British Museum

De British Museum be a public museum wey be dedicated to human history, art den culture wey dey locate insyd de Bloomsbury area of London. Ein permanent collection of eight million works be de largest insyd de world. E dey document de story of human culture from ein beginnings to de present. Na dem establish am insyd 1753, na de British Museum be de first public national museum. Insyd 2023, na de museum receive 5,820,860 visitors, 42% more dan de previous year. At least na one group rate am de most popular attraction insyd de United Kingdom.

For ein beginning, na de museum dey largely base on de collections of de Anglo-Irish physician den scientist Sir Hans Sloane. Na dem gbele am to de public insyd 1759, insyd Montagu House, for de site of de current building. Na de museum ein expansion over de following 250 years largely be a result of British colonisation wey na result insyd de creation of chaw branch institutions, anaa independent spin-offs, na de first be de Natural History Museum insyd 1881. Sam of ein best-known acquisitions, such as de Greek Elgin Marbles den de Egyptian Rosetta Stone, be subject to long-term disputes den repatriation claims.

Insyd 1973, na de British Library Act 1972 detach de library department from de British Museum, buh na e continue dey host de now separated British Library insyd de same Reading Room den building as de museum til 1997. Na de museum be a non-departmental public body wey be sponsored by de Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like all UK national museums, e no dey charge admission fee except for loan exhibitions.Building the British Museum, Marjorie Caygill & Christopher Date 1999

 History 
Sir Hans Sloane 
Although today principally a museum of cultural art objects plus antiquities, Na dem found am as  'universal museum'. Its foundations lie insyde de will of de Anglo-Irish physician plus naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), a London-based doctor and scientist from Ulster. As e dey live, especially when e marry di widow of rich Jamaican planter, Sloane gathah plenty curiosities, plus him no wan make dem spoil after im die, so he gree give am to King George II, for the nation, for £20,000 (that one be like £3,846,793 for 2023) wey Parliament go pay give him heirs.Title deed of the 'perimeter properties' of The British Museum, BM Archives CA TD E purposely do am like dat so e go be lower than wetin dem fit value the artefacts, wey dem dey talk say fit be £50,000 (like £9,616,983 for 2023) or even more, and some people dey even talk say e fit reach £80,000 (like £15,387,173 for 2023) or more as others talk am.Norman Foster and the British Museum, Norman Foster, Deyan Sudjic & Spencer de Grey 2001

At that time, Sloane em collection dey consist of around 71,000 objects of all kinds wey de include some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens wey include 337 volumes of dried plants, prints den drawings wey include those by Albrecht Dürer plus antiquities from Sudan, Egypt, Greece, Rome, de Ancient Near plus Far East plus de Americas.de Beer, Gavin R. (1953). Sir Hans Sloane and the British Museum. London. 

 Foundation (1753) 
For 7 June 1753, King George II don gree dem make dem start British Museum. Di British Museum Act 1753 still add two libraries join Sloane collection, wey be Cottonian Library wey Sir Robert Cotton build for Elizabethan times, plus Harleian Library wey di Earls of Oxford get. Dem come join 1757 by di 'Old Royal Library', wey now be Royal manuscripts, wey different British kings come gather. Together, dis four 'foundation collections' get plenty of di most valuable books wey dey for British Library, like di Lindisfarne Gospels plus di only surviving manuscript of Beowulf.

 Montagu House,  
British Museum be di first kind of museum wey no belong to church or king, e dey open for everybody and e wan collect everything. Sloane collection get plenty different things, e show im scientific interests. When dem add di Cotton and Harley manuscripts, e bring literary and old-school vibe, now British Museum don be both National Museum plus library.

 Cabinet of curiosities (1753–1778) 
Di body of trustees choose one fine 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, make e be di place for di museum, wey dem buy am from di Montagu family for £20,000. Di trustees no gree for Buckingham House, wey dem later change am to di Buckingham Palace wey we sabi today, on de grounds of cost plus de unsuitability of its location.

With de acquisition of Montagu House,, dem open di first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars on 15 January 1759. At dat time, di big parts of di collection be di library wey dey take most of di rooms for ground floor and di natural history objects wey dey occupy one whole wing for first floor. For 1763, di trustees of di British Museum, influenced by Peter Collinson and William Watson, employ Daniel Solander wey be former student of Carl Linnaeus, to reclassify di natural history collection based on di Linnaean system, so di museum fit become public learning center wey every European natural historian fit access. For 1823, George IV gave de King Library wey George III arrange, plus Parliament give am de power to collect every book wey dem publish for di country, so di museum library go dey grow plenty. After dem start am, British Museum receive plenty gifts, like di Thomason Collection wey get Civil War Tins plus David Garrick library wey get 1,000 plays dem print. Di plenty natural history, books and manuscripts start to reduce when for 1772, di museum buy e first big ancient things for £8,410 from Sir William Hamilton 'first' Greek vases collection.

 Indolence den energy (1778–1800) 
Since 1778, dem show plenty things from South Seas wey James Cook and other explorers bring come after their round-the-world waka. People dey craze for the new places wey dem see. In 1800, dem get fresh books, fine gems, coins, prints, and drawings from Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode wey make the museum shine well-well. but Montagu House don become increasingly  full with crowd den decrepit plus e dey  apparent that it would be unable to cope with further expansion.

Di first big addition wey di museum get for im collection since e start na from Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), di British Ambassador wey dey Napoli. E sell im Greek plus Roman artefacts to di museum for 1784 plus some other old items plus natural history samples. Dem get one list wey talk about donations to di museum, dated 31 January 1784, wey mention di Hamilton gift of one 'Colossal Foot of an Apollo insyde Marble'. Dis one na one of di two items wey Hamilton collect, wey Francesco Progenie draw for am, im be student of Pietro Fabris, wey also send some drawings of Mount Vesuvius wey Hamilton give di Royal Society for London.

 Growth den change (1800–1825) 
For early 19th century, dem start build strong collection of sculptures, and Greek, Roman plus Egyptian artefacts dey lead the show for di antiquities display. After dem chop defeat of di French campaign insyde di Battle of di Nile, wetin happen for 1801, British Museum take more Egyptian sculptures join dem collection. Den for 1802, King George III come carry di Rosetta Stone come give dem, wey be key to decode di hieroglyphs. Gifts plus purchases from Henry Salt, di British consul general for Egypt, start from di Colossal bust of Ramesses II for 1818, na im lay di foundation for di Egyptian Monumental Sculpture collection. Plenty Greek sculptures come after, like dis first exhibition space wey dem build purposefully, the Charles Towneley collection, most of am na Roman sculpture, for 1805. Den for 1806, Thomas Bruce, wey be 7th Earl of Elgin, wey dey represent Ottoman Empire from 1799 go 1803 carry plenty marble sculptures from Parthenon for Acropolis for Athens, come take am go UK. For 1816, dem collect dis western art masterpieces for British Museum through Act of Parliament and keep am for de museum after. Dem dey add Bassae frieze from Phigaleia, Greece wey come 1815. The Ancient Near Eastern collection start for 1825 when dem buy Assyrian and Babylonian artifacts from Mary Mackintosh Rich, wey be the widow of Assyriologist Claudius James Rich.

For 1802, dem form committee wey go plan to expand di museum, plus in 1822, dem get donation from di King wey be di King Library, wey be personal library of King George III, dey get 65,000 books, 19,000 pamphlets, maps, charts plus topographical drawings. Di neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke, wey dem call, draw plan for di eastern extension for di museum wey go take Royal Library and picture gallery above am. E even suggest plan for di quadrangular building wey we fit still see today. Dem don break down Old Montagu House wey dey spoil and dem start work for King’s Library Gallery for 1823. Dem finish the East Wing extension by 1831. But, after dem open de National Gallery for London for 1824, de Picture Gallery wey dem plan no be necessary again, so dem give that floor space to Natural history collections.

Di first Synopsis of di British Museum drop insyde 1808. E talk wetin dey insyde di museum, plus how dem show di objects room by room. Dem dey publish  new editions every few years.

 De largest building site insyd Europe (1825–1850) 
As Sir Robert Smirke big neoclassical building dey rise small-small, de museum turn construction site. The King's Library, wey dey ground floor of East Wing, dem hand am over for 1827, plus dem talk say na one of de best rooms for London. Even though e no fully open to everybody till 1857, dem arrange special openings for de time of The Great Exhibition of 1851.

For 1840, di museum don start dey do im first overseas excavations,Charles Fellows  expedition go Xanthos insyde Asia Minor, where dem find remains of di tombs of di rulers of ancient Lycia, like di Nereid and Payava monuments. Then for 1857, Charles Newton discover di 4th-century BC Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, one of di Seven Wonders of di Ancient World. For di 1840s plus 1850s, di museum dey support excavations for Assyria by A.H. Layard plus others at sites like Nimrud den Nineveh. Di curators sabi say dem go discover Ashurbanipal's big library of cuneiform tablets, wey help make di museum main place for Assyrian studies.

Sir Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), wey be trustee for British Museum since 1830, gather library wey get 20,240 books, e give dem for him will. De books come for January 1847 inside twenty-one horse-drawn vans. Di only place dem fit put dis large library be one room wey dem plan for manuscripts, between Front Entrance Hall den Manuscript Saloon. Dem books dey there until British Library move go St Pancras for 1998.

 Collect wey come from di bigger world (1850–1875) 
Di forecourt wey dem open for 1852 be di last part of Robert Smirke's plan wey start for 1823, but e be like dem need adjust some tins because collection don dey grow too fast. Dem build infill galleries for Assyrian sculptures and Sydney Smirke's Round Reading Room wey fit hold one million books, wey open for 1857. As space still dey tight, dem decide to carry natural history go new building for South Kensington, wey go later turn British Museum of Natural History.

Around di same time dem dey build di new house, one man wey dem dey call di "second founder" of di British Museum, di Italian librarian Anthony Panizzi, dey shine. With him oversight, di British Museum Library (now part of di British Library) blow up five times plus turn am into correct place wey fit carry di name national library, di biggest library for di world after National Library of Paris. Di quadrangle wey dey middle of Smirke design no com make sense, e waste fine space, so Panizzi beg make dem fill am with one round Reading Room wey dem build with cast iron, wey Smirke him brother, Sydney Smirke, design and act .

Till mid-19th century, di museum collection dey small small but for 1851, dem bring Augustus Wollaston Franks come join dem to manage di collections. Na there dem start collect British and European medieval antiques, plus some prehistory, and dem start branch go Asia too, dey diversify wetin dem get for ethnography. One big win for di museum na when dem buy di Duke of Blacas rare den valuable collection of antiques for 1867, even as di French no gree. Dem still dey excavate overseas plus John Turtle Wood find di remains of di 4th century BC Temple of Artemis for Ephesos, another Wonder of di Ancient World.

 Scholarship den legacies (1875–1900) 
Di natural history collections dey important part of di British Museum till dem carry am go new British Museum of Natural History for 1887, wey now dem dey call di Natural History Museum for South Kensington. When dem move and finish di new White Wing (wey dey face Montague Street) for 1884, more space show for antiquities plus ethnography, plus di library fit grow more. Dis na time wey innovation dey shine as dem start use electric light for di Reading Room den exhibition galleries.

De William Burges collection wey get plenty weapons land for museum since 1881. For 1882, de museum join hand establish de independent Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society), wey be de first British group wey go do research for Egypt. Miss Emma Turner drop some cash for 1892 wey help finance excavations insyde Cyprus. Then for 1897, de big collector plus curator, A. W. Franks, die, den him leave behind an immense bequest wey include 3,300 finger rings, 153 drinking cups, 512 pieces of continental porcelain 1,500 netsuke, 850 inro, plus over 30,000 bookplates plus different kinds of jewellery den plate, wey include de Oxus Treasure.

For 1898, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed de  Waddesdon Bequest, all di fine things wey dey insyde im New Smoking Room for Waddesdon Manor. E get almost 300 pieces of objets d'art et de vertu, wey get fine jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass plus maiolica. Among dem get di Holy Thorn Reliquary, wey dem creat aroud de 1390s insyd paris for John, Duke of Berry. Dis collection dey follow di tradition of Schatzkammer wey dey like di ones wey di Renaissance princes of Europe form. Baron Ferdinand make sure say im will dey clear, if dem no follow di terms e go spoil, di collection suppose beDem still de observe these terms ,plus de collection dey occupy room 2a.

 New century, new building (1900–1925) 
For de last years of 19th century, British Museum get so many things wey dey make their building no fit contain am again. For 1895, dem trustees buy 69 houses wey dey around de museum so dem fit break dem down den build around west, north den east side of de museum. De first stage na to build northern wing beginning 1906.

All dis time, dem collections dey grow. Emil Torday dey collect for Central Africa, Aurel Stein dey do him collection for Central Asia, D. G. Hogarth, Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence dey dig for Carchemish. At dis period, American collector and philanthropist J. Pierpont Morgan come give big number of objects to di museum, wey de include William Greenwell en collection of prehistoric artefacts wey e buy for £10,000 for 1908. Morgan dey also collect major part of Sir John Evans's coin collection, wey him pikin J. P. Morgan Jr. sell to di museum for 1915. For 1918, as dem dey fear say bomb fit drop during war, dem evacuate  some things through de London Post Office Railway to Holborn, National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth) and one country house near Malvern. When dem come bring back old things from war storage for 1919, some of dem don spoil. Dem set up conservation lab for May 1920 plus e turn permanent department for 1931. Na today, e be di oldest wey dey exist. For 1923, British Museum welcome over one million visitors.

 Disruption den reconstruction (1925–1950) 
Dem build new mezzanine floors den book stacks rebuilt in an attempt to cope with de flood of books. For 1931, art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen come give money make dem build gallery for di Parthenon sculptures. E be American architect John Russell Pope wey design am, den dem finish am for 1938. Di way di exhibition galleries dey appear don change as dark Victorian reds don waka go, make way for modern pastel shades.

After George Francis Hill retire as Director and Principal Librarian for 1936, Na John Forsdyke succeed am.

As tension dey rise with Nazi Germany, Forsdyke don dey reason say war fit soon happen. E feel say dem go bomb pass wetin dem do for World War I, so di museum gatz prepare to carry di valuable items go safe place. After di Munich wahala, Forsdyke order 3,300 No-Nail Boxes and pack dem for Duveen Gallery basement. At di same time, e dey find den secure beta locations. As e be, di museum fit quick start carry di selected items go safe places on 24 August 1939, (one day after di Home Secretary talk say make dem do am), go secure basements, country houses, Aldwych Underground station, plus National Library of Wales. Dem don relocate Many items  insyde early 1942 from their initial dispersal locations to a new facility dem develope  at Westwood Quarry insyde Wiltshire. De evacaution happen just in time, because back insyde 1940, them bomb dem Duveen Gallery make e damage well well. Meanwhile, before de war, di Nazis send one researcher to de British Museum for several years to fit gather anti-Semitic history of Anglo-Jewry.

