Heading home... and the British Museum

Yesterday was a day planned for the British Museum, however, due to my own personal quirks i cocked it up for Jenn and it was a rather frustrating day for the both of us. As you could probably guess, i was quite looking forward to the visit, and my, what a museum! What a sense of scale and grandeur. Jenn withstood the ridiculously long and disorganized queue for the multimedia audio/touch screen guide -- it took close to half an hour for her to finally score two of the guides -- while i figured out the lay of the land. i planned for us to visit first room 21, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, i know because i've built one everytime i played Civilization. It was a grand display... but it was also a very poorly labeled display. The "Amazon Frieze" was displayed on the left hand side of the room as you walked in. Under each "section" (not marked in anyway, you kinda guessed as in relations to where the placards are laid) is an one sentence description: "Greek striking fallen Amazon" or "Amazon defending fallen comrade" or "Amazon kicking Greek in the nads". One in particular struck me as interesting, "1008 Herakles clubbing Amazon"... however, 1007 and 1008 shares the same plaque and is mounted under a long section of the frieze featuring fighting persons with features well eroded and worn. At the end of the frieze was a larger plaque stating the importance of section 1008: "... It showed the expedition by Herakles and Theseus to Themiskyra, and the subsequent fierce battle with the Amazon women. The subject was a common theme in Greek art, but it was particularly relevant to Maussollos. According to Karian tradition (Maussollos, the person who's name the term Mausoleum is derived from, is the ruler of Karia), an axe once owned by the Amazon queen, Hippolyte, was housed at Labraunda, the ancestral sanctuary of the Hekatomnid dynasty. She is shown in combat with Herakles on one section of the frieze (Sculpture 1008), which is part of an unusually long slab. This focal point of the battle may have had a prominent position on the monument, perhaps at the centre of the principal side, which faced east." After reading that, i ventured back to where i thought 1008 was. And there, for the fact that a faint outline of where a club in relief was and the upraised arms, i found Herakles. Further scrutiny showed the outlines of the Nemean Lion skin that Herakles wears as a result of one of his labours further affirms that the eroded figure is indeed Herakles. After the fact, it turns out all this info is on the British Museum website (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/gr/s/slabs_from_amazonomachy_frieze.aspx) yet it was no where to be found at the display. It truly saddened me to see the throngs of people run by, snap a photo or simply by pass this "prominent" part of the frieze...

Anyhow, off to breakfast and then home.