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Neil MacGregor Quotes

The focus in the Western pictorial tradition is on the body of Christ, the bit you can paint, the Nativity and the infancy, but above all the Passion, where you can find images for every stage and every moment Picture Quote #1

Saddam Hussein was fascinated by ancient Babylon and Assyria. He made money available to protect and develop the great archaeological sites. The great achievements of Mesopotamian civilisation were pressed into the service of the Ba’athist regime Picture Quote #1

While there are few records of Viking women participating in battle, they certainly held positions of high status in society as human sorceresses known as ‘volvas.’ Picture Quote #1

There is not much we can say with absolute confidence about the early church, but we can be fairly sure that the first Christians would not have dreamed of making a likeness of Jesus Picture Quote #1

The deciphering of ancient scripts changed forever the way Europeans were able to imagine the story of humanity, destroying centuries of received authority about the past with repercussions as important for our understanding of time and history as the geological studies of the same period Picture Quote #1

For the Greeks, there was no single canonical version of creation, but a number of overlapping stories Picture Quote #1

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Our collective memories are welcoming places, and one image, that of Jesus, has absorbed and appropriated elements of other traditions and aspirations in order to shape our communal remembering Picture Quote #1

If you are born in 1564, your dislocation from your parents’ experience is very profound. You are the first generation who will have had all your religious experience in English, the first to have a countryman circumnavigate the globe. All the power and economic structures of the world are changing around you Picture Quote #1

Hardest of all for Europeans to negotiate are traditional African religions, whose transactions with unseen powers are central to the running of life in many areas, the main weapon in the struggle against the forces of evil Picture Quote #1

Because of the long, long history of British shipping, immigration, trade, empire, missionaries, you can have a better shot at telling a worldwide story in the British Museum’s collection than any other. Britain has been more connected with the rest of the world than any other country, for longer Picture Quote #1

A collection that embraces the whole world allows you to consider the whole world. That is what an institution such as the British Museum is for Picture Quote #1

Creation stories, so central in the religions of the Middle East, play a surprisingly marginal part in Greek myth. The Greeks had nothing to set alongside the resounding ‘In the beginning’ in the book of Genesis, where one eternal God creates the universe out of nothing Picture Quote #1

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Thanks to the unprecedented reach of British navigation, London in the early 18th century was not just the emporium of the world, it was the first place in which it was possible to assemble artifacts from around the world and allow people to study them Picture Quote #1

The distinction between a gallery and a museum is enormous. The gallery is about looking at a thing of beauty; the purpose of the activity is an aesthetic response. The museum is actually about the object that lets you get into somebody else’s life Picture Quote #1

In a very literal way, of course, Shakespeare did change the course of history: when it didn’t fit the plot he had in mind, he simply rewrote it. His English histories play fast and loose with chronology and fact to achieve the desired dramatic effect, re-ordering history even as it was then understood Picture Quote #1

The collapse of the Tower of Babel is perhaps the central urban myth. It is certainly the most disquieting. In Babylon, the great city that fascinated and horrified the Biblical writers, people of different races and languages, drawn together in pursuit of wealth, tried for the first time to live together - and failed Picture Quote #1

Google the name Prometheus, and see how often it has been given to innovations in many different fields, notably science, medicine and space exploration. The fire he stole can be seen, too, as the spark generating all artistic creativity Picture Quote #1

Objects let you tell a narrative that encompasses everybody. Texts don’t Picture Quote #1

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Objects are better than text at conveying narrative Picture Quote #1

From the point where our ancestors started making tools, people have been unable to survive without the things they make; in this sense, it is making things that makes us human Picture Quote #1

For a million years the sound of making handaxes provided the percussion of everyday life. Anyone choosing a hundred objects to tell a history of the world would have to include a handaxe Picture Quote #1

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Text Quotes

The focus in the Western pictorial tradition is on the body of Christ, the bit you can paint, the Nativity and the infancy, but above all the Passion, where you can find images for every stage and every moment. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) Saddam Hussein was fascinated by ancient Babylon and Assyria. He made money available to protect and develop the great archaeological sites. The great achievements of Mesopotamian civilisation were pressed into the service of the Ba’athist regime. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) While there are few records of Viking women participating in battle, they certainly held positions of high status in society as human sorceresses known as ‘volvas.’ (Neil MacGregor Quotes) There is not much we can say with absolute confidence about the early church, but we can be fairly sure that the first Christians would not have dreamed of making a likeness of Jesus. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) The deciphering of ancient scripts changed forever the way Europeans were able to imagine the story of humanity, destroying centuries of received authority about the past with repercussions as important for our understanding of time and history as the geological studies of the same period. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) For the Greeks, there was no single canonical version of creation, but a number of overlapping stories. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) Our collective memories are welcoming places, and one image, that of Jesus, has absorbed and appropriated elements of other traditions and aspirations in order to shape our communal remembering. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) If you are born in 1564, your dislocation from your parents’ experience is very profound. You are the first generation who will have had all your religious experience in English, the first to have a countryman circumnavigate the globe. All the power and economic structures of the world are changing around you. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) Hardest of all for Europeans to negotiate are traditional African religions, whose transactions with unseen powers are central to the running of life in many areas, the main weapon in the struggle against the forces of evil. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) Because of the long, long history of British shipping, immigration, trade, empire, missionaries, you can have a better shot at telling a worldwide story in the British Museum’s collection than any other. Britain has been more connected with the rest of the world than any other country, for longer. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) A collection that embraces the whole world allows you to consider the whole world. That is what an institution such as the British Museum is for. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) Creation stories, so central in the religions of the Middle East, play a surprisingly marginal part in Greek myth. The Greeks had nothing to set alongside the resounding ‘In the beginning’ in the book of Genesis, where one eternal God creates the universe out of nothing. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) Thanks to the unprecedented reach of British navigation, London in the early 18th century was not just the emporium of the world, it was the first place in which it was possible to assemble artifacts from around the world and allow people to study them. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) The distinction between a gallery and a museum is enormous. The gallery is about looking at a thing of beauty; the purpose of the activity is an aesthetic response. The museum is actually about the object that lets you get into somebody else’s life. (Neil MacGregor Quotes) In a very literal way, of course, Shakespeare did change the course of history: when it didn’t fit the plot he had in mind, he simply rewrote it. His English histories play fast and loose with chronology and fact to achieve the desired dramatic effect, re-ordering history even as it was then understood (Neil MacGregor Quotes) The collapse of the Tower of Babel is perhaps the central urban myth. It is certainly the most disquieting. In Babylon, the great city that fascinated and horrified the Biblical writers, people of different races and languages, drawn together in pursuit of wealth, tried for the first time to live together - and failed (Neil MacGregor Quotes) Google the name Prometheus, and see how often it has been given to innovations in many different fields, notably science, medicine and space exploration. The fire he stole can be seen, too, as the spark generating all artistic creativity (Neil MacGregor Quotes) Objects let you tell a narrative that encompasses everybody. Texts don’t (Neil MacGregor Quotes) Objects are better than text at conveying narrative (Neil MacGregor Quotes) From the point where our ancestors started making tools, people have been unable to survive without the things they make; in this sense, it is making things that makes us human (Neil MacGregor Quotes) For a million years the sound of making handaxes provided the percussion of everyday life. Anyone choosing a hundred objects to tell a history of the world would have to include a handaxe (Neil MacGregor Quotes)