After di war, di museum dey continue to collect from all di countries and all di centuries: among di big additions be di 2600 BC Mesopotamian treasure from Ur, wey Leonard Woolley find during im 1922–34 excavations. Gold, silver plus garnet grave goods from di Anglo-Saxon ship burial for Sutton Hoo (1939) and late Roman silver tableware from Mildenhall, Suffolk (1946). Di immediate time after di war dem dey focus on returning di collections from protection den restoring di museum after di Blitz. Work begin too for restoring di damaged Duveen Gallery.

 New public face (1950–1975) 
For 1953, di museum mark am 200 years anniversary. Plenty changes come after: dem appoint di first full-time in-house designer plus publications officer for 1964, di Friends organization start for 1968, Education Service begin for 1970 den dem establish publishing house for 1973. For 1963, new Act of Parliament come bring some administrative changes too. E easy now to dey lend objects, de constitution of de board of trustees don change plus de Natural History Museum don also become fully independent. By 1959, de Coins plus Medals office suite wey dem destroy completely during de war, dem don rebuild den reopen am, dem turn attention towards de gallery work with new tastes for design wey lead to de remodelling of Robert Smirke's Classical plus Near Eastern galleries. For 1962, Duveen Gallery don finally get restored, plus dem carry Parthenon Sculptures go back insyde, once more at de heart of de museum.

For 1970s, di museum dey expand again. Dem bring more services for di public; visitor numbers dey increase, especially wen dem show di exhibition wey dem call "Treasures of Tutankhamun" for 1972, wey gather 1,694,117 visitors, e be di most successful for British history. Insyde dat same year,  di Parliament pass di Act wey establish di British Library, wey separate de collection of manuscripts plus printed books from de British Museum. Dis one left di museum with antiquities;  coins, medals plus paper money; prints den drawings; plus ethnography. A pressing problem wey show up be how to find space for di library wey need extra 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) of shelving every year. Di Government talk say make dem fit put di new British Library for St Pancras but di books no leave di museum until 1997.

 De Great Court emerge (1975–2000) 
De departure of de British Library to a new site at St Pancras, finally dem achieve am insyde 1998, don provide de space needed for de books.  E also open chance to redevelop de vacant space insyde Robert Smirke's 19th-century central quadrangle into de Queen Elizabeth II Great Court – wey be de biggest covered square for Europe – wey open for 2000. De ethnography collections wey dey insyde de Museum of Mankind at 6 Burlington Gardens since 1970, dem carry am come back for new purpose-built galleries  insyde de museum for 2000.

Di museum don re-adjust its collecting policies as pipo don start to sabi modern tins like prints, drawings, medals plus di decorative arts again. Dem carry out ethnographic fieldwork for places wey different wey dey include New Guinea, Madagascar, Romania, Guatemala plus Indonesia, plus dem do excavations for Near East, Egypt, Sudan and UK. Di Weston Gallery of Roman Britain wey open for 1997 show plenty recently discover treasures wey show say wetin dem think be small matter for di Roman Empire no be so. Di museum dey manage go for private funds to build, acquire den for other purposes. For 2000, di British Museum collect National Heritage Museum of di Year award.

 De British Museum today 
Today, di museum no dey keep natural history things again, plus di books plus manuscripts wey e get before don join di independent British Library. But di museum still dey show sey e get plenty different cultures from all over di world, both ancient plus modern. Di original collection wey start for 1753 don grow reach over 13 million objects for di British Museum, 70 million for di Natural History Museum, and 150 million for di British Library.

Di Round Reading Room wey Sydney Smirke design open for 1857. For almost 150 years, researchers de come dere to consult de museum's vast library. Di Reading Room close for 1997 when di national library (di British Library) move go new building for St Pancras. Now, e don change come di Walter plus Leonore Annenberg Centre.

As dem clear de bookstacks for di main courtyard of di museum, dem fit start di demolition for Lord Foster's glass-roofed Great Court. Di Great Court wey open for 2000, e really make people move around di museum better, but people still complain say e dey lack exhibition space when di museum dey suffer financial difficulties plus plenty galleries no dey open for public. At di same time, di African collections wey dey on temporary stash for 6 Burlington Gardens, dem get new gallery for di North Wing wey di Sainsbury family support – di donation be value £25 million.

Di museum online database get almost 4,500,000 objects entries for 2,000,000 records at di beginning of 2023. For 2022–23, dem get 27 million visits to di website. Dis wan dey compare with 19.5 million visits for 2013.

Dem get 5,820,860 pipo wey visit di museum for 2023, na 42% increase from 2022. Di museum be di highest visited tourist place for Britain for 2023. But di number of visits never reach di level wey e dey before di Covid pandemic.

Dem shoot a number of films at de British Museum.

 Governance 

 Director 
British Museum be one public body wey no dey under any department, dem dey sponsor am through Culture, Media den Sport wey dem gree fund for three years. Di head be Director of British Museum. Dem don dey run di museum since e start with 'principal librarian' (when di book collections still dey insyde di museum), but dem change am to 'director plus principal librarian' for 1898, and just 'director' for 1973 (after dem separate di British Library).

 Trustees 
Dem get 25 trustees wey dey run di museum (di director be demma accounting officer for de purpose of reporting to Government). Dem dey manage and control di museum based on British Museum Act 1963 plus Museums and Galleries Act 1992. Before de 1963 Act, di Archbishop of Canterbury, di Lord Chancellor plus de Speaker of di House of Commons dey run am. Out of di 25 trustees, 15 dey come from de Prime Minister, one from de Crown, four from industry bodies, plus di last five na other trustees go appoint dem. Dem form di board when di museum start, to keep di collection for di nation without owning am to demself. Now dem dey do advisory work mostly. Trustee appointments are governed by de regulatory framework set out insyde de code of practice on public appointments issued by de Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

 Building 
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_from_NE_2_(cropped).JPG|thumb|The museum's main entrance
De Greek Revival front wey dey face Great Russell Street be classic building wey Sir Robert Smirke build, get 44 columns for Ionic style wey dey stand 45 ft (14 m) high, e sabi resemble de ones from Athena Polias temple for Priene wey dey Asia Minor. Di pediment wey dey over di main entrance dey shine with sculptures from Sir Richard Westmacott wey show De Progress of Civilisation, get fifteen allegorical figures insyde, dem put am for 1852.

Dem start di construction around di courtyard with di East Wing (Di King's Library) for 1823–1828, den di North Wing follow for 1833–1838, wey originally get plenty galleries inside, like di reading room, wey now na di Wellcome Gallery. Dem dey work on di northern side of di West Wing (Di Egyptian Sculpture Gallery) from 1826–1831, as Montagu House tear down for 1842 to create space for di last part of di West Wing, wey dem finish for 1846, and di South Wing wey get e big colonnade, dem start am for 1843 den finish am insyde 1847, when di Front Hall plus Great Staircase open to di public.Building the British Museum, Marjorie Caygill & Christopher Date 1999 Di museum face Portland stone, but di perimeter walls plus other parts na Haytor granite from Dartmoor for South Devon, wey dem carry come via di special Haytor Granite Tramway.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BM;_'MF'_RM1_-_The_King's_Library,_Enlightenment_1_'Discovering_the_world_in_the_18th_Century_~_View_South.jpg|left|thumb|De Enlightenment Gallery at museum, wey formerly hold de King's Library, 2007
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BM;_Archives_-_Impression_of_the_proposed_extension.jpg|left|thumb|Proposed British Museum Extension, 1906
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BM_WCEC_July_2015.JPG|left|thumb|External view of de World Conservation plus Exhibition Centre at de museum, 2015
For 1846, Robert Smirke no be de architect for de museum again, him brother, Sydney Smirke, take over. Him major work be de Round Reading Room wey dem build from 1854 to 1857; e get 140 feet (43 m) diameter, na im make am de second widest dome for de world, Pantheon for Rome dey a bit wider.

Next big thing wey dem add na White Wing 1882-1884 wey dem put for back of South Front east side, de architect be Sir John Taylor.

For 1895, Parliament gree museum trustees loan of £200,000 make dem buy all di 69 houses wey dey behind di museum from Duke of Bedford, wey dey for five streets wey surround am – Great Russell Street, Montague Street, Montague Place, Bedford Square plus Bloomsbury Street.Title deed of the 'perimeter properties' of The British Museum, BM Archives CA TD Di trustees dem plan say dem go break dem houses wey dey, come build new galleries for west, north, plus east side wey go fit cover di whole block wey di museum dey. Dem call di architect Sir John James Burnet make e bring some big ideas to stretch di building for all three sides. Most of di houses for Montague Place don dey fall down small time after dem sell am. Only di Edward VII galleries wey dey for di middle of di North Front wey dem manage build, dem start am from 1906-14 as J.J. Burnet design am, and King George V plus Queen Mary open am for 1914. Now e dey hold di museum collection of Prints and Drawings and Oriental Antiquities. Dem no get enough money to build more houses,plus so all di houses for di other streets nearly still dey stand well.

Duveen Gallery dey for western side of de Egyptian, Greek, den Assyrian sculpture galleries. E be John Russell Pope wey design am, him be American Beaux-Arts architect plus na him fit keep Elgin Marbles insyde. Dem finish am for 1938, but bomb don scatter am for 1940, e kon dey semi-derelict for 22 years before e open again for 1962. Other places wey bomb touch during World War II na: for September 1940, two bombs wey no explode hit Edward VII galleries; King's Library take one high explosive bomb direct; incendiaries fall for Round Reading Room dome but no do much damage; for de night of 10 to 11 May 1941, plenty incendiaries fell on de south-west corner of de museum, destroy book stack plus 150,000 books for courtyard den galleries wey dey around Great Staircase – dem no repair this damage well until early 1960s.pp. 65–66, Building the British Museum, Marjorie Caygill & Christopher Date 1999
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_Great_Court_roof.jpg|thumb|De Reading Room plus Great Court roof, 2005
De Queen Elizabeth II Great Court na big square wey dey covered for middle of British Museum. E be design by Buro Happold engineers den de architects be  Foster and Partners.Norman Foster and the British Museum, Norman Foster, Deyan Sudjic & Spencer de Grey 2001 De Great Court open for December 2000 plus e be di biggest covered square for Europe. Di roof na glass plus steel construction, engineers from Austrian steelwork company build am, with 1,656 unique shape panes of glass.  For di center of di Great Court, na di Reading Room wey de British Library don waka comot, dem move di functions go St Pancras now.

Today, de British Museum don grow big well well, e be one of di largest museum for di world, e cover space wey dey over 92,000 m2 (990,000 sq. ft). plus e get 21,600 m2 (232,000 sq. ft) storage space for di place, plus 9,400 m2 (101,000 sq. ft) external space. All together, de British Museum showcases on public display less than 1% of im entire collection, about 50,000 items.

Dem get almost one hundred galleries wey dey open for public, e be like 2 miles (3.2 km) of exhibition space, but some wey no dey popular get small opening time. But because dem no get big temporary exhibition space, na so dem come create £135 million World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre to gather all museum conservation facilities for one place. Dem announce this project for July 2007, with architects wey be Rogers Stirk Harbour den Partners. Dem give dem planning permission for December 2009 and e finish just in time for Viking exhibition wey happen for March 2014. For 2017, World Conservation plus Exhibitions Centre wey dem shortlist for de  Stirling Prize for excellent insyde architecture.

Blythe House for West Kensington dey serve museum for off-site storage of small plus medium artefacts till dem open British Museum Archeological Collection, wey dem build for Reading, for 2024. Another place, Franks House for East London dey used for storage and work on the 'Early Prehistory' – Palaeolithic and Mesolithic – plus some other collections.

 Departments 

 Department of Egypt den Sudan 
De British Museum dey house de world ein largest den most comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiquities (plus over 100,000 pieces) outsyd de Egyptian Museum insyd Cairo. A collection of immense importance for ein range den quality,e dey include objects of all periods from virtually every site of importance insyd Egypt den de Sudan. Togeda, dem dey illustrate every aspect of de cultures of de Nile Valley (wey dey include Nubia), from de Predynastic Neolithic period () thru Coptic (Christian) times (12th century AD), den up to de present day, a time-span over 11,000 years.

Egyptian antiquities don dey part of British Museum collection since dem start am for 1753 when dem take 160 Egyptian objectsReported in the list of Sloane's collection given to his executors in 1753. Reproduced in MacGregor (1994a:29) from Sir Hans Sloane. After dem beat French soldiers wey Napoleon lead for Battle of the Nile for 1801, British army come carry the Egyptian antiquitiesgo British Museum for 1803. Dis collection get the popular Rosetta Stone, na de first big sculpture group wey dem acquire for de museum. After that, UK come appoint Henry Salt as consul for Egypt, wey gather plenty antiquities, some of dem Giovanni Belzoni wey be de famous Italian explorer arrange am well well plus transport am. Most of de antiquitieswey Salt gather na British Museum den Musée du Louvre buy am.

By 1866, dem get about 10,000 items for di collection. Old things wey dem dig come start to land for di museum for di late 19th century, thanks to di Egypt Exploration Fund wey E.A. Wallis Budge dey run. For di years wey don pass, more than 11,000 items come from dis source, wey de include things from Amarna, Bubastis den Deir el-Bahari. Other organisations plus individuals also de excavate plus donate objects to de British Museum, wey include Flinders Petrie’s Egypt Research Account, di British School of Archaeology insyde Egypt, as well as di University of Oxford Expedition wey go Kawa den Faras insyde Sudan.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:England;_London_-_The_British_Museum,_Egypt_Egyptian_Sculpture_~_Colossal_granite_head_of_Amenhotep_III_(Room_4).2.JPG|left|thumb|Room 4 – Colossal red granite statue of Amenhotep III, 1350 BC
Museum dey support excavation work for Egypt well-well, e help carry plenty important things throughout 20th century, but when dem change some laws for artifacts for Egypt, e stop de way dem dey export things, even though dem still dey find stuff for Sudan. British Museum sef do dem own excavation for Egypt, dem collect plenty finds like for Asyut (1907), Mostagedda and Matmar (1920s), Ashmunein (1980s), plus some places for Sudan like Soba, Kawa plus de Northern Dongola Reach (1990s).De size of de Egyptian collections now stand at over 110,000 objects.

For autumn 2001, dem get eight million objects wey dey insyde de museum im permanent collection, but  dem come expand am by adding six million objects from Wendorf Collection wey dey talk about Egyptian den Sudanese Prehistory. Na Professor Fred Wendorf from Southern Methodist University for Texas donate am, plus e get all di artefacts den environmental remains wey him collect for prehistoric sites for Sahara Desert from 1963 to 1997. Other wey de come from fieldwork na from Dietrich plus Rosemarie Klemm (University of Munich) den William Adams (University of Kentucky).

Di seven permanent Egyptian galleries for British Museum, wey dey include di biggest exhibition space (Room 4, for big sculpture), fit show only 4% of im Egyptian holdings. Di second-floor galleries get selection of di museum en collection of 140 mummies plus coffins, di biggest one wey dey outside Cairo. Plenty of di collection come from tombs or places wey dey related to di dead people cult, plus na dis items, especially di mummies, wey remain among de most eagerly sought-after exhibits by visitors to de museum.

