My Birthday "Day" 02.11.2010!

As we left our flat, l noticed this gorgeous red tree in the distance. It was very bright and fiery from a distence but, once up close, it lost some of its bright colour. I think this is because of all the yellow and different shades of green around it add to the colour!

Just love all these gorgeous coloured leaves on the trees and on the ground. I have just received, as a birthday present from Tony, India Flint's Eco dying book..so excited. So these leaves will soon be used to turn some white material and paper into wonderfully coloured and patterned treasures.

I find this sun-dial on a wall in  Putney very weird as one can only really see it when the sun is NOT shining... duh!

While we were going into London on a No. 14 bus, as we were going around Hyde Park Corner into Piccadilly, we saw these Landau's going under the large Arch and across Hyde Park Corner from St James's Park. We think they may have been (judging by their dress) ambassadors returning from presenting their credentials to the Queen. Since this blog was published, l have found out who this "important" person was..l think!

BUCKINGHAM PALACE: His Excellency Mr. Roberto Jaguaribe was received in audience by The Queen today and presented the Letters of Recall of his predecessor and his own Letters of Credence as Ambassador from the Federative Republic of Brazil to the Court of St. James's. 
Mrs. Jaguaribe was also received by Her Majesty. 

The building below is our destination:- The British Museum. So excited, l love this place.

Inside the Museum,  you can see the results of a Family Day session on Space travel.

One of the many wonderful features inside the building is the glass dome roof over the Central Court, which was part of a new build to celebrate the Millenium.

When we first got to the Museum, we headed straight to the main restaurant for Lunch. Good food, nice surroundings and fantastic company..Thanks Tonyx

The image below is of me wearing my new, gorgeous, burnt orange cardigan from Tony. Just love the colour. Very Autumn Colours!

We started off in The Galleries 52-60 dealing with Mesopatamia, Assyria and Egypt..........SOOOOO............ much to see!!! I was fascinated to see these small heads, the reason being, this is just what l am creating. I am making small heads as part of a  series of paintings, which these heads will be part of. Nothing really changes does it, even after thousands of years?

When we lived in PNG, we were lucky enough to see a tribe called the Mud Men. They wear, on special occasions, a large mud mask on their head; it is so similar to the head shape of the sculpture below but without the hands added...eerie!

The figure below makes me giggle as Tony says it is the earlist version of a Playboy Model!  Men..! Very similar figures are displayed from excavations of a wide variety of locatioons and periods across the region.

I was astonished to see this small, metal (1400-1200BC) figure. Why? Well, at first l though it had been broken then l realised it was actually made to represent a handicapped person.

The glass room ( next but one image) is the reconstruction of a burial find. If you look at the image below it will tell you about The Jericho Tomb.

Amazing find.

This is a stone duck weight dating from about 2125 BC. Isn't it a wonderful, stylized shape?  So smooth, l want to touch it.

A woman's head jewellery preserved as excavated. She was between 18-20 years old, they found this out by looking at her teeth.. Her headdress consists of gold ribbons and pendants and silver ornaments with inlaid rosettes. There are gold earings, a gold collar and necklace of gold and lazuli. Just stunning. many of the grave goods were found crushed by the weight of the soil covering them.Wax was poured over the remains to hold them all together so it could be lifted out of the ground. They were able to take X-rays as well.

l love this next sculpture..she just got to me. She is The Queen of the Night, originally painted red and may have been Ishtar,  the Goddess of Sexual Love and War. In our family, we call the nutmeg flavoured skin on the top of a rice pudding "Ishtar". It was named this by Tony's Grandmother who, in the Ist World War, lived and worked in Egypt! Wonder what the 'naughty"reason was for it to be called this?

This beautifully created and decorated board game is called The Royal Game of Ur. This is an early example of the game which was played all over The Ancient Near East for about 3000 years. (2600-2300 AD)

This is a small Lapis Lazuli cylinder seal, cira  1900 BC.

These amazing stones are Babyonian Boundary Stones or Kudurru Monuments. They were used in the Kassite and succeeding periods as permanent records of land records of ownership and tax exemptions.

Can you imagine being able to print THIS small and still be correct? it is a medical ritual tab let for the protection of babies..About 650 BC from Nineveh. A miniature clay cylinder would be hung around the child's neck.

 

I just curled up and died from laughter when l read about these dog sculptures. Click on it for a bigger image. Words inscibed on one of the dogs says "Don't think, bite"!

The words written on the stone below is a Prayer of Nabu-shuma-ukin who was in jail. Basically, it is a lament by a man who claims he has been imprisoned wrongly and he is innocent and is appealing to the God of Babylon to rescue him.

This script is so beautiful..makes our writing look so boring and non-creative!

This beautiful figure could have been made by an artist yesterday. It is a lead figure with glass and ivory  inlays 8-7th century BC from Turkey. Just love it.

I will show you the amazing Egyptian Mummies tomorrow..bet you can hardly wait!Ha..nightx