Another Day at the British Museum

Waiting for the All Clear

I think that all the students had in fact already been to London, most of them most recently for the great event of April 29, but we all went down together for three days this weekend anyway.

Our first stop as a group was the British Museum, where we spend a couple of hours formally showing each other things we had taken an interest in.  Objects ranged from the Admonition Scroll to the Lewis Chessmen, from a millions of years old stone knife, to the intricately decorated Holy Thorn reliquary.  Treasures, all.  As Abi was wrapping up her presentation of the glittering Mosaic Mask of Quetzalcoatl, perhaps a gift to Cortez, the fire alarm sounded and we were all ushered through many passageways under the museum and finally out into the front courtyard, while firemen in big yellow suits stormed the building through the monumental main entrance.  Happily, for all that wealth of art, a false alarm.

There were many things we saw this weekend which had "miraculously escaped" the Blitz, the Great Fire, the Iconoclasts, etc.  Humanity is hard on its treasures, and these treasures are also vulnerable to destruction day after day by random chance.  Today, we got the "All Clear."