A friend wrote and asked what my top 3, 5 or 10 discoveries in the British Museum would be. The first thing is to realize that any reduction to such a number is going to eliminate a lot of major finds.
But there’s also the realization that a person has only so much time and so many brain cells. So here’s my top 15. I can’t reduce it any further than this. The list is in roughly chronological order. Some are more closely related to the Bible than others.
1. Epic of Gilgamesh
2. Amarna Letters
3. Kurkh Stela of Shalmaneser III
4. Black Obelisk
5. Samaria Ivories
6. Taylor Prism (Sennacherib)
7. Lachish Siege Reliefs
8. Shebna Inscription
9. Babylonian Chronicle for 605-594
10. Lachish Letters
11. Cyrus Cylinder
12. Temple of Artemis column
13. Elgin Marbles
14. Rosetta Stone
15. Politarch Inscription
Lachish Siege Reliefs RoomIf you want to suggest an addition, please also suggest one of the above to remove.
In any case, if you’re planning a visit, the book that you must get is by Peter Masters, entitled Heritage of Evidence in the British Museum. It used to be hard to find, though I now see it listed for sale at Amazon and here and here.
Does anyone offer a B.A. in the British Museum? That’s not overreaching, in my opinion. Especially given what other college programs exist these days.
3 thoughts on “British Museum: Top 10”
There is also a book called “The Bible in the British Museum” by T.C. Mitchell. It highlights 72 items in the museum of interest to Biblical history.
It’s not very clear if these items are on display or not and it doesn’t identily where anything is in the museum. I can’t tell how many times I’ve walked right by some small item in a museum I wanted to see and never found it.
No replacements, but would suggest swapping:
6. Taylor Prism (Sennacherib)
7. Lachish Siege Reliefs
…unless of course you’re suggesting he took Lachish sometime after his “8th” campaign.
Thanks, as always, for your insightful material.
Why limit one's self in such a marvelous museum? I would like to suggest the short document I have compiled over the years on "Some Biblically Related Artifacts in the British Museum." It is available here: http://biblicalstudies.info/bibartbm.pdf