Voices from The Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World, British Museum

Maya maize god (audio description)

Rosetta Stone (audio description)

Explore the fish scale fabric and the articulated Koi carp. Take deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Smell the scent of the pink lotus flowers.

1. Articulated figure of a carp

Use the kaleidoscope lens to explore the dish.

Try twisting the viewer from side to side to make the patterns dance.

You can use the kaleidoscope lens to explore lots of other objects on the trail.

3. Shunsai

As you handle the blue glass nuggets, smell the cool, clear scent of peppermint.

Use the coloured torches to shine a light onto the sculpture – green works especially well – and play with the glass nuggets. 

Try different distances and look at the piece from different sides.

4. Amorphous Contact

Use coloured torches to explore the sculpture and find hidden hands and faces.

3. Translated Vase 2018 TVG 1

Cup the rice bowl in your hands and feel the temperature of the porcelain, its thickness and weight.

Stroke the calligraphy brush on your skin, try using it to write your initials on the palm of your hand.

Smell the Oolong tea.

6. Blue ceramics

Unwrap and explore the pottery shards. Try using the coloured torches to explore the pottery inside the cabinets.

Take a rest on the bench and smell the lavender.

4. Purple glazed ceramics

5. Red glazed ceramics

The British Museum cares for a large collection of tao'a (treasures) from the Pacific island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), many of which are seen as living entities and extensions of people. Over the years, these collections have been a significant resource for the community and the centre of multiple collaborative projects, including the making of Recalling Home.  

This audio offering honours the relation of Rapanui tao'a, including two moai: Hoa Hakananai'a, and Moai Hava. Created in collaboration with Rapanui artists and scholars, the offering is a composition of natural and human-made sounds recorded to evoke a day on Easter Island. Bringing the sounds of their island to London acts as a bridge between Rapa Nui and the Museum, attempting to shrink the space between the treasures and home.

This audio is composed of a variety of sounds, including seabirds, woodcarving, city traffic, ocean waves and fire accompanied by guitar, flute and human voices.

Duration: 16 minutes 32 seconds

Recalling Home – A Soundscape Offering

1. Aggregation AP031, Star 7

My Name Is Shiva

Sample content from the Museum's audio guide, available in 10 languages. 

britishmuseum.org/visiting/planning_your_visit/audio_guides.aspx

365 - Book of the Dead of Hunefer

171 - Sculpture titled Tree of Life

101 - The Holy Thorn Reliquary

It wasn’t only people that were evacuated from London during the Second World War. Antiquities and works of art were moved outside of the capital in their thousands. Relocated to stately houses, abandoned tube stations and purpose-built, climate-controlled bunkers – this is the story of how the British Museum pulled off ‘the biggest, mass evacuation of objects in any museum’s history.’

Music: 'Flashing Swords'&nbsp;– Cats on the Beach: http://www.catsonthebeach.net/
© Cats on the Beach 2015

'Tech Toys'&nbsp;– Lee Rosevere: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere
© Lee Rosevere 2015
Used and adapted under Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The Suicide Exhibition (part 1)

William Dalrymple is a Scottish historian and writer, art historian and curator, as well as a prominent broadcaster and critic. His specialism is the Asian subcontinent.

His books have won numerous awards and prizes, including the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the Hemingway, the Kapuściński and the Wolfson Prizes. He has been four times longlisted and once shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. He is also one of the co-founders and co-directors of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival.

William Dalrymple on tobacco and the Mughal pursuit of beauty #Voices

Jim Al-Khalili on the astrolabe and the Islamic world's contribution to science #Voices

Qaisra Khan: the Ka'ba tile - a memento of pilgrimage #Voices

Yusuf / Cat Stevens is a British singer-songwriter and philanthropist, born and raised a stone's throw from the British Museum, WC1. He penned some of the most treasured songs in Pop/Folk history, including 'Father and Son', 'Wild World' and 'First Cut is the Deepest' selling over 80 million records in a career spanning over 50 years. He famously converted to Islam in 1977 turning his back on the Music industry to focus his attention on charity and education. In 2006 Yusuf returned to popular music and touring using music as a bridge between different cultures and faiths.

