British Museum and Colonial Relationships - Summer 2024
The British Museum houses several Assyrian panels that are significant examples of Neo-Assyrian art, showcasing the empire's cultural and historical richness.
Assyrian Panels at the British Museum
Gypsum Wall Panel (Museum number 124938):
This panel features two independent compositions in upper and lower registers, divided by a river that seems to belong to both scenes. The upper part depicts an Assyrian city, likely Nineveh, with massive triple walls and a citadel. Inside the citadel, a building is adorned with colossal human-headed winged bulls and columns with lion-shaped bases. The lower section shows soldiers from Iran, possibly from Elam, depicted on foot, horseback, and in carts, suggesting a campaign setting
This panel illustrates a marsh scene with Assyrians pursuing enemies into rushes, featuring fighting on reed boats. It is part of a group depicting campaigns in southern Iraq during the reign of Sennacherib (640BC-620BC). The reliefs vividly portray the landscape and the people, including the Assyrian warriors and the conquered tribes
This relief shows a river crossing with horses swimming, led by grooms, and a chariot, bed, and jar carried on coracles. It is typical of Assyrian art, with figures shown complete and not half-submerged. The panel includes an inscription in cuneiform script and dates back to the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (865BC-860BC)
Exhibition and Display
From around 1500 to the mid-20th century, a number of European countries established overseas empires – Britain's empire was the largest. The British Museum was founded in 1753: its history and collection are shaped by empire and the colonial exploitation of people and resources.
This trail highlights objects that were predominantly acquired during the age of empire and shows the different, complex and sometimes controversial journeys of objects that would become part of the Museum collection. Sometimes objects were acquired directly but often they were collected first by individuals, organisations or companies, passing through several owners before coming to the Museum.
21-object trail – this trail can be completed in a single visit and will take around 60–70 minutes. It takes in several different galleries which are on the Ground floor. When you visit the object in the gallery you'll find more information about how the Museum acquired it. Three-object trail – this trail is ideal if you only have 30 minutes to spare. Further objects will be added to this section over the next 12 months as the result of ongoing collaborative work and research.
The British Empire had great influence and a reach that extended worldwide.. The following objects will give you a sense of what they acquyired as a reslt of colonialism.
1. Lion statues of Amenhotep III (Room 4)
In 1829, Algernon Percy (Lord Prudhoe) of Northumberland reached Jebel Barkal, Sudan, on one of his journeys to Egypt and Sudan. During his visit there he arranged the shipment of these lions back to England with the help of the British Consul General. He donated them to the British Museum in 1835.
2. Human-headed winged bull (Room 8)
The Assyrian empire, which originated in the northern region of present-day Iraq, was a major power in the Middle East between 935–609 BC. This human-headed winged bull is one of a pair that flanked a doorway in the throne room of Ashurnasirpal II in his palace at Nimrud. The sculpture was excavated by Austen Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam. They shipped it to England with the permission of the Ottoman authorities. The Museum acquired it in 1850.
3. The Nereid Monument (Room 17)
The Sultanate in Constantinople (now Istanbul) authorised Charles Fellows' excavations at Xanthos and the subsequent removal of the Nereid monument. The Royal Navy assisted with moving and transporting the heavy sculptures to HMS Beacon which transported the finds to Malta, before being shipped onto England.
4. Statue of Ankhrenepnefer (Room 4)
This temple statue depicts Ankhrenepnefer presenting a divine image. The Egypt Exploration Fund gave it to the British Museum in 1883, beginning decades of excavation finds being divided between Egypt and other countries.
5. Ancestral screen from Nigeria (Room 25)
This is one of 11 ancestral screens entrusted by Kalabari chiefs to a British administrative officer between 1914 and 1916 to save them from destruction by a local fundamentalist Christian movement.
6. Palace door and lintel from Nigeria (Room 25)
This door, carved for the palace at Ikere, Nigeria, was displayed in 1924 at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley. It was presented to the Museum by the Ogoga (king) of Ikere who was given a European-style throne made in Britain in return.
7. Military tunic from Sudan (Room 25)
This officer's tunic was taken from the Battle of Atbara as spoils of war in 1898 following the defeat of Sudanese nationalist forces by an Anglo-Egyptian army. The widow of the commander of the British Brigade at Atbara subsequently presented it to the Museum.
8. Potlatch Kwakwaka'wakw mask from Canada (Room 26)
Seized by the Canadian authorities during a potlatch ceremony in 1921, then illegal under Canadian law, this mask was sold to a private collector who eventually donated it to the British Museum.
9. West African drum, collected in Virginia (Room 26)
This drum, made by the Akan people, Ghana, was taken to Virginia during the period of the slave trade and came to the British Museum as part of its founding collection, bequeathed by Sir Hans Sloane.
10. Puppets and masks from Java (Room 1)
Sir Stamford Raffles, who established Singapore as a British port, collected large numbers of artefacts, including those on display here, while serving as Lieutenant-Governor of Java in the 1810s.
11. Soup plate from China (Room 1)
Commodore Lord Anson of the British East India Company circumnavigated the world in 1743. He commissioned a porcelain dinner service, including this plate, on a visit to Canton in 1747.
12. Moche sculptures from the Macabi Islands, Peru (Room 1)
These Moche objects show bound prisoners awaiting sacrifice. The sculptures were discovered during the removal of guano (bird excrement) by a British company in about 1870. The demand for this high-quality fertiliser led some countries, including the UK, to exploit guano-rich islands.
13. Shield from New South Wales, Australia (Room 1)
The details of the acquisition of this shield are not known but it was likely that it was collected in the early days of the British colony at Sydney from 1788 and received in the Museum by 1817.
14. A ritual seat from the Bahamas (Room 1)
This stool was made in the Caribbean between 1186 and 1273 by Indigenous Taino people from the Bahamas. It was found by an enslaved man, James Thompson, who sold it to a missionary called Theophilus Pugh in 1835. It was donated to the Museum in 1918.
15. Figure from the Cook Islands (Room 2)
This sculpture was acquired by the London Missionary Society when they converted the people of the Cook Islands, Polynesia, to Christianity during the 19th century. https://www.britishmuseum.org/visit/object-trails/collecting-and-empire-trail
