scenes to shine, were often passed by quickly in the marching narrative through the decades. This, of course, is necessary in order to keep the book short and compact, but I did yearn for more. This, naturally, is the sign of a good creative mind in developing these hooks, but I was nevertheless left a little frustrated at times.

All this is not to say that ‘I,Claudius’ is bland, of course! It has some wonderful characters and these situations and scenes, while often short, are entertaining.

‘I,Claudius’ has perhaps the best villianess I have come across in a long time: Livia Augusta. This Machiavellian wife of Augustus is charismatic in her self reliance, wickedness and in her skill as working as the prime-mover in the plot through her aims to manipulate the running of Rome. Historical characters are truly brought to life, and some of the horrible deeds that are so easily glossed over by the scholastic resistance to emotion are utterly brought into engaging emotional reality.

Livia

All in all, while not the most gripping of page turners (I am, in the end, a tricky customer for this as I am quite partial to break-neck paced thrillers) it has it’s thrilling moments and overall for a history fan ‘I,Claudius’ is an interesting read. In the end, despite the inevitable accusations of inaccuracy in any historical fiction, I,Claudius certainly feels authentic at its core.

I feel that I will enjoy the DVD box set more as it is far more visual and paced differently. And, after all, who cannot be charmed by the cast list? Derek Jacobi is Claudius, Brian Blessed (sans beard) is Augustus, John Hurt is Caligula and Patrick Stewart (with hair!) is looking somewhat tasty as Sejanus. (Don’t judge).

And, to top it all off, you can watch the entire series on youtube.

Here’s episode 1
And here’s the rest
Enjoy!

Sejanus

Ever since the earliest of times, we humans have valued our hair.

The origins of such strange long head hair, contrasted with a relatively hairless body, has been a topic of debate for some years, but perhaps the leading theory is that sexual selection was at work. While long hair offers benefits of warmth in cold climates or protection from a hot sun, nevertheless it's likely that the existence of longer hair in largely due to associations of femininity or health. Whatever the reason, the longer head-hair was here to stay and humans, always eager to define their identities through their looks, jumped on the chance to get creative with their locks. This week I'd like follow the lead of the wonder Medievalists.net's recent post, and show some historical hairstyles that you can try at home.

Statue of Faustina the Younger

These come courtesy of  Janet Stephen, a hairdresser and amateaur archaeologist who was fascinated by how historical hairstyles were created. While many archaeologists and historians suggested that these hairstyles could only have been created with wigs, Janet instead discovered that through using a form of sewing in hairstyles, they could easily and quickly be replicated and used in the day to day. This breakthrough came in 2005 when, studying translations in Roman literature, she found that  the term 'acus' was likely being mistranslated. In the books, this was translated as a 'single-prong hairpin' but in fact it could also be translated as 'needle and thread'. Her theory was published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology in 2008 and she made a name for herself in historical circles.

"I could tell even from the first version that it was a very serious piece of experimental archaeology which not scholar who was not a hairdresser - in other words, no scholar - would have been able to write." John Humphrey, the journal's editor, explained.

Janet's practical work is shown on her youtube channel, where you can find out how to make such beautiful historical hairstyles for yourself, while also learning of where she found her sources.



Agrippina the Younger

 


Ancient Roman Hairstyles For Men

 


 Empress Plotina

Faustina The Younger 

 
 18thc 'Butterfly'/Papillote Curls

 I thoroughly recommend that you spend some time browsing Janet Stephens' youtube channel if you have any interest in fashion or history. 
For one she is an inspiration showing us how, no matter what your background, if you have interest, confidence, creativity and passion you can make a lasting contribution to the study of history. 
For another, her work is living proof of the value of experimental history and archaeology in how to bring what we read in the texts to life for for practical purposes and for emotional ones. In her study of these hairstyles Janet offers a unique insight to what had been an ongoing debate on historical hairstyles, but in doing so she also let us see with real intimacy into the lives of the people that made use of these hairstyles in the day to day. In how their family lives were set up (for example, why they needed someone else to do their hair), how they valued their appearance, and how much physical time and patience that these people would have had to give to making these creative styles happen. With such a life breathed into such a small but important part of these historical figures' daily routines, they are grounded and - as observers from the future - we can see just how like us our ancestors really were.