Highlights of de collections dey include:

Predynastic den Early Dynastic period ()

 Mummy of Ginger den five oda individuals wey komot Gebelein ()
 Flint knife plus an ivory handle (dem know as de Pit-Rivers Knife), Sheikh Hamada, Egypt ()
 De Battlefield Palette den Hunters Palette, two cosmetic palettes plus complex decorative schemes ()
 Ivory statuette of a king, wey komot de early temple at Abydos, Egypt ()
 King Den ein sandal label wey komot Abydos, mid-1st Dynasty ()
 Stela of King Peribsen, Abydos ()

Old Kingdom (2690–2181 BC)

 Artefacts wey komot de tomb of King Khasekhemwy wey komot de 2nd Dynasty (2690 BC)
 Granite statue of Ankhwa, de shipbuilder, Saqqara, Egypt, 3rd Dynasty (c. 2650 BC)
 Chaw of de original casing stones wey komot de Great Pyramid of Giza, one of de Seven Wonders of de Ancient World (c. 2570 BC)
 Statue of Nenkheftka wey komot Dishasha, 4th Dynasty (2500 BC)
 Limestone false door of Ptahshepses, Saqqara (2440 BC)
 Abusir Papyri, sam of de oldest papyri wey komot ancient Egypt, Abusir (2400 BC)
 Wooden tomb statue of Tjeti, 5th to 6th Dynasty (c. 2345–2181 BC)

Middle Kingdom (2134–1690 BC)

 Inner den outer coffin of Sebekhetepi, Beni Hasan (c. 2125–1795 BC)
 Quartzite statue of Ankhrekhu, 12th Dynasty (1985–1795 BC)
 Limestone stela of Heqaib, Abydos, Egypt, 12th Dynasty (1990–1750 BC)
 Block statue den stela of Sahathor, 12th Dynasty, reign of Amenemhat II (1922–1878 BC)
 Limestone statue den stelae wey komot de offering chapel of Inyotef, Abydos, 12th Dynasty ()
 Stela of Samontu, Abydos (1910 BC)
 Reliefs wey komot de tomb of Djehutyhotep, Deir-el-Bersha (1878–1855 BC)
 Three Granite statues of Senwosret III, Deir el-Bahri (1850 BC)
 Statue of Rehuankh, Abydos (1850–1830 BC)
 Colossal head of Amenemhat III, Bubastis (1800 BC)
 Stela of Nebipusenwosret, Abydos (1800 BC)

Second Intermediate Period (1650–1550 BC)

 Coffin of King Nubkheperre Intef, Thebes (1570 BC)
 De famous Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, an early example of Ancient Egyptian mathematics, Thebes (1550 BC)

New Kingdom (1549–1069 BC)

 Schist head of Pharaoh Hatshepsut anaa ein successor Tuthmosis III (1480 BC)
 Statue of Senenmut plus Princess Neferure for ein lap top, Karnak (1470 BC)
 Block statue of Sennefer, Western Thebes (1430 BC)
 Twenty Sekhmet statues wey komot de Temple of Mut, Thebes (1400 BC)
 Fragment of de beard of de Great Sphinx of Giza (14th century BC)
 Pair of granite monumental lion statues wey komot Soleb insyd Sudan, (1370 BC)
 Hoard of silver bullion wey komot El-Amarna (1352–1336 BC)
 Colossal head from a statue of Amenhotep III (1350 BC)
 Colossal limestone bust of Amenhotep III (1350 BC)
 Amarna Tablets, 99 out of 382 tablets dem find, second largest collection insyd de world after de Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (203 tablets) (1350 BC)
 Stela of Horemheb wey komot ein tomb for Saqqara (1330 BC)
 London Medical Papyrus plus 61 medical den magical treatments (1300 BC)
 Papyrus of Ani, one of de finest extant Book of de Dead from antiquity, Thebes (1275 BC)
 List of de kings of Egypt wey komot de Temple of Ramesses II (1250 BC)
 Statue of Khaemwaset, son of Ramses II, Abydos (1250 BC)
 De Great Harris Papyrus, de longest surviving papyrus wey komot antiquity, Thebes (1200 BC)
 D'Orbiney Papyrus plus de Tale of Two Brothers (1200–1194 BC)
 Seated statue of Seti II, Temple of Mut, Karnak (1200–1194 BC)
 Face wey komot de sarcophagus of Ramses VI, Valley of de Kings (1140 BC)
 Book of de Dead of Nedjmet plus painted offering-vignettes den columns of Hieroglyphic text, Deir el-Bahari (1070 BC)

Third Intermediate Period (1069–664 BC)

 Greenfield papyrus, funerary papyrus of Princess Nesitanebetashru, daughter of Pinudjem II den Neskhons, den priestess of Amen-Ra at Thebes (950–930 BC)
 Pair of gold bracelets wey na e belong to General Nemareth, son of Shoshenq I, Sais (940 BC)
 Colossal column capital of Hathor wey komot Bubastis, 22nd Dynasty (922–887 BC)
 Statue of de Nile god Hapi, Karnak ()
 Mummy case den coffin of Nesperennub, Thebes ()
 Shabaka Stone wey komot Memphis, Egypt, 25th Dynasty ()
 Coffin of king Menkaure, Giza (700–600 BC)
 One of de three statues of Amun insyd de form of a ram wey dey protect King Taharqo, Kawa (683 BC)
 Inner den outer coffins of de priest Hor, Deir el-Bahari, Thebes, 25th Dynasty ()
 Granite statue of de Sphinx of Taharqo (680 BC)

Late Period (664–332 BC)

 Saite Sarcophagus of Sasobek, de vizier (prime minister) of de northern part of Egypt insyd de reign of Psammetichus I (664–610 BC)
 Sarcophagus lid of Sasobek (630 BC)
 Bronze figure of Isis den Horus, North Saqqara, Egypt (600 BC)
 Sarcophagus of Hapmen, Cairo, 26th Dynasty anaa later (600–300 BC)
 Kneeling statue of Wahibre, wey komot near Lake Mariout (530 BC)
 Sarcophagus of Ankhnesneferibre (525 BC)
 Torso of Nectanebo I (380–362 BC)
 Obelisks den sarcophagus of Pharaoh Nectanebo II (360–343 BC)
 Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II, Alexandria (360–343 BC)

Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC)

 De famous Rosetta Stone, trilingual stela wey na e unlock de ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (196 BC)
 Naos anaa temple shrine of Ptolemy VIII wey komot Philae (150 BC)
 Giant sculpture of a scarab beetle (32–30 BC)
 Fragment of a basalt Egyptian-style statue of Ptolemy I Soter (305–283 BC)
 Mummy of Hornedjitef (inner coffin), Thebes (3rd century BC)
 Wall wey komot a chapel of Queen Shanakdakhete, Meroë ()
 Shrine of Ptolemy VII, Philae ()

Roman Period (30 BC – 641 AD)

 Schist head of a young man, Alexandria (after 30 BC)
 De Meriotic Hamadab Stela wey komot de Kingdom of Kush dem find near de ancient site of Meroë insyd Sudan, 24 BC
 Lid of de coffin of Soter den Cleopatra wey komot Qurna, Thebes (early 2nd century AD)
 Mummy of a youth plus a portrait of de deceased, Hawara (100–200 AD)
 Over 30 Fayum mummy portraits wey komot Hawara den oda sites insyd Fayum (40–250 AD)
 Bronze lamp den patera wey komot de X-group tombs, Qasr Ibrim (1st–6th centuries AD)
 Coptic wall painting of de martyrdom of saints, Wadi Sarga (6th century AD)

 Department of Greece den Rome 
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_Nic's_events_-_British_Museum_with_Cory_and_Mary,_6_Sep_2007_-_167.jpg|thumb|Room 17 – Reconstruction of the Nereid Monument, c. 390 BC
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elgin_Marbles_British_Museum.jpg|thumb|Room 18 – Parthenon marbles from the Acropolis of Athens, 447 BC
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BM,_GMR_-_RM21,_Mausoleum_of_Halikarnassos.JPG|thumb|Room 21 – Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, mid-4th century BC
British Museum get one of di largest and complete collections of old things from di Classical world, over 100,000 objects dey insyde. Dem things mostly dey from di start of Greek Bronze Age (around 3200 BC) to de establishment of  Christianity as official religion for Roman Empire, with de Edict of Milan under di reign of  de Roman emperor Constantine I for 313 AD. Archaeology was insyde its infancy for de time of de nineteenth century plus many pioneering individuals don begin to de excavate sites across de Classical world, chief among them for de museum na Charles Newton, John Turtle Wood, Robert Murdoch Smith den Charles Fellows.

Di Greek things come from all over Ancient Greek world, from di main land of Greece plus di Aegean Islands, to di nearby land for Asia Minor and Egypt for di east Mediterranean, even reach di western lands of Magna Graecia like Sicily plus southern Italy. Di Cycladic, Minoan plus Mycenaean culture dey insyde, plus di Greek collection get important sculpture from di Parthenon for Athens, plus parts of two of di Seven Wonders of Ancient World, di Mausoleum for Halicarnassus plus di Temple of Artemis for Ephesos.

Beginning from early Bronze Age, this department get one of de biggest collections of Italic plus Etruscan antiquities wey dey outside Italy, plus plenty materials from Cyprus den non-Greek places for Lycia plus Caria on Asia Minor. E get some material from Roman Republic too, but de collection en strength dey insyde its comprehensive array of objects from across de Roman Empire,, except Britain (wey dey mostly for Department of Prehistory plus Europe).

De collection of ancient jewels and bronzes, Greek vases (plenty from graves for southern Italy wey dey part of Sir William Hamilton and Chevalier Durand collection), Roman glass wey de include di famous Cameo glass Portland Vase, Roman gold glass (second largest collection after Vatican Museums), Roman mosaics from Carthage plus Utica insyde North Africa wey Nathan Davis excavate, plus silver hoards from Roman Gaul (some wey philanthropist  plus museum trustee Richard Payne Knight give), dem dey very very important. Cypriot antiques dey strong too, e don benefit from  de purchase of Sir Robert Hamilton Lang collection as well as de bequest of  Emma Turner insyde 1892, wey dem use fund plenty excavation on di island. Roman sculptures (plenty of dem be copies of Greek originals) be particularly well represented by de Townley collection plus some leftover sculptures from di popular Farnese collection.

Objects from de Department of Greece den Rome dem dey located throughout de museum, although many of de architectural monuments are to be found on de ground floor, with connecting galleries from Gallery 5 to Gallery 23. On de upper floor, there are galleries wey be devoted to smaller material from ancient Italy, Greece, Cyprus den de Roman Empire.

De current collection dey include:

Temple of Hephaestus

 Marble coffer frame den coffer wey komot de colonnade, (449–415 BC)

Parthenon

 De Parthenon Marbles (Elgin Marbles), (447–438 BC)

Propylaea

 Capital den column drum, (437–432 BC)

Erechtheion

 A surviving column den architectural fittings, (420–415 BC)
 One of six Caryatids wey remain, (415 BC)

Temple of Athena Nike

 Surviving frieze slabs den capital, (427–424 BC)

Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos

 Statue of Dionysos, (270 BC)

Tower of de Winds

 Marble Corinthian capital, (50 BC)

Temple of Poseidon, Sounion

 Fluted column base, (444–440 BC)

Temple of Nemesis, Rhamnus

 Head  wey komot de statue of Nemesis, (430–420 BC)

Temple of Bassae

 Twenty-three surviving blocks of de frieze wey komot de interior of de temple, (420–400 BC)

Sanctuary of Apollo at Daphni

 Fluted columns, column bases den ionic capitals (399–301 BC)

Temple of Athena Polias, Priene

 Sculptural coffers wey komot de temple ceiling (350–325 BC)
 Ionic capitals, architraves den antae (350–325 BC)
 Marble torso of a charioteer (320–300 BC)

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

 Two colossal free-standing figures dem identify as Maussollos den ein wifey Artemisia, ()
 Part of horse wey komot de chariot group wey dey adorn de summit of de Mausoleum, ()
 De Amazonomachy frieze – A long section of relief frieze wey dey show de battle between Greeks den Amazons, ()

Temple of Artemis insyd Ephesus

 One of de sculptured column bases, (340–320 BC)
 Part of de Ionic frieze wey situate above de colonnade, (330–300 BC)

Knidos insyd Asia Minor

 Demeter of Knidos, (350 BC)
 Lion of Knidos, (350–200 BC)

Xanthos insyd Asia Minor

 Lion Tomb, (550–500 BC)
 Harpy Tomb, (480–470 BC)
 Nereid Monument, partial reconstruction of a large den elaborate Lykian tomb, (390–380 BC)
 Tomb of Merehi, (390–350 BC)
 Tomb of Payava, (375–350 BC)
 Bilingual Decree of Pixodaros, (340 BC)

Temple of Zeus, Salamis insyd Cyprus

 Marble capital plus caryatid figure wey dey stand between winged bulls, (300–250 BC)

Wider collection

Prehistoric Greece den Italy (3300 BC – 8th century BC)

 Over thirty Cycladic figures wey komot islands insyd de Aegean Sea, na James Theodore Bent collect chaw, Greece (3300–2000 BC)
 A large Gaudo culture askos wey komot Paestum, southern Italy (2800–2400 BC)
 Kythnos Hoard of wood working metal tools wey komot de island of Naxos, Greece (2700–2200 BC)
 Two pottery kernos wey komot Phylakopi insyd Melos, Greece (2300–2000 BC)
 Material wey komot de Palace of Knossos wey dey include a huge pottery storage jar, na sam be donated by Sir Arthur Evans, Crete, Greece (1900–1100 BC)
 De Minoan gold treasure wey komot Aegina, northern Aegean, Greece (1850–1550 BC)
 Artefacts from de Psychro Cave insyd Crete, wey dey include two serpentine libation tables (1700–1450 BC)
 Bronze Minoan Bull-leaper wey komot Rethymnon, Crete (1600–1450 BC)
 Segments of de columns den architraves wey komot de Treasury of Atreus, Peloponnese, Greece (1350–1250 BC)
 Ivory game board dem find for Enkomi, Cyprus (12th century BC)
 Nuragic hoard of bronze artefacts dem find at Santa Maria insyd Paulis, Cagliari, Sardinia (1100–900 BC)
 Elgin Amphora, highly decorated pottery vase dem attribute to de Dipylon Master, Athens, Greece (8th century BC)
 Votive offerings wey komot de Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta (8th century BC)

Etruscan (8th century BC – 1st century BC)

