British Museum: Guided tour of Assyrian Galleries

12/10/2006

British Museum: Guided tour of Assyrian Galleries

The Assyrian Collection at the BM is wonderful to experience on your own – but especially when an expert is present to share their wealth of knowledge. It’s a must see!

Whether you fancy empire or propaganda techniques, this tour organized by the History Department was amazing. The evolution of this ancient empire can be witnessed in their art and methods of presentation. The tour guide, Dr Paul Collins of the British Museum, demonstrated the Assyrian Kings’ changing methods of displaying their wealth, importance, and more importantly, greatness to their subjects. As the empire grew, their propaganda techniques were adjusted to accommodate the new ethnic and cultural diversity the empire was experiencing. A greater audience needed to be reached and this was reflected by the kings’ propaganda paying less attention to the Assyrian religion (as many peoples may not have understood the associations of the gods if they were not known), and incorporating a more general display of battles and victory. This was done by displaying battle scenes in context with soldiers, enemies dying, as well as the various technological superiorities of the Assyrian military apparatus. This exhibited the greatness and supremacy of the Assyrian empire and reflected the infallibility of the king himself.

In short, the trip was very informative, interesting and a down right good time. It was topped by having the Assyrian expert share his wealth of knowledge and further explain the depictions of the Assyrian’s evolving empire.

Isaiah Behnke,
Chair of the History, International Relations and Politics Education Society.

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/n/132.aspx