The forecast for today was for rain🌧 , rain ☔️, and more rain 🌧. So the three amigos decided to spend the day at the British Museum.
This is one of the stone figures from Easter Island 🗿.
The British Museum’s cock and bull story is that a couple hundred years ago, a British sailing ship ⛵️ visited Easter Island. The inhabitants of Easter Island were so thrilled by this surprise visit by the Brits that they gave the sailors one of their sacred totems to take back to London to give to Queen Victoria. When Queen Victoria was presented with this big hunk of basalt she immediately gave it to the British Museum, claiming it would clash with the furniture at Windsor Castle 🏰.
This big fella’s name is Hoa Hakanai’a, which means lost or stolen friend. I’ll bet the “stolen” part is pretty accurate. My guess is that the Brits took Hoa Hakanai’a off Easter Island over the vehement protests of the inhabitants of Easter Island. Back then the Brits did just about whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and wherever they wanted, and didn’t care whether you liked it or not. Except of course the whole American Revolution thing, which I think still sticks in their craw. The British Museum is stuffed to the gills with treasures from around the world that the Brits claim were “given” to them by the rightful owners.
One of the highlights of the Museum’s collection is the Rosetta Stone. I don’t have a picture of the Rosetta Stone because the crowd around it was 10 people deep and there was no way I was going to fight through that crowd to get a picture of a hunk of rock. As you probably know, the Rosetta Stone was liberated from Egypt by the French. Yes, the same Frenchies that have been giving me such a hard time on this trip. In the past, the Brits would periodically go over to France to knock the Frenchies around a bit, show them who is the boss and take some booty back to jolly old England. A couple hundred years ago the Brits were in France 🇫🇷 kicking ass and taking names, and decided to haul the Rosetta Stone back to England. If it were me I would have left the Rosetta Stone and loaded up on croissants 🥐 and red wine 🍷. Anyway, a British scholar figured out that carved on the Rosetta Stone was the same message in Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics. Up to that point in time nobody knew how to read Egyptian hieroglyphics. So this British scholar used the Rosetta Stone and his encyclopedic knowledge of ancient Greek to develop a sort of hieroglyphic dictionary. As you can imagine, the Egyptian government has been demanding that the British Museum return the Rosetta Stone and all the mummies and all the other Egyptian artifacts that the Brits claim were given to them by the Egyptians. I have a little advice for you Egyptians. Forget it! The Brits are never going to return any of this stuff to you. If you want to see your stuff you will have to come to London and see your stuff at the British Museum. I know that’s not fair, but as St. Rita used to say, “Fair is where you go to see the butter cow.”
This is a whole big rectangular room filled with stuff the Brits took from the Parthenon 🏛 in Athens.
Less than half of what remained of the Parthenon, after the Brits hauled off the best parts, is in a museum on the Acropolis in Athens. There is a little bit of the Parthenon in a museum in Copenhagen. I have no idea how some of the artifacts from the Parthenon got to Copenhagen, so don’t ask.
The Brits claim that the Turks, who were running Greece at the time, gave them half of the ruins of the Parthenon. The Greeks claim that the Turks did not own the Parthenon so they had no business giving it away. The Greeks have been raising holy hell trying to get the Brits to return all the cultural treasures that the Brits have plundered from Greece over the years. I have news for all you Greeks. You are never getting this stuff back. If you want to see your stuff you will need to fly to London and see your stuff at the British Museum.
This is Zeus, the kingpin and most powerful of all the Greek gods.
Even Zeus, the all powerful, got highjacked by the Brits and is now trapped in the British Museum.
This is a statute of Pericles. He is one of the most famous orators of all time. His Funeral Oration to the Athenians has been favorably compared to Abe’s Gettysburg Address. Abe is wondering why there is no Lincoln exhibit at the British Museum.
This is a copper baseball ⚾️ cap 🧢 that is thousands of years old. And they didn’t even play baseball back then.
This is a reliquary that is reputed to contain a thorn from the crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus’ head before he was crucified.
This looks like Fiestaware, right?
You can pick up a whole set of this stuff for a couple hundred bucks, right? WRONG!!
This is called Ru stoneware.
A year ago one of these little bowls went up for auction and the winning bid was $37 million dollars. That just goes to show that some people have more money than brains.
That’s it for today.
I hope everyone is having a restful and relaxing Saturday.
Good evening from London, England.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 