 Gold jewellery den oda rich artefacts wey komot de Castellani den Galeassi Tombs insyd Palestrina, central Italy (8th–6th centuries BC)
 Ornate gold fibula plus granulated parade of animals wey komot de Bernardini Tomb, Cerveteri (675–650 BC)
 Various objects wey dey include two small terracotta statues wey komot de "Tomb of de five chairs" insyd Cerveteri (625–600 BC)
 Gold libation bowl wey komot Sant'Angelo Muxaro, Sicily (600 BC)
 Contents of de Isis tomb den François Tomb, Vulci (570–560 BC)
 Painted terracotta plaques (de so-called Boccanera Plaques) wey komot a tomb insyd Cerveteri (560–550 BC)
 Decorated silver panels wey komot Castel San Marino, near Perugia (540–520 BC)
 Statuette of a bronze votive figure wey komot Pizzidimonte, near Prato, Italy (500–480 BC)
 Bronze helmet plus inscription wey dey commemorate de Battle of Cumae, Olympia, Greece (480 BC)
 Bronze votive statuettes wey komot de Lake of de Idols, Monte Falterona (420–400 BC)
 Part of a symposium set of bronze vessels wey komot de tomb of Larth Metie, Bolsena, Italy (400–300 BC)
 Exquisite gold ear-ring plus female head pendant, one of a pair wey komot Perugia (300–200 BC)
 Oscan Tablet, one of de most important inscriptions insyd de Oscan language (300–100 BC)
 Hoard of gold jewellery wey komot Sant'Eufemia Lamezia, southern Italy (340–330 BC)
 Latian bronze figure wey komot de Sanctuary of Diana, Lake Nemi, Latium (200–100 BC)
 Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa wey komot Chiusi (150–140 BC)

Ancient Greece (8th century BC – 4th century AD)

 Orientalising gold jewellery wey komot de Camirus cemetery insyd Rhodes (700–600 BC)
 Foot wey komot de colossal Kouros of Apollo, Delos (600–500 BC)
 Group of life-size archaic statues wey komot de Sacred Way at Didyma, western Turkey (600–580 BC)
 Bronze statuette of a rider den horse wey komot Armento, southern Italy (550 BC)
 Bronze head of an axe wey komot San Sosti, southern Italy (520 BC)
 Statue of a nude standing youth wey komot Marion, Cyprus (520–510 BC)
 Large terracotta sarcophagus den lid plus painted scenes wey komot Klazomenai, western Turkey (510–480 BC)
 Two bronze tablets insyd de Locrian Greek dialect wey komot Galaxidi, central Greece (500–475 BC)
 Bronze mitra dem inscribe on both sides insyd archaic Cretan script plus de Spensithios Decree, Lyttos-Afrati region insyd Crete (c. 500 BC)British Museum collection
 Fragments wey komot a large bronze equestrian statue of de Taranto Rider, southern Italy (480–460 BC)
 Chatsworth Apollo Head, Tamassos, Cyprus (460 BC)
 Statue of recumbent bull wey komot de Dipylon Cemetery, Athens (4th century BC)
 Hoard of gold jewellery wey komot Avola, Sicily (370–300 BC)
 Dedicatory inscription by Alexander the Great wey komot Priene insyd Turkey (330 BC)
 Head from de colossal statue of de Asclepius of Milos, Greece (325–300 BC)
 Braganza Brooch, Ornamental gold fibula wey dey reflect Celtic den Greek influences (3rd century BC)
 Hoard of silver patera wey komot Èze, southeastern France (3rd century BC)
 Gold tablet wey komot an Orphic sanctuary insyd southern Italy (3rd–2nd centuries BC)
 Marble relief of de Apotheosis of Homer wey komot Bovillae, central Italy (221–205 BC)
 Bronze sculpture of a Greek poet dem know as de Arundel Head, western Turkey (2nd–1st centuries BC)
 Remains of de Scylla monument at Bargylia, south west Anatolia, Turkey (200–150 BC)
 Bronze head den hand of de statue of Aphrodite of Satala (1st century BC)
 Bronze statuettes wey komot Paramythia (2nd century AD)
 Large statue of Europa wey dey tap on de back of a bull wey komot de amphitheatre at Gortyna, Crete (100 BC)

Ancient Rome (1st century BC – 4th century AD)

 Pair of engraved oval agate plaques wey dey depict Livia as Diana den Octavian as Mercury (Rome, 30–25 BC)
 Guildford Puteal wey komot Corinth, Greece (30–10 BC)
 Bronze head of Augustus wey komot Meroë insyd Sudan (27–25 BC)
 Cameo glass Portland Vase, de most famous glass vessel wey komot ancient Rome (1–25 AD)
 Silver Warren Cup plus homoerotic scenes, dem find near Jerusalem (5–15 AD)
 Gladius of Mainz (anaa "Sword of Tiberius") den Blacas Cameo, wey dey depict Roman emperors insyd triumph (15 AD)
 Horse trappings insyd decorated silver-plated bronze wey komot Xanten, Germany (1st century AD)
 Pair of carved fluorite cups dem know as de Barber Cup den Crawford Cup (100 AD)
 Athlete statue, "Vaison Diadumenos", wey komot an ancient Roman city insyd southern France (118–138 AD)
 A hoard of silver votive plaques dem dedicate to de Roman God Jupiter Dolichenus, dem discover insyd Heddernheim, near Frankfurt, Germany (1st–2nd centuries AD)
 Discus-thrower (Discobolos)Tony Kitto, "The celebrated connoisseur: Charles Townley, 1737–1805" Minerva Magazine May/June 2005, in connection with a British Museum exhibition celebrating the bicentennial of the Townley purchase. Townley marbles Burnley den Bronze Head of Hypnos wey komot Civitella d'Arna, Italy (1st–2nd centuries AD)
 Part of a large wooden wheel for draining a copper mine insyd Huelva, southern Spain (1st–2nd centuries AD)
 Capitals wey komot sam of de pilasters of de Pantheon, Rome (126 AD)
 Colossal marble head of Faustina the Elder, wifey of de Roman emperor Antoninus Pius wey komot Sardis, western Turkey (140 AD)
 Marble throne wey komot de prohedria of de Panathenaic Stadium, Athens (140–143 AD)
 Hoard of jewellery wey komot a tomb insyd de vicinity of Miletopolis, Turkey (175–180 AD)
 Inscribed marble base of de Roman Consul Tiberius Claudius Candidus, unearthed insyd Tarragona, Spain (195–199 AD)

 Jennings Dog, a statue of a Molossian guard dog, central Italy (2nd century AD)
 Segment of a decorated marble balustrade wey komot de Colosseum, Rome, Italy (2nd century AD)
 Politarch inscription wey komot de Vardar Gate, Thessaloniki, Greece (2nd century AD)
 Two Roman cavalry bronze parade masks wey komot Nola, Italy den Gaziantep, Turkey, (2nd century AD)
 Bronze tablet dem dedicate to Sextus Pompeius Maximus wey komot de Mithraeum at Ostia, Italy (200 AD)British Museum collection
 Various silver treasures dem find at Arcisate, Beaurains, Boscoreale, Bursa, Chaourse, Caubiac, Chatuzange, Conimbriga, Mâcon den Revel-Tourdan (1st–3rd century AD)
 Votive statue of Apollo of Cyrene, Libya (2nd century AD)
 Uerdingen Hoard dem find near Düsseldorf insyd Germany (2nd–3rd centuries AD)

De collection dey encompass architectural, sculptural den epigraphic items wey komot chaw oda sites across de classical world wey dey include Amathus, Atripalda, Aphrodisias, Delos, Iasos, Idalion, Lindus, Kalymnos, Kerch, Rhamnous, Salamis, Sestos, Sounion, Tomis den Thessaloniki.

 Department of de Middle East 
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BM;_RM7_-_ANE,_Nineveh_Palace_Reliefs_Southwest_Palace_of_Sennacherib_(701-681_B.C)_~_Full_Elevation_+_Viewing_South.4.JPG|thumb|Room 9 – Assyrian palace reliefs, Nineveh, 701–681 BC
With over 330,000 works wey dey insyde, British Museum get di largest den most serious collection of Mesopotamian things wey no dey Iraq. Dis collection too important, dem get Assyrian sculptures, Babylonian plus Sumerian items wey plenty pass anywhere for di world. Dem even get rooms wey full with alabaster Assyrian palace designs from Nimrud, Nineveh plus Khorsabad.

Di collections dey show di civilisations wey dey for di ancient Near East plus di places wey dey near am. Dem cover Mesopotamia, Persia, di Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, di Caucasus, some parts of Central Asia, Syria, di Holy Land plus di Phoenician settlements for di western Mediterranean from di prehistoric time plus objects wey come from di 7th century.

Di first important collection wey dem gather for Mesopotamia na from Claudius James Rich for 1825. De collection don later dramatically enlarge by de excavations of A. H. Layard at de Assyrian sites like Nimrud plus Nineveh between 1845 den 1851. For Nimrud, Layard don discover di North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II plus three other palaces plus many temples. Him later unearth di Palace of Sennacherib for Nineveh wey get 'no less than seventy-one halls'. As a result, a large numbers of Lamassus, palace reliefs, stelae, wey de include de Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, dem bring to de British Museum.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_pair_of_lamassus_from_the_Throne_Room,_Room_B,_of_the_North-West_Palace_at_Nimrud,_Iraq,_9th_century_BC._The_British_Museum.jpg|left|thumb|Room 6 – Pair of Human Headed Winged Lions and reliefs from Nimrud with the Balawat Gates, 
Layard's work dey continue by im assistant, Hormuzd Rassam, and from 1852 to 1854, e go discover North Palace of Ashurbanipal for Nineveh wey get plenty fine reliefs, including the popular Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal and Lachish reliefs. E still find di Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, large collection of cuneiform tablets wey get serious importance, wey today dey number around 130,000 pieces. W. K. Loftus dig for Nimrud from 1850 to 1855 and find some gbege plenty ivories insyde di Burnt Palace. Between 1878 to 1882, Rassam do plenty work for de museum wey him bring fine fine things like Cyrus Cylinder wey come from Babylon, bronze gates from Balawat, plus important items from Sippar, plus him also get nice collection of Urartian bronzes from Toprakkale wey get one copper figure wey look like bull with wings den human head.

For early 20th century, dem do dig am for Carchemish, Turkey wey D. G. Hogarth plus Leonard Woolley carry come do am, Leonard dey get help from T. E. Lawrence. After World War I, dem add plenty Mesopotamian collections for southern Iraq. From Tell al-Ubaid, dem bring come bronze furniture for one Sumerian temple, wey get life-sized lions plus one panel wey show lion-headed eagle Indugud wey H. R. Hall find for 1919–24. Woolley continue to excavate Ur between 1922 den 1934, wey he discover Royal Cemeteries from 3rd millennium BC. Some of di masterpieces de include Standard of Ur, de Ram insyde a Thicket, de Royal Game of Ur, plus two bull-headed lyres. Di department still get three diorite statues of de ruler Gudea from de ancient state of Lagash plus a series of  limestone kudurru or boundary stones from different places across ancient Mesopotamia.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:London_307.JPG|thumb|Room 52 – Ancient Iran with the Cyrus Cylinder, 559–530 BC
Though dem focus on Mesopotamia, plenty areas wey surround dem dey well represented. Dem add de Oxus Treasure to de Achaemenid collection for 1897, plus some things wey German scholar Ernst Herzfeld plus Hungarian-British explorer Sir Aurel Stein dig up. Sir Gore Ouseley give dem some reliefs plus sculptures from Persepolis for 1825 plus de 5th Earl of Aberdeen add some more insyde 1861. De museum also collect part of pot-hoard of jewelry from Pasargadae as de division of  finds insyde 1963 plus part of de Ziwiye hoard insyde 1971.  Large column base wey dey from One Hundred Column Hall for Persepolis, dem get am from Oriental Institute for Chicago. E be say di museum don gather one of di biggest collection of Achaemenid silverware for di whole world. Dem also get plenty fine silver plates plus cups from di later Sasanian Empire, wey show monarchs wey dey hunt lion plus deer. Phoenician antiques dey come from everywhere, but di Tharros collection from Sardinia, di hoard of about 150 metal bowls plus plenty ivories from Nimrud, di Phoenician inscriptions from Carthage like di Son of Baalshillek marble base, di Carthage Tariff plus di Carthage tower model plus di plenty punic stelae from Carthage plus Maghrawa for Tunisia (like di Ghorafa stelae [fr]) dey outstanding. De number of Phoenician inscriptions wey dey come from different sites for Cyprus plenty well, e include artefacts wey dem find for Kition necropolis (where two Kition Tariffs get de longest Phoenician inscription wey dem discover for di island), di Idalion temple site plus two bilingual pedestals wey dem find for Tamassos. Another sweet thing wey people dey ignore be Yemeni antiques, na di finest collection outsyde di country. Plus, di museum get representative collection of Dilmun plus Parthian materials wey dem excavate from various burial mounds for ancient sites of A'ali and Shakhura (wey include one Roman ribbed glass bowl) insyde Bahrain.

From de modern state of Syria, we get like forty funerary busts from Palmyra plus some group of stone reliefs from de excavation of Max von Oppenheim at Tell Halaf, wey dem buy insyde 1920. More materials follow from de excavations of Max Mallowan  for Chagar Bazar plus Tell Brak for 1935–1938, plus from Woolley at Alalakh for de years just before den after World War II. Mallowan don return with him wife Agatha Christie to carry out further digs at Nimrud insyde de postwar period wey secure many important artefacts, such as de Nimrud Ivories, for de museum.De collection of Palestinian material dey strengthened by de work of Kathleen Kenyon at Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) insyde de 1950s plus de acquisition for 1980 of around 17,000 objects found at Lachish by de Wellcome-Marston expedition of 1932–1938. Dem still dey do archaeological digs for Middle East where e fit, den depending on di country, di museum dey receive small share of wetin dem find for places like  insyde Jordan.

Di museum get plenty Islamic art wey dem sabi, e get about 40,000 things insyde, dem say na one of di biggest for di world. E get all kinds of pottery, paintings, tiles, metal work, glass ting, seals, plus writing from everywhere wey Islamic fit dey, from Spain for di west to India for di east. E dey popular for di Iznik ceramics collection (di largest for di world), plenty mosque lamps dey insyde, wey de include one from Dome of di Rock, plus some ancient metal work wey get Vaso Vescovali wey show di Zodiac, plus fine astrolabes, Mughal paintings, plus precious art like big jade terrapin wey dem make for di emperor Jahangir. After di war, dem excavate thousands after de war by professional archaeologists at Iran sites like Siraf by David Whitehouse plus Alamut Castle by Peter Willey. De collection, dem augment am insyde 1983 by de Godman bequest of Iznik, Hispano-Moresque plus early Iranian pottery. Artefacts from de Islamic world dey on display insyde Gallery 34 of de museum.

Dem get plenty fine selection wey come from de Middle East department, dem dey showcase dem for 13 galleries insyde de museum, total about 4,500 objects. Di ground floor get plenty rooms wey de display di sculptured reliefs from Assyrian palaces for Nineveh, Nimrud, plus Khorsabad, while 8 galleries for di upper floor dey hold small small materials from ancient sites all over di Middle East. Di rest be study collection wey range from beads to big sculptures. Dem include around 130,000 cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia.

