Today's Flickr photo with the most hits. This cattle iron, shaped as Sekhmet, the Egyptian protective goddess.
It was probably used to brand the cattle, grazing on temple lands.
In the British Museum - Feminine Power Exhibition.
Today's Flickr photo with the most hits: in the British Museum (for now 🙄). Dionysos, from the east pediment of the Parthenon.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits is surprise hit: it’s an artefact from the Feminine Power Exhibition at the British Museum. The object is a clay votive offering, showing a couple having sex. It dates from 1800 BCE, and comes from Mesopotamia.
Today’s Flickr phot with the most hits: a photo taken in the British Museum, showing part of the Parthenon frieze. (Of course, it ought to be in Athens, in the stupendous museum built to house it).
The Olympian Gods await the arrival of the Peplos, gifted by the people of Athens to their patron Goddess, Athena, during the great Panathenaic Procession. Seated from L to R - Hermes, Dionysos, Demeter, Ares.
Rosetta Stone
Brian Taylor
To the British Museum in W3 in very different company. To an Egyptian archaeological mortuary; dismembered torsos and massive heads, disjointed arms and shattered legs; imitations of flesh and bone in granite, sandstone, marble and obsidian. Mirrors of souls buried in oblivion. There, the many who swarmed along the Nile and lived and loved among a host of enemies, stare with dead eyes and frozen smile with a rich, dark hunger to reawaken in the sun. Broken friezes, unhinged doors, fragmented pediments, mosaic floors, gold necklaces that have outlived their necks failed amulets – all trawled from these Egyptian wrecks. Trawled by English gentlemen from a many layered human tragedy. Gentlemen on grand tours who came to pick and choose from what an ancient people made and were made to lose by Nubian, Ptolemy, Roman and Ottoman; - these more concerned with slaves and human plunder than with these artefacts which you have seen and which have made you wonder. Here in this place they rest, each with its space, its lighting and its label; - delicacies upon a cultural table. For whom? Today, for whom? Today each room is like a formicarium. A mass of students represents the human race. An apian hum of languages from those who stare, drink coke and share their sandwiches in this Temple to Impermanence. These, having fed on history’s desiderata, come out into the sun, hold hands and heed the pigeons that have also come to feed - but not on culture. Their sense is for survival. They have no need to be embalmed, like the Sumerians or charmed like antiquarians. They have no artefacts to give providing vital cultural data. They merely try to live a little longer and die a little later.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits is an image of an unprepossessing slab of grey rock. However, it is of signal importance. You can see it in the British Museum (where it came to rest after several adventures). Known to history as the Rosetta Stone, it was the key to unlocking the language of Egyptian hieroglyphs (holy carving), which is an adventure story all by itself.
In the British Museum
Thomas Hardy - who’s a big sap for piles of old stones, as am I...
'What do you see in that time-touched stone, When nothing is there But ashen blankness, although you give it A rigid stare?
'You look not quite as if you saw, But as if you heard, Parting your lips, and treading softly As mouse or bird.
'It is only the base of a pillar, they'll tell you, That came to us From a far old hill men used to name Areopagus.'
- 'I know no art, and I only view A stone from a wall, But I am thinking that stone has echoed The voice of Paul,
'Paul as he stood and preached beside it Facing the crowd, A small gaunt figure with wasted features, Calling out loud
'Words that in all their intimate accents Pattered upon That marble front, and were far reflected, And then were gone.
'I'm a labouring man, and know but little, Or nothing at all; But I can't help thinking that stone once echoed The voice of Paul.'
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits is this (rather belaboured) portrait sculpture of Antinous, which is in the Art Institute of Chicago. I don’t want to leave Antinuous alone, so I’ve uploaded a second portrait sculpture which places him alongside his lover, Hadrian. This (happier) pair can be visited in the British Museum.
Today’s photo with the most hits: the monumental head of Amenhotep III, currently to be found in the British Museum.
Today's photo with the most hits - this fabulous (detail) photo of an Etruscan terra cotta coffin, British Museum.
Today's photo with the most hits on my Flickr page - a shot of Tutankhamun, taken in the Egyptian Gallery, British Museum.
Today’s Flickr Photo with the most hits - a recent upload. Here sit Dionysos, Demeter and Ares - chatting freely whilst the Athenians bring the gift of the Peplos to their patron Goddess, Athena.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits - this image of a young man portrayed in the Parthenon frieze. He stands in the Panathenaic Procession among the cattle being herded for sacrifice.