Yusuf/Cat Stevens: Music, Islam and why I still carry a guitar #Voices

Narguess Farzad: From tiles to bumper stickers, the lasting power of Persian epic poetry #Voices

James Allan on the history of Iranian alams #Voices

Reza Shah-Kazemi on the catharsis of the Muharram procession #Voices

Farouk Topan: Global vs local Islam in East Africa #Voices

Mina Salama playing the ney #Voices

Irving Finkle: Chess and backgammon - world conquerors #Voices

This month presenters Hugo and Sushma chat with Ceri Ashley who is coordinating the brand new endangered material knowledge project, a project dedicated to preserving the more intangible aspects of human culture and with Nick Kendall one of the longest serving members of staff at the Museum who knows the buildings of the Museum inside out. Francesca Hillier introduces the archives and tells us about a strange new find that has been presented to the archives. Object of the Month is the Aylesford bucket presented by Julia Farley, curator of British and European Iron age collections

The Museum Podcast #1: Buckets of the British Museum

113. R2, Clock (Audio Description)

101. R2a, Holy Thorn Reliquary of Jean, duc de Berry (Audio Description)

8. Collecting the World (Audio Description)

7. Asia (Audio Description)

6. Ancient Greece (Audio Description)

5. Ancient Egypt (Audio Description)

4. The Americas (Audio Description)

3. A History of the World (Audio Description)

2. Africa (Audio Description)

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition falls on 23 August. 
To mark this date, Hartwig Fischer and Sushma Jansari are joined by guests Olivette Otele and Bonnie Greer to discuss the legacies of slavery, its impact on today’s society, and how museums should respond to these histories both now and in the future. 
The wide-ranging conversation touches on how the British Museum engages with its own history, how it was shaped by empire, questions who ‘writes’ history, and reflects on how museums and institutions can widen access, increase diversity and co-curate effectively. 
 
Bonnie Greer is a writer, playwright, broadcaster, critic and political commentator, and former Deputy Chair of the British Museum.
Olivette Otele is Professor of the History of Slavery at Bristol University and Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society and the Chair for Bristol’s Race Equality Commission.

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

In 1753, Sir Hans Sloane bequeathed his collection of over 70,000 objects to the nation, founding the British Museum’s collection, and those that would become the British Library and Natural History Museum.&nbsp; His collection spanned from natural history specimens to ancient sculpture, plants and contemporary 18th-century objects. But Sloane’s collecting is tied closely to colonialism, empire and slavery – his family profited from sugar plantations in Jamaica worked by enslaved people, and&nbsp;some&nbsp;of the objects in his collection were&nbsp;also&nbsp;collected with assistance from enslaved&nbsp;people. So how do we navigate Sloane’s story in the 21st century? Guests Miranda Lowe and James Delbourgo explore Sloane’s life, collecting and legacy with Hartwig Fischer and Sushma Jansari, and examine the role of slavery and enslaved people in his collection and collecting practices. They also consider how museums should respond to these histories and to figures like Sloane. &nbsp; Miranda Lowe is Principal Curator and museum scientist at the Natural History Museum.&nbsp; James Delbourgo is the James Westfall Thompson Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University, New Jersey.

The Museum Podcast Special: Sir Hans Sloane

This month we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Great Court, so Sian and Francesca head to the archives to find out more about the building of this incredible space. Also from the archives we have an interview with Rentakill hawker Laura alongside Stella the Harris hawk, who used to frequent the Museum to try and rid the outside spaces of pesky pigeons. Curator Irving Finkel also talks about the history of chess and backgammon in excerpts first recorded for the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic world.

The Museum podcast #20: The Great Court at 20

A museum of the world, for the world. Discover over two million years of human history and culture.

THE MUSEUM LOVES TO HEAR FROM YOU

Here's a quick note on commenting:

This channel is an open forum where anyone is welcome to contribute. Discussion is encouraged, but please be aware that any offensive, defamatory, obscene or harassing comments or personal attacks of any kind will be removed. Spamming, repeat submissions of the same (or very similar) contributions or content that is off-topic may also be removed.

See our full code of conduct for social media and SoundCloud here: http://goo.gl/u9E0bd

You can link to and embed these guides, and share the links to them, provided it's for personal, non-commercial use only.  All recordings are (c) The Trustees of the British Museum
© The Trustees of the British Museum

British Museum

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks