Museums and Milkshake

Another blow struck in the name of culture, today visited Forgotten Empir: the world of Ancient Persia at the British Museum. I'm reading a bit of Greek history at the moment so it's interesting to see, first-hand, treasures from Herodotus' evil empire, especially as the show includes pieces from the museum of Tehran that have never been let out of Iran before (which is nice, given the current political furore).
Much better than the crowded and confusing Aztec exhibtion at the Royal Academy a couple of years ago, the displays are well-lit, given plenty of space and decent notes, which made it all the more disappointing that a whole room in the small exhibition space was devoted to the Cyrus Cylinder. Admittedly an important artefact, but it's in the Museum's permanent display (like the Rosetta Stone and *cough* the Elgin Marbles) so is scarcely as momentous a display piece as the Tehran collection. Leaving this aside, the aggrandisement of the cylinder (which includes a display of postage stamps and medals featuring its image) seemed rather vulgar and not to do the Iranian exhibits the justice they deserve.




No wonder I needed a serious dose of sugar from the Cookies and Cream cafe (lunch as seen above - the milkshake is Malteaser flavour fyi)