The British Museum – My London+

The exhibition at The British Museum follows life before Stonehenge, Stonehenge at its height, and the waning of its popularity. It is a very detailed exhibition with much of interest.

The exhibition is also popular. It was busy and tickets for that day had sold out. I thought I knew a lot about Stonehenge, but I hadn’t realised it was the most important place in Europe or that so many people had been buried there (the more elite, of course!).

Stonehenge was built around 5,000 years ago in what is now Wiltshire, close to the city of Salisbury. These days you cannot touch the stones on visits. The whole site is cordoned off with rope. Only Druids are lucky enough to worship there at the Solstice these days. When I went years ago, the best view is coming down the road on the bus with the henge in front of you. Magnificent. But there were too many people to get a proper atmosphere. The nearest I got to one of those was at Avebury standing stones. My ideal would be to wander the stones alone, but there is no chance of that at Stonehenge. To learn more about Stonehenge read here.

On view were many axe heads. Some were so smooth. Flints, masses of those too, so well knapped and sharp. I find it fascinating how our ancestors tried to make sense of the world they lived in (much as we do today, really). They worked out moon phases and sunrises and sunsets, and of course, the seasons.

Cattle were important to them. They were valuable, so sacrificing them was never taken lightly, but in the photo below two have been sacrificed, possibly for fertility. The image shows what they would have done in life, pulling a cart.

I joked about this set of wooden walkways. I called them Black & Decker workbenches! They built these walkways over boggy places so they could get from one place to another.

No, not Black & Decker workbenches, but a walkway

Stonehenge is just one of many henges. Seahenge in Norfolk is another. I read a lot of books by author Elly Griffiths. She writes crime. Her books are set in Norfolk and the main character, Dr Ruth Galloway, is an archeologist who works with police when old bones are found. Seahenge appears in one of her early books. I find the world she writes about fascinating, so I was thrilled to see Seahenge here in the exhibition.

Grave goods feature in lots of prehistoric finds. Here we find some gorgeous trinkets, finely carved. The eye is important here – possibly to see in the afterlife?

Art and music was also important to these people. They carved what they saw and what was important to them. Spirals feature highly, as do images of the sun.

No one really knows what these are, but they beautiful

Here you can clearly see arrow heads and the sun

These objects are related to the Divine Twins often depicted as horses or related to celestial Castor & Pollux in Greek mythology

Gold – so much gold! This must have been heavy to wear.

Ear piercings. Sometimes you see people today with sort of piercing.

Mapping the sky, moon and stars – Nebra Sky Disc

Burials and grave goods. Tbe woman on the left was buried clutching a baby wrapped in cloth

Men and war. I cannot comprehend that in those days 20,000 men died in battle and their remains scattered like this image below. We never learn!

Weapons were sacrificed into the water. In the photo below, these items of war were discovered in the River Thames at Battersea.

Sacrificed weapons, possible as part of a funeral

Another Thames find – you could make a large stew in there!

This was a really interesting exhibition, and I’m afraid I got carried away in the shop afterwards. I bought a replica of the Sky Disc, a t.shirt, notebook and a book on Druids! The exhibition runs until 21st July, so there is still plenty of time to see it.

On a wet Monday I headed off The British Museum, having bought a ticket the week before. I needed some inside entertainment during a week that looked rainy! And the Romans have always interested me!

The exhibition was busier than I expected, especially as Covid restrictions are still in force, but things improved once I managed to get out of the first room. The first room was a slow wait-in-line slog where the statues referring to Nero’s family tree was. A complicated tree it is too! Adopted sons, second marriages, all to keep ‘the line’ going.

Nero was only sixteen when he became ruler, and his mother, Agrippina, was very much influencing the way things went. Coins show her alongside her son, but as the years rolled by, she faded more in to the distance on the coins as Nero became his own man, and resented his mother’s interference. Later she was accused of conspiring against Roman leaders, and though it seemed that Nero and his mother had reconciled, Agrippina was later found dead. She had either been forced to commit suicide or was killed by one of Nero’s men.

A young Nero who was later accused of matricide!

The exhibition showcases Nero’s life and busts some of the myths. Nero appears to have been well liked by the people, and he was popular with his supporters, at least to start with. But isn’t that the way with the Romans – good start, plotted against later!

Nero inherited war, but after the uprising in Britain Nero sent a special official to improve administration and to instigate reform and rebuild.

While Prince, Nero enjoyed performing at the circuses. Gladiatorial games and charity racing were popular pass times, as were performances of plays on stage, in which Nero took part.

The fire in Rome in the year AD64, was rumoured to have been started by Nero, but in fact he was not even there when the fire happened. It burned over nine days, destroying great chunks of the city. To appease the gods Nero blamed a Jewish sect.He rounded them up and had them executed ‘by fire’ to fit the crime.

Nero helped the citizens after the fire and rebuilt the city. He instigated new practices and legislation in an urban building plan. His own palace had been caught in the fire, so he set about building a new lavish one.

Wall art from Nero’s second palace, Domus Aurea

Nero married three times. His first wife Claudia Octavia, was betrothed to him when they were children and she was about 13 when they married. Later divorced from Nero and banished, she was executed in AD62 on charges of adultery. Poppaea Sabina, his second wife died, possibly after a miscarriage. Needing heirs, Nero married Statilia Messalina and she outlived Nero.

Popularity began to wane from about AD65, as plots began and disaffected groups and discontent led to conspiracy. In the end, Nero knew he had no choice but to end his life.He fled Rome with a loyal freedman who was his secretary, and it was he who helped Nero commit suicide.

As was common, after Nero’s death, his statues were defaced, as if to wipe Nero out of history. But many statues were repurposed and re-carved to make the heads of new rulers, like the one below of Vespasian, who was one of the more successful rulers from those who followed Nero.

Despite his death, Nero continued to remain a popular figure with people He was a complex character, but then what Roman ruler wasn’t?!

Tag: The British Museum

The World of Stonehenge – The British Museum

Nero: The man behind the myth – The British Museum