Highlights of de collections dey include:

Nimrud: Assyrian palace reliefs wey komot:

 De North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC)
 Palace of Adad-nirari III (811–783 BC)
 De Sharrat-Niphi Temple ()
 Temple of Ninurta ()
 South-East Palace ('Burnt Palace') (8th–7th century BC)
 Central- Palace of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC)
 South-West Palace of Esarhaddon (681–669 BC)
 De Nabu Temple (Ezida) ()

Sculptures den inscriptions:

 Pair of Human Headed Lamassu Lions (883–859 BC)
 Human Headed Lamassu Bull, sister piece insyd The Metropolitan Museum of Art (883–859 BC)
 Human Headed Lamassu Lion, sister piece insyd de Metropolitan Museum of Art (883–859 BC)
 Colossal Statue of a Lion (883–859 BC)
 Foundation tablet of Ashurnasirpal II wey komot de Temple of Ishtar (875–865 BC)
 Rassam Obelisk of Ashurnasirpal II (873–859 BC)
 Stela den Statue of King Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC)
 De Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (858–824 BC)
 Stela of Shamshi-Adad V (824–811 BC)
 Rare Head of Human Headed 'Lamassu', dem recover from de North-West Palace (811–783 BC)
 Pair of statues of attendant god dem dedicate to Nabu by Adad-Nirari III den Sammuramat (810–800 BC)
 Bilingual Assyrian lion weights plus both cuneiform den Phoenician inscriptions (800–700 BC)
 Large sculpture of a male bearded head wey komot a Lamassu plus inscription dem dedicate to Esarhaddon (670 BC)

 Nineveh:

Assyrian palace reliefs den sculptures wey komot:

 South-West Palace of Sennacherib (705–681 BC)
 North-Palace of Ashurbanipal (), wey dey include de Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal den Lachish relief
 De famous Garden Party Relief (645 BC)
 Statue of a nude woman (11th century BC)
 Broken Obelisk of Ashur-bel-kala, de earliest known Assyrian obelisk (11th century BC)
 White Obelisk of Ashurnasirpal I (1050–1031 BC)

Royal Library of Ashurbanipal:

 A large collection of cuneiform tablets of enormous importance, approximately 22,000 inscribed clay tablets (7th century BC)
 De Flood Tablet, wey dey relate part of de famous Epic of Gilgamesh (7th century BC)
 Taylor Prism, hexagonal clay foundation record (691 BC)
 Rassam cylinder plus ten faces, wey dey describe de military campaigns of king Ashurbanipal (643 BC)

 Oda Mesopotamian sites

Khorsabad den Balawat:

 Alabaster bas-reliefs wey komot de Palace of Sargon II (710–705 BC)
 Pair of Human Headed Winged Lamassu Bulls (710–705 BC)
 De Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III (860 BC)

 Ur:

 De Standard of Ur plus depictions of war den peace (2600 BC)
 Queen's Lyre den gold drinking cup wey komot Queen Puabi ein tomb (2600 BC)
 De Ram insyd a Thicket, one of pair, de oda dey insyd Philadelphia (2600–2400 BC)
 De Royal Game of Ur, an ancient game board (2600–2400 BC)

 Wider collection:

 Plastered human skull wey komot Jericho, a very early form of portraiture, Palestine (7000–6000 BC)
 Tell Brak Head, one of de oldest portrait busts wey komot de Middle East, north east Syria (3500–3300 BC)
 Uruk Trough, one of de earliest surviving works of narrative relief sculpture wey komot de Middle East, southern Iraq (3300–3000 BC)
 Pair of inscribed stone objects dem know as de Blau Monuments wey komot Uruk, Iraq (3100–2700 BC)
 Hoard of Bronze Age gold jewellery dem find for de Canaanite site of Tell el-Ajjul insyd Gaza (1750–1550 BC)
 Statue of Idrimi wey komot de ancient city of Alalakh, southern Turkey (1600 BC)
 Bronze bowl den ivory cosmetic box insyd de shape of a fish wey komot Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, Jordan (1250–1150 BC)
 Group of 16 stone reliefs wey komot de palace of King Kapara at Tell Halaf, northern Syria (10th century BC)
 Tablet of Shamash, wey dey depict de sun-god Shamash, wey komot Sippar, Iraq (early 9th century BC)
 Hittite lion head wey komot de monument to King Katuwa at Carchemish, southern Turkey (9th century BC)
 Two large Assyrian stelae wey komot Kurkh, southern Turkey (850 BC)
 Seated statue of Kidudu anaa guardian spirit wey komot de Assyrian city of Assur under Shalmaneser III, Iraq (835 BC)
 Basalt bowl plus engraved inscription insyd Hieroglyphic Luwian dem find for Babylon, southern Iraq (8th century BC)
 Babylonian Chronicles, series of tablets wey dey record major events insyd Babylonian history, Babylon, Iraq (8th–3rd centuries BC)
 Shebna Inscription wey komot Siloam near Jerusalem (7th century BC)
 Group of 4 bronze shields plus inscription of king Rusa III wey komot de temple of Khaldi for de Urartian fortress of Toprakkale, eastern Turkey (650 BC)
 East India House Inscription wey komot Babylon, Iraq (604–562 BC)
 Lachish Letters, group of ostraka dem wrep insyd alphabetic Hebrew wey komot Lachish, Israel (586 BC)

 Cylinder of Nabonidus, foundation cylinder of King Nabonidus, Sippar, Iraq (555–540 BC)
 De famous Oxus Treasure, de largest ancient Persian hoard of gold artefacts (550–330 BC)
 Jar of Xerxes I, alabaster alabastron plus quadrilingual signature of Achaemenid ruler Xerxes I, dem find insyd de ruins of de Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Turkey (486–465 BC)
 Idalion Bilingual, bilingual Cypriot-Phoenician inscription, key to de decipherment of de Cypriot syllabary, Idalion, Cyprus (388 BC)
 Punic-Libyan Inscription wey komot de Mausoleum of Ateban, key to de decipherment of de Numidian language, Dougga, Tunisia (146 BC)
 Amran Tablets dem find near Sana'a, Yemen (1st century BC)
 One of de pottery storage jars wey dey contain de Dead Sea Scrolls dem find insyd a cave near Qumran, Jordan (4 BC – 68 AD)
 Two limestone ossuaries wey komot caves insyd Jerusalem (1st century AD)
 Fragment of a carved basalt architrave wey dey depict a lion ein head wey komot de Temple of Garni, Armenia (1st century AD)
 Group of boulders plus Safaitic inscriptions wey komot Jordan/Syria, one of wich na e be donated by Gertrude Bell (1st–2nd centuries AD)
 Parthian dynasty gold belt-buckle plus central repoussé figure of eagle plus outstretched wings wey komot Nihavand, Iran (1st–3rd centuries AD)
 Silver bowl wey komot Khwarezm wey dey depict a four-armed goddess wey seat for a lion top, Kazakhstan, (658 AD)
 One of de rare Hedwig glasses, wey dey originate wey komot de Middle East anaa Norman Sicily (10th–12th centuries AD)
 Hoard of Seljuq artefacts wey komot Hamadan wey dey include gold cup, silver gilt belt fittings den dress accessories, Iran (11th–12th centuries)
 Islamic brass ewers plus engraved decoration den inlaid plus silver den copper wey komot Herat, Afghanistan den Mosul, Iraq (12th–13th centuries AD)

 Department of Prints den Drawings 
De Department wey dey handle Prints den Drawings get better national collection of Western prints plus drawings. E dey among di biggest den best print room collections wey dey exist, join Albertina for Vienna, di Paris collections plus di Hermitage. Dem plenti for Study Room wey anybody fit enter, unlike plenty other collections. Di department still get im own exhibition gallery for Room 90, where di displays plus exhibitions dey change plenty times for di year.

Since dem start am for 1808, di prints plus drawings wey dem get don blow well well, dem dey regard am as one of di richest plus important collection for di whole world. Dem get about 50,000 drawings plus over two million prints.[1] Di drawings wey dem get cover from 14th century go reach now, and e get plenty fine works from di top artists for European schools. Di prints collection dey talk about di fine printmaking tradition from di 15th century till now, with almost complete set of plenty big names wey don dey before 19th century. Di important people wey help di department na Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode, Richard Payne Knight, John Malcolm, Campbell Dodgson, César Mange de Hauke plus Tomás Harris. Writer den Author, Louis Alexander Fagan, wey work for di department from 1869–1894, don make significant contributions to de department insyde de form of him Handbook to de Department, as well as various other books about de museum for general.

Der be groups of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, (wey dey include ein only surviving full-scale cartoon), Dürer (a collection of 138 drawings be one of de finest in existence), Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Claude den Watteau, den largely complete collections of de works of all de great printmakers wey dey include Dürer (99 engravings, 6 etchings den chaw of ein 346 woodcuts), Rembrandt den Goya. More dan 30,000 British drawings den watercolours dey include important examples of work by Hogarth, Sandby, Turner, Girtin, Constable, Cotman, Cox, Gillray, Rowlandson, Towne den Cruikshank, as well as all de great Victorians. De collection dey contain de unique set of watercolours by de pioneering colonist John White, de first British artist insyd America den first European make he paint Native Americans. Der be about a million British prints wey dey include more dan 20,000 satires den collections of works by William Blake den Thomas Bewick. De great eleven volume Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum dem compile between 1870 den 1954 be de definitive reference work for de study of British Satirical prints. Over 500,000 objects wey komot de department now dey de online collection database, chaw plus high-quality images.Searches on 8 January 2012, return totals of 700,000, but many are in other departments Na a 2011 donation of £1 million enable de museum make e acquire a complete set of Pablo Picasso ein Vollard Suite.

 Department of Britain, Europe den Prehistory 
Di Department wey dey Britain, Europe and Prehistory dey in charge of collections wey span plenty time and place. E get some of di earliest things wey humans make for east Africa over 2 million years ago, plus prehistoric and neolithic objects from other areas; plus di art den archaeology of Europe from di earliest times till now. Dem start dig di prehistoric materials for di twentieth century, plus now di department get plenty millions of objects from di Paleolithic plus Mesolithic periods all over di world, plus Neolithic, Bronze Age plus Iron Age insyde Europe. Some Stone Age materials from Africa dey come from big archaeologists like Louis den Mary Leakey, plus Gertrude Caton–Thompson. Paleolithic objects from di Sturge, Christy and Lartet collections get plenty early art works from Europe. Plenty Bronze Age things from Europe dey join during di nineteenth century, from big collections build up by excavators plus scholars like Greenwell for Britain, Tobin den Cooke for Ireland, Lukis plus de la Grancière for Brittany, Worsaae for Denmark, Siret for El Argar insyde Spain, den Klemm plus Edelmann insyde Germany. A representative selection of Iron Age artefacts from Hallstatt dem acquire am as a result of de Evans/Lubbock excavations plus from Giubiasco insyde Ticino through de Swiss National Museum.

No be small thing, e be true say British Museum get plenty collections wey fit cover from AD 300 to 1100, e big pass plenty for di whole world, e dey go from Spain reach Black Sea den from North Africa enter Scandinavia; dem just display some of dem again for fresh gallery wey dem refurbish. Some important collections wey dey insyde be Latvian, Norwegian, Gotlandic plus Merovingian materials from people like Johann Karl Bähr, Alfred Heneage Cocks, Sir James Curle plus Philippe Delamain, each one from dem. But no be lie, di best thing wey dey from early mediaeval time na di fine items from Sutton Hoo royal grave, wey dem donote give di nation by di landowner Edith Pretty. Di late mediaeval collection get plenty seal-dies wey travel from all over Europe, di most popular na from Boppard for Germany, Isabella of Hainault wey dem find for her tomb for Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, Inchaffray Abbey for Scotland, and Robert Fitzwalter, one of di Barons wey dey lead di fight against King John for England. E still get correct collection of medieval signet rings, di gold signet ring wey belong to Jean III de Grailly wey fight for di Hundred Years' War dey stand out, plus di ones from Mary, Queen of Scots plus Richard I of England. Other group of artefacts wey dey inside the department get di national collection of around 100 icon paintings, most of dem come from Byzantine Empire and Russia, plus over 40 medieval astrolabes from Europe and Middle East. Di department too dey carry di national collection of horology, wey get one of di biggest collection of clocks, watches plus other timepieces insyde Europe, with real masterpieces from every period for de development of time keeping. Choice horological pieces come from de Morgan plus Ilbert collections. Di department too dey responsible for di curation of Romano-British objects - de museum has by far de most extensive such collection insyde Britain plus be one of de most representative regional collections insyde Europe wey dey outside of Italy. E dey popular well-well for di plenty late Roman silver treasures wey dem find for East Anglia, di one wey big pass na di Mildenhall Treasure. Di museum buy plenty Roman-British items from di old school Charles Roach Smith for 1856. Dis one quickly become di main things for di collection. Di department sef get ethnographic materials from everywhere for Europe, wey include Bulgarian costumes plus shadow puppets wey come from Greece den Turkey. One serious highlight be di three Sámi drums from northern Sweden, wey just around 70 dey remain.

Ojects wey come from Britain, Europe den Prehistory dey mostly for di upper floor of di museum, with galleries wey dey number from 38 to 51. Most of di collection dey for archive place, wey people fit use for research den study.

