Coptic Sarcophagus

When viewing this Coptic looking sarcophagus I couldn't help but giggle thinking of how much it looks like he had an accident.

Carved Heiroglyphics

Japanese Armour

Tanto

Dagger (Tanto) and a dagger mounting.
The tanto is a short sword or dagger. This one was made by a medieval sword smith called Kunimitsu, working in the 1300s and must have been a treasured heirloom. The mounting includes a scabbard, hilt and guard, as well as a small knife that fits into the handle.
Samurai women learned how to use daggers. In extreme situations they were expected to fight, or stab themselves rather than be captured by the enemy.

Japanese Wakizashi

Blade for a wakizashi (companion sword) and a wakizashi mounting.
A companion sword was worn at all times, indoors and out, by men of the samurai class. This example has been taken apart so that you can appreciate the many pieces that make up the mounting.
They are:
Tsuba - Sword Guard
Hilt
Scabbard
Seppa (spacers)
Kokatana (utility knife)
Kogai (a pointed metal tool that splits to form chopsticks)
Habaki (a collar to ensure a tight fit of the sword into it's scabbard)
The mountings were made by master craftsmen of the Mino school using a unique Japanese metal called shakudo - an alloy of copper with a small amount of gold and traces of 'mountain metal' (raw copper). This was then inlaid with designs of flowers in gold.
Along the cutting edge of the blade you can see a 'wave pattern', or hamon, in the grain of the steel. Along the back edge of the blade a stylized double-edged sword has been engraved, which is a Tantric Buddhist symbol.

Japanese Screen

Buddha

Vajrasattva

Skeletal Figurine

Deities

Trumpet of Human Bone and Silver

Tibet, 19th century AD
This trumpet, with a human thigh bone for the shaft, is of the type used in exorcisms.

Ceremonial Knife - Thailand

Pak Tai

The tortoise and the snake are a totemic symbol of Pak Tai, the king of the dark northern heavens. Pak Tai is the patron God of the Taoist martial arts sects based on Wudang mountain in Hubei province. He is one of the four heavenly kings.

Chinese pottery tiles

Monster mask From the Xiudingsi pagoda near Anyang, Henan province Tang dynasty.

Pottery wall tile decorated in relief with a fierce figure (possibly Pak Tai or an anthropomorphic phoenix deity) who has feet with two toes and hands with four fingers, fighting with a snake.
From the Xiudingsi pagoda near Anyang, Henan province Tang dynasty, 9th century AD.

The Four Heavenly Kings

The Four Heavenly Kings
also known in Chinese as Si Tianwang are considered guardians of the four regions of the cosmos.
They guard the north, south, east and west quadrants of the night sky and have both seasonal elemental and psycho-physical correspondences in addition to their directional significance.
Each holds an object of religious significance to member of the Chinese Buddhist tradition.

The Eight Taoist Immortals

Bronze mountain group of Shoulao and the Eight Taoist Immortals
Qing dynasty, 17th - 18th century AD.

Luohan

Seated Luohan
China, Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644
This seated Buddhist figure is made of iron and inscribed with the date 1494.

Budai

Stoneware figure of Budai under green and ochre glazes.
Henan province
Ming Dynasty, dated twentieth year of Chenghun (AD 1486)
Budai, the fat smiling monk, is an accretion of several legends. He is sometimes regarded as an incarnation of the Future Buddha, the Buddha who will follow Shakyamuni. It is in this role that Budai is placed in the entrance halls to temples and monasteries.

Taoist Deity

This stoneware figure of a Taoist deity with green, turquoise, purple and ochre glazes is dated to the Ming dynasty, 16th century AD.

Taoist figures were modelled on their Buddhist counterparts, It is distinguished from Buddhist deities by its hat, throne and beard (Buddhas were always shaven).

Daoist Scriptures

This octagonal inkcake was formed with the design of a celestial horse carrying Taoist scriptures over the water on the front and the eight trigrams and yinyang symbol on the reverse.