Sources

-Why is Human Hair So Long?
-Medievalists.net: Medieval hairstyles
-On Pins and Needles: Stylist Turns Ancient Hairdo Debate on Its Head

As a Western Society, we are products of the Renaissance's fascination and deification of Classical Antiquity.

Augustus of Prima marble

 Large sections of our cultural values and what 'good taste' and 'class' comprise of are directly influenced by the romantic view of Ancient Greece and Rome that the educated upper classes held. The way they imitated the ancient artists and scholars shapes what we today view as 'beautiful' art. With the exploration of Roman art, our Renaissance ancestors discovered and prized the beautiful white statues that they uncovered of goddesses and emperors. Noting the skill involved, they in turn developed their own ways of improving and refining sculpture, but stayed true to the fine materials and ascetic - choosing pristine white marble for their own creations. The effect is beautiful and versatile and these pieces - ancient and later - are prized in countless galleries and country houses across Europe and beyond. Because of our appreciation of this aesthetic, this is how we believe sculpture should be achieved in traditional form, and we celebrate the Ancient Greek and Roman's 'refined' taste.

However, it seems that the reality of Ancient taste contrast jarringly with what we nowadays view as 'classical' sculpture...in fact we've been conditioned to view the reality as really quite garish.

Introducing the painted statues of Ancient Greece and Rome:

Augustus of Prima painted replica

 Countless Ancient status have been unearthed over the years, but when one was found with what appeared to be ancient paint pigments still clinging to its surface archaeologists and scientists banded together to analyse what this meant for our view of ancient art. One of the pigments in question was 'Egyptian Blue' and, through using advanced ultraviolet techniques to deconstruct what colours remained on the statue, it was identified to be a mix of skin colour - having been added in small amounts to pinks, whites and yellows to create a 'realistic' tone.

Realistically painted version of Caligula (31-37AD)
Reconstruction by Matthew Brennan, Virtual World Heritage Laboratory.

The above sculpture of Caligula, for example, was already very rare, being one of only two complete statues of the infamous emperor. When the University of Virginia set about trying to discover more about how this statue was coloured, the historical significance was poignant. Through colour analysis they discovered that Caligula is likely to have had brown hair. The use of gilt patterns shows some of the opulence of the statues and goes some way to explaining, for example, how they must have affected the subjected populations in the cities that displayed them. These pagan or political images were not imposing but ultimately blank slabs of white, but were instead bold, loud and potentially even lifelike.

“It is interesting to think about what kind of charge [these statues] must have had for Jews of the time,” commented Peter Schertz, a curator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: “Jewish prohibition against idolatrous images must have made the appearance of classical statues both very frightful and, for some, somewhat seductive.”

Through all the various studies of these ancient statues, Ultraviolet light has been especially useful in discerning patterns and in the occasions when colours were visible. However to track each colour sometimes the scientists had to analyse deeper down to the very chemical compounds that made each pigment.

 In  galleries and auction houses often valuable old paintings are analysed to determine authenticity, and one manner is to look for particular organic elements in the paint pigments. Hundreds or even thousands of years ago, particular plants and materials were used to create particular colours and their presence shows that the art in question is the genuine article. In the same way, those studying the statues could work backwards by identifying what organic elements were present in the pigments: get the right combination and you would be able to identify what colour was used in that area.

We might ask why bother with such expensive material as marble if one was only going to paint it and, really, it's difficult to be sure. Some academics have suggested that the paint may have been fine enough to have enhanced the natural luminescence of the marble. Others suggest that the quality of the material was focused more on allowing for greater quality of sculpture, and that painting the already expensive material was seen to enhance its beauty and value spiritually rather than detract form it, even if it did hide some of the marble's attractive plain elements.

Painted ancient statues are now. admittedly, quite old news: Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulricke Koch-Brinkmann, for example, have spent over 20 years studying and painstakingly recreating classical statues to bring together this revelation...yet it is always quite a shock to the modern observer to see such a rejection of the colourless marble art that we know and love. It certainly goes to prove that the ancient world was never dull.

Istanbul Museum recreation of the Alexander Sarcophagus

Sources
- BBC4 Treasures of Ancient Rome
- True Colours
- The Ugly Truth
- Weird Science uncovers ancient art's true colours
- Was this Roman Sculpture of Gaius Caligula Painted?
- Greek Statues and their Technicolour Dreamcoats