Highlights of de collections dey include:

Stone Age (c. 3.4 million years BC – c. 2000 BC)

 Palaeolithic material wey komot across Africa, particularly Olduvai, Kalambo Falls, Olorgesailie den Cape Flats, (1.8 million BC onwards)
 One of de 11 leaf-shaped points dem find near Volgu, Saône-et-Loire, France wey dem estimate e be 16,000 years old
 Ice Age art wey komot France wey dey include de Wolverine pendant of Les Eyzies, Montastruc decorated stone den Baton fragment, (–11,000 BC)
 Ice Age art wey komot Britain wey dey include de decorated jaw wey komot Kendrick den Robin Hood Cave Horse, (11,500–10,000 BC)

 Rare mesolithic artefacts wey komot de site of Star Carr insyd Yorkshire, northern England, (8770–8460 BC)
 Terracotta figurine wey komot Vinča, Serbia, (5200–4900 BC)
 Callaïs bead jewellery wey komot Lannec-er-Ro'h, intact schist bracelet wey komot Le Lizo, Carnac den triangular pendant wey komot Mané-er-Hroëk, Morbihan, Brittany, western France, (5000–4300 BC)
 Mother Goddess figurine wey komot Campo-Fiorello near Grossa, southern Corsica (c.4500 BC)British Museum collection
 Polished jade axe dem produce insyd de Italian Alps wey dem find insyd Canterbury, Kent, southeast England, (4500–4000 BC)
 Section of de Sweet Track, an ancient timber causeway from de Somerset Levels, England, (3807/6 BC)
 Small collection of Neolithic finds wey dey include a necklace of flat bone beads wey komot Skara Brae, Orkneys, northern Scotland, (3180–2500 BC)
 Representative sample of artefacts (sherds, vessels, etc.) wey komot de megalithic site of Tarxien, Malta, (3150–2500 BC)
 A number of carved stone balls wey komot Scotland, Ireland den northern England, (3200–2500 BC)
 De three Folkton Drums, dem make from chalk wey dem find insyd Yorkshire, northern England, (2600–2100 BC)

Bronze Age ()

 Jet beaded necklace wey komot Melfort insyd Argyll, Scotland, ()
 Gold lunula wey komot Blessington, Ireland, one of twelve wey komot Ireland, England, LLanllyfini, Wales den Gwithian, Cornwall, (2400–2000 BC)
 Early Bronze Age hoards wey komot Barnack, Driffield, Sewell den Snowshill insyd England, Arraiolos den Vendas Novas insyd Iberia den Auvernier, Biecz den Neunheilingen insyd central Europe (2280–1500 BC)
 Mold cape, unique cape dem make of gold sheet wey komot Mold, Wales (1900–1600 BC)
 Contents of de Rillaton Barrow wey dey include a gold cup, den de related Ringlemere Cup, England, (1700–1500 BC)
 Bronze Age hoards wey komot Forró, Paks-Dunaföldvár, Szőny den Zsujta insyd Hungary, (1600–1000 BC)
 Large ceremonial swords anaa dirks wey komot Oxborough den Beaune, western Europe, (1450–1300 BC)
 Eight bronze shields wey dey include those wey komot Moel Hebog den Rhyd-y-gors, Wales den Athenry, County Galway, Ireland, (12th–10th centuries BC)
 Gold hoards wey komot Morvah den Towednack insyd Cornwall, Milton Keynes insyd Buckinghamshire den Mooghaun insyd Ireland, (1150–750 BC)
 Gold bowl plus intricate repoussé decoration wey komot Leer, Lower Saxony, northern Germany, (1100–800 BC)

 Dunaverney flesh-hook dem find near Ballymoney, Northern Ireland den part of de Dowris Hoard wey komot County Offaly, Ireland, (1050–900 BC & 900–600 BC)
 Late Bronze Age gold hoards wey komot Abia de la Obispalía den Mérida, Spain den an intricate gold collar wey komot Sintra, Portugal, (10th–8th centuries BC)
 Shropshire bulla, gold pendant dem decorate plus intricately carved geometric designs, (1000–750 BC) 
 Part of a copper alloy lur wey komot Årslev on de island of Funen, Denmark, one of only about 40 extant den de Dunmanway Horn wey komot County Cork, Ireland (900–750 BC)
 Gold bowl plus embossed ornament den fluted wire handle wey komot Angyalföld, Budapest, Hungary, (800–600 BC)

Iron Age ()

 Basse Yutz Flagons, a pair of bronze drinking vessels wey komot Moselle, eastern France, (5th century BC)
 Morel collection of La Tène material wey komot eastern France, wey dey include de Somme-Bionne chariot burial den de Prunay Vase, (450–300BC)
 Important finds wey komot de River Thames wey dey include de Battersea, Chertsey den Wandsworth shields den Waterloo Helmet, as well as de Witham Shield wey komot Lincolnshire, eastern England, (350–50 BC)
 Bronze scabbard plus La Tène engraved decoration, dem find for Lisnacrogher bog, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, (300–200 BC)
 Pair of gold collars dem call de Orense Torcs wey komot northwest Spain, (300–150 BC)
 Arras culture items wey komot chariot burials insyd de Lady's Barrow near Market Weighton den Wetwang Slack, Yorkshire, (300 BC – 100 BC)

 Oda gold neck collars wey dey include de Ipswich Hoard den de Sedgeford Torc, England, (200–50 BC)
 Winchester Hoard of gold jewellery wey komot southern England den de Great Torc wey komot Snettisham insyd Norfolk, East Anglia, (100 BC)
 Eight out of about thirty extant intact Celtic bronze mirrors plus La Tène decoration wey dey include those wey komot Aston, Chettle, Desborough, Holcombe den St Keverne insyd England, (100 BC – 100 AD)
 Cordoba den Arcillera Treasures, two silver Celtic hoards wey komot Spain, (100–20 BC)
 Grave find of ornately decorated bronze bucket plus human shaped handles, a pan, jug, three brooches den at least four pottery vessels wey komot Aylesford, Kent, (75 BC – 25 BC)
 Lindow Man dem find by accident insyd a peat bog insyd Cheshire, England, (1st century AD)
 Stanwick Hoard of horse den chariot fittings den de Meyrick Helmet, northern England, (1st century AD)
 La Tène silver hinged brooch wey komot Székesfehérvár, Hungary, (1–100 AD)
 Lochar Moss Torc den two pairs of massive bronze armlets wey komot Muthill den Strathdon, Scotland, (50–200 AD)

Romano-British (43 AD – 410 AD)

 Tombstone of Roman procurator Gaius Julius Alpinus Classicianus wey komot London, (1st century)
 Ribbed glass bowl dem find insyd a grave at Radnage, Buckinghamshire, (1st century)
 Large milestone marker plus inscription wey komot de reign of de emperor Hadrian wey komot Llanfairfechan, Gwynedd insyd North Wales, (120–121 AD) 
 Ribchester, Guisborough den Witcham helmets wey once be worn by Roman cavalry insyd Britain, (1st–2nd centuries)
 Elaborate gold bracelets den ring dem find near Rhayader, central Wales, (1st–2nd centuries)
 Hoard of gold jewellery dem find for Dolaucothi mine insyd Carmarthenshire, Wales, (1st–2nd centuries)
 Bronze heads of de Roman emperors Hadrian den Nero, dem find insyd London den Suffolk, (1st–2nd centuries)
 Vindolanda Tablets, important historical documents dem find near Hadrian's Wall insyd Northumberland, (1st–2nd centuries)

 Head of Mercury wey komot Roman-Celtic Temple at Uley, Gloucestershire den limestone head wey komot Towcester, Northamptonshire (2nd–4th centuries)
 Wall-paintings den sculptures wey komot de Roman Villa at Lullingstone, Kent, south east England, 1st–4th centuries)
 Capheaton den Backworth treasures, remnants of two important hoards wey komot northern England, (2nd–3rd centuries)
 Stony Stratford Hoard of copper headdresses, fibulae den silver votive plaques, central England, (3rd century)
 Square silver dish wey komot Mileham insyd Norfolk, (4th century)
 Gold jewellery dem deposit at de site of Newgrange, Ireland, (4th century)
 Thetford Hoard, late Roman jewellery wey komot eastern England, (4th century)

Early Mediaeval ()

 One of five Largitio silver dishes of de emperor Licinius dem find at Niš, Serbia den a hexagonal gold coin-set pendant of Constantine the Great, (Early 4th century AD)
 Two wooden ship figureheads dem dredge from de River Scheldt at Moerzeke den Appels, Belgium, (4th–6th centuries)
 Part of de Asyut, Domagnano, Artres, Sutri, Bergamo den Belluno Treasures, (4th–7th centuries)
 Lycurgus Cup, a unique figurative glass cage cup, den de Byzantine Archangel ivory panel, (4th–6th centuries)
 Three large Ogham stones wey komot de Roofs More Rath, County Cork, Ireland, (5th–7th centuries)
 De Sutton Hoo treasure, Taplow burial den Crundale grave objects plus sam of de greatest finds wey komot de early Middle Ages insyd Europe, England, (6th–7th centuries)
 One of de Burghead Bulls, Pictish stone relief wey komot northeast Scotland, (7th–8th centuries)

 Three Viking hoards wey komot Norway dem know as de Lilleberge Viking Burial, Tromsø Burial, den Villa Farm barrow burial (insyd Vestnes Municipality) plus de Ardvouray, Ballaquayle, Cuerdale, Goldsborough den Vale of York hoards wey komot Britain, (7th–10th centuries)

 Irish reliquaries such as de Kells Crozier, Bell Shrine of St. Cuileáin den St Conall Cael's Shrine wey komot Inishkeel, (7th–11th centuries)
 Early Anglo Saxon Franks Casket, a unique ivory container wey komot northern England, (8th century)
 T-shaped Carolingian antler container plus carved geometric interlace den zigzag decoration, dem find near Grüneck Castle, Ilanz, Switzerland, (8th–9th centuries)
 A number of luxurious penannular brooches such as de Londesborough Brooch, Breadalbane Brooch den those wey komot de Penrith Hoard, British Isles, (8th–9th centuries)
 Three of de twenty extant Carolingian crystal intaglios wey dey include de Lothair Crystal, de Metz engraved gem plus crucifixion den Saint-Denis Crystal, central Europe, (9th century)
 Anglo-Saxon Fuller den Strickland Brooches plus dema complex, niello-inlaid design, England, (9th century)
 One of de Magdeburg Ivories wey komot a set of 16 surviving ivory panels wey dey illustrate episodes of de Life of Jesus, Magdeburg, Germany, (968 AD)
 Seax of Beagnoth, iron sword plus long Anglo-Saxon Runic inscription, London, England, (10th century)

Mediaeval ()

 A number of mediaeval ivory panels wey dey include de Borradaile, Wernher den John Grandisson Triptychs, (10th–14th centuries)
 Several elephant ivory horns wey dey include de Borradaile Horn, Clephane Horn den Savernake Horn, (11th–12th centuries)
 De famous Lewis chessmen dem find insyd de Outer Hebrides, Scotland, (12th century)
 Reliquary of St. Eustace wey komot de treasury of Basel Munster, Switzerland den fragments of a rare Romanesque crucifix wey komot South Cerney, England, (12th century)
 Armenian stone-cross anaa Khachkar wey komot de Noratus cemetery insyd Armenia, (1225 AD)
 Items wey komot de tomb of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor at Palermo Cathedral, Sicily, wey dey include ein mitre, silk pall den shoe, (late 12th century)

 De unique Warwick Castle Citole, an early form of guitar, central England, (1280–1330)
 Set of 10 wooden door panels dem engrave plus Christian scenes wey komot de Hanging Church insyd Old Cairo, Egypt, (1300)
 Asante Jug, dem mysteriously find at de Asante Court insyd de late 19th century, England, (1390–1400)
 Holy Thorn Reliquary wey be bequeathed by Ferdinand de Rothschild as part of de Waddesdon Bequest, Paris, France, (14th century)
 Dunstable Swan Jewel, a gold den enamel brooch insyd de form of a swan, England, (14th century)
 A silver astrolabe quadrant wey komot Canterbury, southeastern England, (14th century)
 Chalcis treasure of jewellery, dress accessories den silver plate wey komot de island of Euboea, Greece, (14th–15th centuries)
 Magnificent cups dem make from precious metal such as de Royal Gold Cup den de Lacock Cup, western Europe, (14th–15th centuries)
 Complete church altar set wey komot Medina de Pomar near Burgos, Spain (1455 AD)

Renaissance to Modern ( – present)

 Two luxurious silver brooches dem set plus precious stones wey komot Glen Lyon den Lochbuie, Scotland (early 16th century)
 Intricately decorated parade shield wey Giorgio Ghisi make wey komot Mantua, Italy, (1554 AD)
 The Armada Service, 26 silver dishes dem find insyd Devon, south west England, (late 16th to early 17th centuries)
 Early Renaissance Lyte Jewel, dem present to Thomas Lyte of Lytes Cary, Somerset by King James I of England, (1610)
 Huguenot silver wey komot de Peter Wilding bequest, England, (18th century)
 Pair of so-called Cleopatra Vases wey komot de Chelsea porcelain factory, London, England, (1763)
 Jaspar ware vase dem know as de Pegasus Vase wey Josiah Wedgwood make, England, (1786)
 Two of Charles Darwin ein chronometers dem use on de voyage of HMS Beagle, (1795–1805)
 De Hull Grundy Gift of jewellery, Europe den North America, (19th century)
 Oak clock plus mother-of-pearl engraving wey Charles Rennie Mackintosh design, (1919)
 Silver tea-infuser MT 49 wey be designed by Marianne Brandt wey komot de Bauhaus art school, Germany, (1924)
 De Rosetta Vase, earthenware pottery vase wey be designed by de contemporary British artist Grayson Perry, (2011)

Chaw hoards of treasure dey include those of Esquiline, Carthage, First Cyprus, Hockwold, Hoxne, Lampsacus, Mildenhall, Vale of York den Water Newton, (4th–10th centuries AD)

 Department of Asia 
De Department of Asia get plenty plenty work;  its collections of over 75,000 objects cover de material culture of de whole Asian continent plus from de Neolithic up  till now. Just recently, dem dey focus on collecting Oriental antiquities wey come from city plus semi-urban societies across de  Asian continent. Plenty of those objects na colonial officers plus explorers gather  dem from places wey be part of British Empire before, especially de India subcontinent.  Examples de include de collections made by individuals like James Wilkinson Breeks, Sir Alexander Cunningham, Sir Harold Deane, Sir Walter Elliot, James Prinsep, Charles Masson, Sir John Marshall plus Charles Stuart . Many Chinese antiquities wey dem buy from Anglo-Greek banker George Eumorfopoulos for the 1930s. Arthur Morrison get big collection wey be like 1800 Japanese prints plus paintings wey him carry come early twentieth century. As we enter de second half of twenty century, de museum don benefite greatly from de bequest of de philanthropist PT Brooke Sewell, wey allow de department to purchase many objects plus fill in gaps insyde de collection.

For 2004, dem carry ethnographic collections from Asia go to di department. Dis one show di different environment of di biggest continent for di world, from India go reach China, Middle East to Japan. Plenty of di ethnographic things de come from objects wey tribe cultures plus hunter-gatherers own originally, many of dem wey dem way of life don vanish for di last century. Di collections wey get value pass na from di Andaman plus Nicobar Islands (plenty assembled by British naval officer Maurice Portman), Sri Lanka (especially through di colonial administrator Hugh Nevill), Northern Thailand, south-west China, di Ainu people for Hokkaido for Japan (chief wey dey among dem na di collection of Scottish zoologist John Anderson), Siberia (with artefacts wey explorer Kate Marsden plus Bassett Digby collect plus dem dey notable for Sakha pieces, especially di ivory model of summer festival for Yakutsk) plus di islands of South-East Asia, especially Borneo. Di latter don benefit better after dem buy Sarawak collection for 1905 wey Dr Charles Hose gather, plus other colonial officers like Edward A Jeffreys. Plus, dem get one unique and valuable group of tins from Java, like shadow puppets and gamelan musical set, wey Sir Stamford Raffles gather.

Di main gallery wey dey show Asian art for di museum na Gallery 33. E get plenty Chinese, Indian and South-east Asian things for display. Next gallery dey showcase di Amaravati sculptures plus monuments. Other galleries for di upper floors dey focus on Japanese, Korean, painting and calligraphy, plus Chinese ceramics collection.

Highlights of de collections dey include:

 De most comprehensive collection of sculpture wey komot de Indian subcontinent insyd de world, wey dey include de celebrated Buddhist limestone reliefs wey komot Amaravati wey Sir Walter Elliot excavate am.
 An outstanding collection of Chinese antiquities, paintings, den porcelain, lacquer, bronze, jade, den oda applied arts.
 De Frau Olga-Julia Wegener collection of 147 Chinese paintings wey komot de Tang to de Qing dynasties.
 De most comprehensive collection of Japanese pre-20th century art insyd de Western world, chaw of wich originally belong to de surgeon William Anderson den diplomat Ernest Mason Satow.