Plaster casts from Yaxchilan

These casts show door and window surrounds from the Maya city of Yaxchilan, Mexico constructed between AD 350 and 850. The casts were taken from Structure 33, one of the finest buildings at Yaxchilan. King Bird Jaguar IV commissioned the building, but he died before it was finished. Bird jaguar's son Itzamnaaj B'alam III, completed the temple to honour his father.
The English pioneer Alfred Maudslay worked at the principle Maya sites between 1881 and 1894. Maudslay photographed his discoveries and made papier mache and plaster moulds. The moulds were used to make plaster casts in London.

Hentakoi

These weird guys are Hentakoi which I believe are from the Nicobar Islands. Hentakoi are wooden figures or boards commissioned by a menluana (doctor-priest) to identify and neutralise spirits responsible for illness or misfortune. In this way they help reassure people that action is being taken to help them. Hentakoi are usually installed in the home but some kinds are placed outside to ward off evil or to promote abundance. Those that work are kept effective through regular rituals, but those that do not may be thrown away. Some hentakoi are naturalistic, others combine different animals, or appear part human. They are often painted in vivid colours.

Central American Flint Knife

Olmec Figurines

Runic Calendar

My apologies for the flash in some of the museum photos, I'd rather show you glared photos than none at all.

This 17th century oblong Norwegian calendar is like a clog almanac but it also has Runic lettering. Early Greek settlers had spread their alphabet throughout the world where it was often adapted into a local form, such as Etruscan, Gothic, Coptic and, in northern Europe, Runic. none of these are in use today. But the angular form of runes made them easy to cut and Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon runes from the 4th to 14th centuries, on wood, stone and brooches provided a wealth of material for Enlightenment scholars to decipher.

Anglo-Saxon sandstone shaft from a cross

From Lowther, Cumbria, England reputedly from the churchyard Late 8th century AD.

The scrolling vine ornament is a symbol of Christ as the True Vine which gives life. Crosses such as this stood as powerful images of the new Christian faith in the landscape of Anglo-Saxon England.

Memorial slab carved in Ogam script

It's a little difficult to tell here, but if you look closely you can see engravings/markings on the edges of this stone, this is the Ogam to which they refer below. This stone was as tall as a grown man.

This is one of three Ogam stones reused in a medieval ring fort, Roovesmoor Rath, County Cork, Ireland. 5th century AD.

In Primitive Irish this reads 'Stone of Vedac, son of Tob of the Sogain'. Ogam script was invented in the south of Ireland in the 4th century and used by Irish settlers in Britain. The notched letters on the edge of the stone read anti-clockwise.

The British Museum - House frontal pole Haida

House frontal pole Haida
British Columbia, Canada, about 1850, red cedar wood.
This 11 metre pole was originally set at the front of Goose or Bear house in the village of Hayang, on Masset Inlet. It was purchased from Chief Wiah of Massett in 1903. At that time the village of Kayang had already been anandoned after the local community was devastated by epidemics of introduced diseases.
From top to bottom the pole features crests of a chief holding a talking stick, a sea-grizzly (sea monster), a shaman holding two rattles made of puffin beaks, a large whale and a sea-grizzly between the tail fins of a killer whale. Riding on the sea-grizzly's head is a small human figure.

The Secret War - The SOE - Special Operations Executive

The role of the SOE was to fight an 'ungentlemanly' war of espionage behind enemy lines against the axis of powers in Europe or as Churchill famously put it, "to set Europe ablaze".



The secret War exhibition at the Imperial War Museum reveals the clandestine world of espionage, covert operations, and the work of Britians special forces. It shows how Britans secret government agencies MI5 and MI6, have developed since their establishment before the First World War, and how specialist communications technology has been used to gather intelligence and break top-secret codes.

Salvaged from the Admiral Graf Spree

This is all that we saw of the Admiral Graf Spree, one of the most famous German naval warships of World War II.

WWI ANZACS

That's right fellow Aussies, I went all the way to London to take a photograph of an Aussie soldier. This quintessential Aussie soldier, standing inside a London Museum made me feel patriotic in a way I'd not felt before.