5/25 British Museum - The World of Stonehenge Exhibit

I got a good night's sleep last night and slept in until about 10:00 am.  I had made a reservation last night for the British Museum at 11:00 am, so I had to move fast.  I got dressed and made a quick stop at the Starbucks near the underground entrance and got a lemonade/iced tea to go, plus an almost croissant to eat on the train.

After only missing my transfer station once and having to go back the other way, and then walking about a quarter of a mile, I made it to the museum just a bit late.  Luckily, because this was mid-week, there were not huge crowds as there are on weekend. 

This is the inside grand entrance.

There is a restaurant on the top floor here, but it is a bit expensive for a lot of people. 

I had no idea what part of the museum I would visit this year.  In past visits, I had visited the Ancient Egypt and Ancient Britain exhibits, but when I saw this new, special Stonehenge exhibit, I had to choose it. 

This describes the display that follows, showing the deer antler headdress and decorations buried with one ancient lady at Stonehenge.

The exhibits began with some of the stone axes found at Stonehenge and other settlements around Europe that were during that period of about 6,000 to 8,000 years ago.  Note that some are rough stone and others have been polished.

 

 

I found this stone much more impressive than all the stone axes above because the deep groves show that it had been used over hundreds and possibly thousands of years to polish stone axes.  

We don't often get to see the furniture used by Neolithic peoples, but this is a wooden bench from that era! 

This is the skull of an auroch, which was an ancient and huge variety of cattle.  If you look carefully, you will see a stone axe buried in the middle of its skull.  The big question is, how close do you have to get to one of these huge animals to kill it with a stone axe?? 

These are the bodies of two slightly more modern cattle who were buried with the wagon they had been pulling.  The second photo shows a light show that demonstrates where the wagon would have been. 

No one knows for sure what these carved stone balls were used for, but some of them have very detailed artwork on them. 

These are real tree sections which were originally buried with their roots on the top, for some unknown reason.  The model in the rear shows how they might have originally looked.

And three standing stones from the Stonehenge period with detailed artwork carved into them. 

And one of the stones used to shape the standing stones from Stonehenge.  Can you imagine how much pounding it took? 

This describes the following solid gold shoulder covering found buried with a high-status lady.

More items found in the UK and Europe from this era that shows how able the people were to create such things.

This describes the pointed calendars below that look a bit like hats, but were not hats, in reality.

And more gold neck rings and pottery jugs.

These are very small models of boats from a slightly later period when the UK was separated from Europe by rising sea levels.

 

 

This describes the carved wooden figures below.  

And more items from that era, though not necessarily from Stonehenge. 

And one last photo showing the swans and birds on the handle of one of the stirring spoons above.

By the time I got to this point in the exhibit, I was beat, so headed out to get some food and try to get a UK SIM card for the old iPhone5 I had brought alone.  No luck with that, but I had a fish sandwich at McDonald's and picked up some snacks for later on in the evening.  

My Fitbit said I walked 4.01 miles today and took 10,384 steps today.  No wonder I am worn out.