East Asia

 A large collection of Chinese ritual bronzes, wey dey include a wine vessel insyd de shape of two rams wey dey support a jar, (1500–200 BC)
 Jade bi anaa disc plus inscription wey komot de Qianlong Emperor, (1500–1050 BC)
 Group of oracle bones wey na e be used for divination wey komot de Shang dynasty, China, (1200–1050 BC)
 Intricately designed gold dagger handle wey komot Eastern Zhou period, China, (6th–5th centuries BC)
 Huixian Bronze Hu, an identical pair of bronze vessels wey komot de Eastern Zhou period, China, (5th century BC)
 Japanese antiquities wey komot de Kofun period dem excavate by de pioneering archaeologist William Gowland, (3rd–6th centuries AD)
 Three ornate bronze Dōtaku anaa bells wey komot de Yayoi period, Japan, (200 BC – 200 AD)
 Gilded den inscribed Han dynasty wine-cup dem make from lacquer wey na dem find insyd Pyongyang, Korea (4 AD)

 Gandharan architectural wood carvings, furniture den dress accessories wey komot Loulan, Xinjiang, (4th century AD)
 De famous Admonitions Scroll by Chinese artist Gu Kaizhi, (344–406 AD)
 De colossal Amitābha Buddha wey komot Hancui, China, (585 AD)
 A set of ceramic Tang dynasty tomb figures of Liu Tingxun, ()
 Silk Princess painting wey komot Dandan-oilik Buddhist sanctuary insyd Khotan, Xinjiang, China, (7th–8th century AD)
 Seated Luohan wey komot Yixian, one wey komot a set of eight surviving statues, China, (907–1125 AD)
 Hoard of Tang dynasty silverware wey komot Beihuangshan, Shaanxi, China, (9th–10th centuries AD)
 Seventeen examples of extremely rare Ru ware, de largest collection insyd de West, (1100 AD)
 A fine assemblage of Buddhist scroll paintings wey komot Dunhuang, western China, wey de British-Hungarian explorer Aurel Stein collect, (5th–11th centuries AD)

 Pericival David collection of Chinese ceramics, (10th–18th centuries AD)
 Ivory stand insyd de form of a seated lion, Chos-'khor-yan-rtse monastery insyd Tibet, (13th century AD)
 Copy of a hanging scroll painting of Minamoto no Yoritomo, first Shogun of Japan, (14th century AD)
 Handscroll silk painting dem call 'Fascination of Nature' by Xie Chufang wey dey depict insects den plants, China, (1321 AD)
 Ornate Sino-Tibetan figure of Buddha Sakyamuni dem make of gilded bronze, China, (1403–1424 AD)
 Large Cloisonné jar plus dragon dem make for de Ming dynasty Imperial Court, dem pair plus anoda insyd de Rietberg Museum, Zürich, Beijing, China, (1426–35 AD)
 Pair of ceramic Kakiemon elephants wey komot Japan, (17th century AD)
 Moon jar wey komot de Joseon Dynasty wey de potter Bernard Leach collect, Korea, (18th century AD)
 Japanese prints wey dey include The Great Wave off Kanagawa, (1829–32 AD)
 Illustrations for de Great Picture Book of Everything, rare album of drawings by de celebrated Japanese artist Hokusai, (1820–1840 AD)

South Asia

 Excavated objects wey komot de Indus Valley sites of Mohenjo-daro, den Harappa, Ancient India (now insyd Pakistan), (2500–2000 BC)
 Hoard of Copper Hoard Culture celts, plaques den disc wey komot Gungeria, Madhya Pradesh, India, (2000–1000 BC)
 Assembly of prehistoric artefacts wey komot de Nilgiri Hills insyd southern India, (10th century BC – 2nd century AD)
 Hoard of Iron Age metal weapons dem excavate for de Wurreegaon barrow near Kamptee insyd Maharastra, India, (7th – 1st centuries BC)
 Sandstone fragment of a Pillar of Ashoka plus Brahmi inscription wey komot Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, (238 BC)
 De Kulu Vase dem find near a monastery insyd Himachal Pradesh, one of de earliest examples of figurative art wey komot de sub-continent, northern India, (1st century BC)
 Copper plate wey komot Taxila, plus important Kharoshthi inscription, Ancient India (now insyd Pakistan), (1st century BC – 1st century AD)
 Indo-Scythian sandstone Mathura Lion Capital den Bracket figure wey komot one of de gateways to de Great Stupa at Sanchi, central India, (1st century AD)
 Bimaran Casket den Wardak Vase, reliquaries wey komot ancient stupas insyd Afghanistan, (1st–2nd centuries AD)

 Hoard of gold jewellery plus precious stones dem find under de Enlightenment Throne at de Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, eastern India, (2nd century AD)
 Relic deposits wey komot stupas at Ahin Posh, Ali Masjid, Gudivada, Manikyala, Sonala Pind, Sanchi den Taxila, (1st–3rd centuries AD)
 Seated Hārītī den Buddha statues den oda Gandhara sculptures wey komot Kafir Kot, Jamal Garhi, Takht-i-Bahi den Yusufzai, Pakistan, (1st–3rd centuries AD)
 Hephthalite silver bowl plus hunting scenes wey komot de Swat District, Pakistan, (460–479 AD)
 Three sandstone carved sculptures of de Buddha insyd Gupta style wey komot Sarnath, eastern India, (5th–6th centuries AD)
 Aphsad inscription of Ādityasena plus important record of de genealogy of de Later Gupta dynasty up to king Ādityasena, Ghosrawan, Bihar, India, (675 AD)
 De Buddhapad Hoard of bronze images wey komot southern India, (6th–8th centuries AD)
 Small bronze figure of Buddha Shakyamuni, Bihar, eastern India, (7th century AD)

 Stone statue of Buddha wey komot de Sultanganj hoard, Bihar, eastern India, (7th–8th centuries AD)
 Earliest known figure of de dancing four-armed god Shiva Nataraja, Pallava dynasty, southern India (800 AD)
 Statue of Tara wey komot Sri Lanka den de Thanjavur Shiva wey komot Tamil Nadu, southern India, (8th century & 10th century AD)
 Standing Pala statue of Buddha wey komot Kurkihar, Bihar, India, (9th century AD)
 Several wooden architectural panels wey komot de Kashmir Smast caves, northern Pakistan, (9th–10th centuries AD)
 Hoard of Buddhist terracotta sealings wey komot de Pala period dem find at de Nālandā Monastery, Bihar, eastern India, (10th century AD)
 Statue of de goddess Ambika dem find at Dhar insyd central India, (1034 AD)
 Foundation inscription of de Ananta Vasudeva Temple insyd Bhubaneswar, Odisha, eastern India, (1278 AD)
 Jade dragon cup wey na once belong to Sultan Ulugh Beg wey komot Samarkand, Uzbekistan, (1420–1449 AD)
 Foundation inscription plus Arabic inscription insyd Naskh script insyd de name of Sultan Yusufshah wey komot Gauda, Bengal, eastern India, (1477 AD)
 Large standing gilded copper figure of de Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, Nepal, (15th–16th centuries AD)

Southeast Asia

 Earthenware tazza wey komot de Phùng Nguyên culture, northern Vietnam, (2000–1500 BC)
 Pottery vessels den sherds wey komot de ancient site of Ban Chiang, Thailand, (10th–1st centuries BC)
 Bronze bell wey komot Klang den iron socketed axe (tulang mawas) wey komot Perak, western Malaysia, (200 BC–200 AD)
 Group of six Buddhist clay votive plaques dem find insyd a cave insyd Patania, Penang, Malaysia, (6th–11th centuries AD)
 De famous Sambas Treasure of buddhist gold den silver figures wey komot west Borneo, Indonesia, (8th–9th centuries AD)
 Three stone Buddha heads wey komot de temple at Borobodur insyd Java, Indonesia, (9th century AD)
 Granite Kinnari figure insyd de shape of a bird wey komot Candi Prambanan insyd Java, Indonesia, (9th century AD)
 Sandstone Champa figure of a rampant lion, Vietnam, (11th century AD)
 Gilded bronze figure of Śiva wey dey hold a rosary, Cambodia, (11th century AD)

 Stone figure wey dey represent de upper part of an eleven-headed Avalokiteśvara, Cambodia, (12th century AD)
 Bronze figure of a seated Buddha wey komot Bagan, Burma, (12th–13th centuries AD)
 Hoard of Southern Song dynasty ceramic vessels dem excavate at Pinagbayanan, Taysan Municipality, Philippines, (12th–13th centuries AD)
 Statue of de Goddess Mamaki wey komot Candi Jago, eastern Java, Indonesia, (13th–14th centuries AD)
 Glazed terracotta tiles wey komot de Shwegugyi Temple dem erect by king Dhammazedi insyd Bago, Myanmar, (1476 AD)
 Inscribed bronze figure of a Buddha from Fang District, part of a large SE Asian collection wey de Norwegian explorer Carl Bock amass, Thailand, (1540 AD)
 Large impression of de Buddha ein foot dem make of gilded stone (dem know as Shwesettaw Footprints) wey Captain Frederick Marryat donate, wey komot Ponoodang near Yangon, Myanmar, (18th–19th centuries AD)

 Department of Africa, Oceania den de Americas 
British Museum get one of di biggest collection of ethnographic stuff from Africa, Oceania and Americas, wey fit show wetin di indigenous people dey represent all over di world. Dem get over 350,000 objects wey span plenty years to tell di history of humans from three major continents plus plenty rich cultures; dem dey still dey add modern artefacts too. Plenty people don contribute to di collection over di years but di ones wey Henry Christy, Harry Beasley plus William Oldman gather na di best.

Objects wey come from dis department de mostly show for plenty galleries for ground plus lower floors. Gallery 24 dey display ethnographic from every continent, while di galleries wey dey beside focus on North America plus Mexico. Long row of rooms (Gallery 25) for lower floor dey show African art. Dem get plans to set permanent galleries wey go showcase art from Oceania plus South America.

Africa
Highlights of de African collection dey include objects dem find at megalithic circles insyd The Gambia, a dozen exquisite Afro-Portuguese ivories, a series of soapstone figures wey komot de Kissi people insyd Sierra Leone den Liberia, hoard of bronze Kru currency rings wey komot de Sinoe River insyd Liberia, Asante goldwork den regalia wey komot Ghana wey dey include de Bowdich collection, de rare Akan Drum wey komot de same region insyd west Africa, pair of door panels den lintel wey komot de palace at Ikere-Ekiti insyd Yorubaland, de Benin den Igbo-Ukwu bronze sculptures, de beautiful Bronze Head of Queen Idia, a magnificent brass head of a Yoruba ruler den quartz throne wey komot Ife, a similar terracotta head wey komot Iwinrin Grove near Ife, de Apapa Hoard wey komot Lagos den oda mediaeval bronze hoards wey komot Allabia de de Forçados River insyd southern Nigeria.

Dem include be an Ikom monolith wey komot Cross River State, chaw ancestral screens wey  komot de Kalabari tribe insyd de Niger Delta, de Torday collection of central African sculpture, textiles den weaponry wey komot de Kuba Kingdom wey dey include three royal figures, de unique Luzira Head wey komot Uganda, processional crosses den oda ecclesiastical den royal material wey komot Gondar den Magdala, Ethiopia dey follow de British Expedition to Abyssinia, objects dem excavate wey komot Great Zimbabwe (wey dey include a unique soapstone, anthropomorphic figure) den satellite towns such as Mutare wey dey include a large hoard of Iron Age soapstone figures, a rare divining bowl wey komot de Venda peoples den cave paintings den petroglyphs  from South Africa.

Oceania

De British Museum ein Oceanic collections dey originate from de vast area of de Pacific Ocean, wey dey stretch from Papua New Guinea to Easter Island, from New Zealand to Hawaii. De three main anthropological groups dem represent insyd de collection be Polynesia, Melanesia den Micronesia – dem dey consider Aboriginal art wey komot Australia separately in ein own right. Na metal working no be indigenous to Oceania before na Europeans arrive, so na dem make chaw of de artefacts wey komot de collection from stone, shell, bone den bamboo. Prehistoric objects wey komot de region dey include a bird-shaped pestle den a group of stone mortars wey komot Papua New Guinea.

De British Museum be fortunate e get sam of de earliest Oceanic den Pacific collections, chaw of wich na dem put togeda by members of Cook den Vancouver dema expeditions anaa by colonial administrators den explorers such as Sir George Grey, Sir Frederick Broome, Joseph Bradshaw, Robert Christison, Gregory Mathews, Frederick Meinertzhagen, Thomas Mitchell den Arthur Gordon, before na Western culture significantly impact on indigenous cultures. Na de department sanso benefit greatly from de legacy of pioneering anthropologists such as AC Haddon, Bronisław Malinowski den Katherine Routledge. An artefact be a wooden Aboriginal shield, probably wey dey date from de late eighteenth century. Der be sam debate as to wheda na dem find dis shield at Botany Bay anaa, given de nature of de wood be red mangrove wich dey grow abundantly 500 km per north of Botany Bay, possibly na dem obtain thru trade networks anaa at an entirely different location.

Wilson cabinet wey full plenty interesting things for Palau be one example of de pre-contact ware. Another sharp example be de mourner dress from Tahiti wey dem gree give Cook for him second voyage, one of only ten wey dey exist. Insyde de collection, e get big war canoe from Vella Lavella for Solomon Islands, one of de last ever to be built insyde de archipelago.

De Māori collection dey top pass everything wey outside New Zealand, full of fine carved wood plus jade objects. De Aboriginal art collection no dey slack, e get plenty bark paintings, wey de include two early ones wey John Hunter Kerr collect. One important set of objects wey dem buy from London Missionary Society for 1911, get unique statue of A'a from Rurutu Island, rare idol from Mangareva plus Cook Islands deity figure. Other highlights de include de di big Hawaiian statue of Kū-ka-ili-moku wey be god of war (one of di three wey dey for di world) plus di famous Easter Island statues, Hoa Hakananai'a plus Moai Hava.

Americas

De Americas collection mainly dey consist of 19th den 20th century items although de Paracas, Moche, Inca, Maya, Aztec, Taino den oda early cultures be well represented. De Kayung totem pole, wich na dem make am insyd de late nineteenth century on Haida Gwaii, dey dominate de Great Court den dey provide a fitting introduction to dis very wide-ranging collection wey dey stretch from de very north of de North American continent wer na de Inuit population live for centuries, to de tip of South America wer na indigenous tribes long thrive insyd Patagonia.

Collection get plenty unique things wey include Aboriginal Canadian and Native American items wey 5th Earl of Lonsdale, Marquis of Lorne, explorer David Haig-Thomas and Bryan Mullanphy, Mayor of St. Louis collect. E also get Squier and Davis collection of prehistoric mound relics from North America, two carved stone bowls wey be like seated human figure wey ancient North West Coast people from British Columbia make, Chief Yellow Calf headdress from Arapaho tribe for Wyoming, lidded rivercane basket from South Carolina and di earliest Cherokee basketry wey show dey. Plus, pottery vessels wey dem find for prehistoric homes for Mesa Verde plus Casas Grandes, one mysterious crystal skull wey nobody sabi wey e come from, plus nine turquoise Aztec mosaics from Mexico wey large pass any for Europe, plus some important artefacts wey come from Teotihuacan plus Isla de Sacrificios.

Plenty rare pre-Columbian manuscripts dey, like Codex Zouche-Nuttall and Codex Waecker-Gotter, plus post-colonial ones like Codex Aubin and Codex Kingsborough. E get one fine series of Mayan lintels from Yaxchilan wey British Mayanist Alfred Maudslay dig out. Dem get high-quality Mayan collection wey get sculptures from Copan, Tikal, Tulum, Pusilha, Naranjo and Nebaj (even de popular Fenton Vase). One fine calcite vase with jaguar handles from Ulua Valley for Honduras, Lord Moyne collection from Bay Islands, Honduras plus Boyle collection from Nicaragua. Over 20 stone metates with animal plus human designs from Costa Rica, Zemi Figures from Vere, Jamaica plus wooden duhos from de Dominican Republic plus De Bahamas.

E get plenty Pre-Columbian human mummies wey dem find for South America like Ancon, Acari, Arica and Leyva. Dem get some fine pre-Columbian gold and votive things from Colombia, three axe-shaped gold diadems wey dem find near Camaná from Siguas culture for Peru, and unique Moche wooden figures and staffs from Macabi islands wey dey off Peru. Ethnographic objects dey from Amazon region too, including Schomburgk and Maybury Lewis collections, plus part of von Martius and von Spix collection. Two rare Tiwanaku pottery vessels from Lake Titicaca dey too, plus important items from Tierra del Fuego wey Commander Phillip Parker King donate.

 Department of Money den Medals 
De British Museum dey hold one of di best coin collections for di whole world, e get about one million items, like coins, medals, tokens plus paper money. Dis collection cover whole history of money, from di time wey tings start for 7th century BC reach now, e fit show both di East and West. Di Department of Coins plus Medals dem create am insyde 1861 plus dem celebrate 150th year anniversary for 2011.The British Museum and the Future of UK Numismatics. Proceedings of a conference held to mark the 150th anniversary of the British Museum's Department of Coins and Medals, 2011 , edited by Barrie Cook (British Museum Research Publication 183, 2011) .

 Department of Conservation plus Scientific Research 
Dis department start for 1920 o. Conservation get six specialist area: ceramics & glass; metals; organic material (like textiles); stone, wall paintings plus mosaics; Eastern pictorial art plus Western pictorial art. Di science department dey develop techniques wey fit date artefacts, analyse den identify di materials wey dem use make am, to identify di place wey di artefact come from originally plus di techniques wey dem use create am. Di department dey publish di findings plus discoveries too.

 Libraries den archives 
Dis department dey cover all kinds of education, from casual visitors, schools, degree level plus plenty more. Di museum get plenty libraries wey hold over 350,000 books, journals den pamphlets wey cover every part of di museum collection. Di general museum archives wey start from 1753 dey under dis department; each department get dem own archives plus libraries wey cover dia own responsibility, plus public fit consult am if dem send application. Di Anthropology Library dey large, with 120,000 volumes.See the "Facilities and Services" tab on the home page for each department for details on each library; not all are kept at Bloomsbury. Anthropology Library  But di Paul Hamlyn Library, wey be di main reference library for di British Museum plus di only one wey dey open freely to de genertal public, dem don close am permanently insyde August 2011. De website plus online database of de collection also provide increasing amounts of information.

 British Museum Press 
De British Museum Press (BMP) na de publishing company wey dey under British Museum Company Ltd., na charity wey dem start for 1973. De di trustees of di British Museum de fully own am.

De BMP publishes both popular den scholarly illustrated books to accompany de exhibition programme plus explore aspects of de general collection. Profits from their sales goes to support de British Museum.

Dem dey publish scholarly titles for Research Publications series wey all of dem na peer-reviewed. Dis series start for 1978 plus dem originally call am Occasional Papers. De series, dem design am to disseminate research on items insyde de collection. To date, dem don publis over 200 books insyde dis series. Every year, dem dey publish between six to eight titles for dis series. You fit find dem for British Museum Research Repository.

 Controversies den criticism 

 Contested artefacts 
E be matter wey people dey argue if museums suppose get artefacts wey dem take from other countries illegally. plus de British Museum be a notable target for criticism. De Elgin Marbles, Benin Bronzes, Ethiopian Tabots plus Rosetta Stone be among de most disputed objects in its collections, plus organisations don form wey dey demand say make dem return these artefacts back to where dem belong.

Di Elgin Marbles or Parthenon Marbles wey Greece dey claim don catch UNESCO eye, plus other people too, make dem restore am. From 1801 to 1812, Lord Elgin agents go carry about half of di sculptures wey survive from di Parthenon, plus some from di Propylaea den Erechtheum. Di former museum director talk say, "We owe Elgin plenty for saving di Parthenon sculptures plus di other ones wey dey from di Acropolis from di destruction wey dem dey face, as well as di damage wey di Acropolis monuments, wey de include de sculptures wey e no carry, don suffer since." De British Museum itself don damage some of de artefacts for de time of restoration insyde de 1930s.Oddy, Andrew, "The Conservation of Marble Sculptures in the British Museum before 1975", in Studies in Conservation, vol. 47, no. 3, (2002), pp. 145–146, Quote: "However, for a short time in the late 1930s copper scrapers were used to remove areas of discolouration from the surface of the Elgin Marbles. New information is presented about this lamentable episode." For late 2022, de British Museum don enter into preliminary negotiations with de Greek government about de future of de sculptures.

E dey cause controversy for di artefacts wey dem carry go when dem spoil di Old Summer Palace insyde Beijing by an Anglo-French expeditionary force during de Second Opium War for 1860, an event which drew protest from Victor Hugo. Since 2009, dem don dey beg British Museum plus Victoria den Albert Museum make dem open dem archives for some Chinese people wey wan investigate, as part of international mission to document Chinese treasures wey dey insyde foreign collections. For 2010, Neil MacGregor, wey be former Director of British Museum, talk say e dey hope say British den Chinese investigators go fit work together on de controversial collection. For 2020, di museum don appoint one curator to research di history of dem collections, wey include some items wey dem dey argue about.

De British Museum talk say if we go follow wetin dem dey call 'restitutionist premise', we go clear British Museum plus all di big museums for di world. De museum don also argue that de British Museum Act of 1963 de prevents any object from leaving its collection once e don enter it. De Museum owns its collections, but de Trustees no get power to dispose of them".British Museum Act 1963, s 5. Even so, dem don return some things like Tasmanian Aboriginal burial remains when e dey consistent with legislation regarding de disposal of items insyde de collections.

 List of contested artefacts 

 Elgin Marbles – e be claimed by Greece wey be backed by UNESCO among odas for restitution
 Benin Bronzes – e be claimed by Nigeria; na de Nigerian government pass a resolution wey dey demand de return of all 700 bronze pieces. Na de British Museum sell 30 pieces of de bronzes privately from de 1950s til 1972, mostly back to de Nigerians.
 Rosetta Stone – e be claimed by Egypt
 Ethiopian Tabots, Pre-Axumite Civilisation Coins – e ebe claimed by Ethiopia

 Maqdala Collection, various religious den artistic objects, wey be claimed by Ethiopia
 Asante Gold Regalia, personal jewellery den royal insignia wey de Asante king/emperor dey wear – wey be claimed by Ghana
 Oxus Treasure – insyd 2007 na de Presido of Tajikistan order experts make dem look into making a claim for dese Achaemenid Empire gold den silver artefacts.
 Dunhuang manuscripts, part of a cache of scrolls, manuscripts, paintings, scriptures, den relics wey komot de Mogao Caves, wey dey include de Diamond Sutra – e be claimed by de People's Republic of China
 Aboriginal shield – wey be claimed by Aboriginal people of Australia.

 Hoa Hakananai'a, a Moai – wey be claimed by Chile on behalf of Easter Island/Rapa Nui
 Irish artefacts — de Bell Shrine of St. Cuileáin, Londesborough Brooch, swords, half of de Dowris Hoard, part of de Mooghaun North Hoard, de Dunaverney flesh-hook, de Kells Crozier, torcs, four crucifixion plaques, armlets, seals, religious plaques, den rings.
 Welsh artefacts – de Mold gold cape de Rhos Rydd Shield, de Moel Hebog shield den de Llanllyfni lunula.
 Four stolen drawings (Nazi plunder) – Dem bia compensation to Uri Peled for de amount of £175,000 by de British Museum
 Repatriation den reburial of human remains be a controversial issue, wey na de British Museum issue a policy for de subject top.

 Nazi-looted art 
For 2002, Arthur Feldmann en heir, wey be art collector wey dem kill for Holocaust, come request say make dem bring back four old master drawings to de family wey Gestapo thief for 1939. UK High Court judge talk say for 2005, e go dey illegal make British Museum return artworks wey Nazis loot to Jewish family, even though dem wan do am plus na wetin dem suppose do morally. Dem change de Law insyde 2009, den again insyde 2022 giving museums more power to return loot art or pay compensation. Feldmann im heir don accept compensation payment for one looted drawing plus dem talk say dem dey happy say de drawing go still dey for British Museum collection.

As per di British Museum Spoliation report wey di Collections Trust drop in 2017, "Approximately 30% of about 21,350 continental and British drawings wey dem collect since 1933 get uncertain or incomplete provenance for di 1933–1945 period." Di museum dey put dis works for dem website plus de investigate claims for restitution.

 BP sponsorship 
Since 2016, so many protests don occur, e be activist groups, trade unions and ordinary people wey dey oppose how British Museum dey chummy with oil company BP wey dem believe say de contribute to de global warming. For July 2019, Ahdaf Soueif come resign from British Museum board because of dis sponsorship matter. Then for February 2020, about 1,500 demonstrators, plus some staff for di museum, join protest day over de issue. Last last for December 2023, dem talk say British Museum don gree sign new £50 million sponsorship deal with BP.

 Chairman en Advisory Group 
De Chairman's Advisory Group be like informal group of business leaders wey dey give advice to de chairman on plenty matter, like how de museum dey relate with British government plus policy on de museum’s collections. Dem come open de group after some people request for information as dem dey fight against de museum connection with fossil fuel industry. De museum no wan call De members names, as dem dey act insyde demma own personal capacity.

 Thefts 
Dem don thief plenty tins for di museum like: plenty historic coins plus medals for di 1970s; one 17th-century Japanese Kakiemon figure for 1990; two Meiji figurines plus small piece of gold ring for 1991; fifteen Roman coins plus jewellery wey be value at £250,000 insyde 1993; plus one Japanese chest den two Persian books for 1996.

For July 2002, dem thief one marble head wey be £50,000 from Archaic Greek gallery. For 2004, dem steal 15 Chinese things wey get jewels, fine hairpins plus fingernail guards. Then for 2017, e show say one Cartier diamond don dey missing since 2011.

For August 2023, dem fire one staff member because e come out say gold, jewellery and gems don disappear for long time. Dis wahala make de Metropolitan Police start investigation plus dem bring independent review come do for de museum. Some of di missing items wey dem later find, dem don sell am on eBay  for considerably less than demma estimated value. Di museum don dey receive warning about di thefts since 2021. Di museum director, Hartwig Fischer, don talk say him no go fit work again because di museum no handle di theft warning well. Dem calculate say about 2,000 artefacts don go. As dem steal di things, di museum gree say dem go start five-year plan make dem digitise all di things wey dey insyde plus make e fit show for online. By May 2024, dem don find 626 of di missing items back.

 Copyright settlement 
For August 2023, British Museum and translator Yilin Wang na dem settle matter wey concern her translations of Qiu Jin poetry. De museum use her work without give am credit or permission for di exhibition wey dem call China's Hidden Century wey run between May 2023 den October 2023.

 Tibet naming conventions 
For January 2025, de British Museum don get criticized by de Tibetan human rights groups for referring to Tibet as "Xizang," de current term de government of de People's Republic of China prefer.

 Galleries 

 Building

 Museum galleries

Department of Ancient Egypt den SudanDepartment of de Middle EastDepartment of Greece den Rome

 Digital den online 
De museum get a collaboration plus de Google Cultural Institute make e bring de collection online.

 Exhibitions 

 Chronology of Temporary Exhibitions at the British Museum, by Joanna Bowring (British Museum Research Paper 189, 2012) lists all temporary exhibitions from 1838 to 2012.
 Helen Wang, 2022. ‘Displays of money and medals at the British Museum, 1759 to 2022’, Numismatic Chronicle 182, pp. 313–338.

Forgotten Empire Exhibition (October 2005 – January 2006)From January to April 2012 na de museum present Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam, de first major exhibition on de topic of de Hajj, de pilgrimage wey be one of de five pillars of Islam.

 Check am too 

 2016–17 all-female UK terror plot – involved a plan to attack the British Museum

 References 

 Read further 

 Anderson, Robert (2005). The Great Court and the British Museum. London: The British Museum Press
 Arrowsmith, Rupert Richard. Modernism and the Museum: Asian, African and Pacific Art and the London Avant Garde. Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 103–164. .
 Arrowsmith, Rupert Richard. "The Transcultural Roots of Modernism: Imagist Poetry, Japanese Visual Culture, and the Western Museum System" Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Modernism/modernity Volume 18, Number 1, January 2011, pp. 27–42. ISSN 1071-6068.
 Bowring, Joanna (2012). Chronology of Temporary Exhibitions at the British Museum Archived 19 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine London: British Museum Research Paper 189.

 Caygill, Marjorie (2006). The British Museum: 250 Years. London: The British Museum Press
 Caygill, Marjorie (2002). The Story of the British Museum. London: The British Museum Press
 --do.-- (2009) Treasures of the British Museum London: The British Museum Press  (1st ed. 1985; 2nd ed. 1992)
 Cook, B. F. (2005). The Elgin Marbles. London: The British Museum Press
 Esdaile, Arundell (1946) The British Museum Library: a Short History and Survey. London: Allen & Unwin
 Jacobs, Norman (2010) Behind the Colonnade. Stroud: The History Press
 Jenkins, Ian (2006). Greek Architecture and its Sculpture in The British Museum. London: The British Museum Press
 Francis, Frank, ed. (1971) Treasures of the British Museum. London: Thames & Hudson (rev. ed., 1975)
 Moser, Stephanie (2006). Wondrous Curiosities: Ancient Egypt at The British Museum. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
 Reade, Julian (2004). Assyrian Sculpture. London: The British Museum Press
 Reeve, John (2003). The British Museum: Visitor's Guide. London: The British Museum Press
 Wilson, David M. (2002). The British Museum: a history. London: The British Museum Press

 External links 

 Official website
 The British Museum from The Survey of London
 British Museum elevation
 "The British Museum Trust Ltd., registered charity no. 1140844". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
 Works by British Museum at Project Gutenberg
 Works by or about British Museum at the Internet Archive
 Virtual tour of the British Museum provided by Google Arts & Culture


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