British Museum to loan six Lewis chessmen to Scotland

Six of the Lewis chessmen are to go on permanent display at Lews Castle, Stornoway, from 2014 as part of a loan agreement between the Western Isles Council and the British Museum. 

The medieval chess pieces will be displayed in a new museum funded by a £4.6m Heritage Lottery Fund grant and supported by National Museums Scotland (NMS) and the British Museum. 

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum at the British Museum

Without Mount Vesuvius, we would know far less about life in the Roman world than we do. What is good fortune for today’s archeologists, historians and scholars, though, was rather less lucky for the citizens of the two towns that lay at the base of the mountain.

It is a point that is made clearly at the British Museum’s major spring exhibition: Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

The erruption of AD79 that brought with it disaster served also to preserve an intimate snapshot of Roman life, from election posters, to portraits, to a carbonised loaf of bread complete with the name of the slave who made it.

Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition at the British Museum

In Spring 2013 the British Museum will present a major exhibition on the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, sponsored by Goldman Sachs. 

This exhibition will be the first ever held on the cities at the British Museum and the first such major exhibition in London for almost 40 years. 

Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam at the British Museum

An early depiction of the sacred

The British Museum’s latest exhibition: Hajj Journey to the Heart of Islam tells the tale of the pilgrimage that is central to the Muslim Faith and represents one of the Seven Pillars of Islam.

Using an impressive array of objects it assesses how the journey has changed over the years and the artistic creations it has inspired.

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, says: ‘We wanted visitors to the exhibition to get some sense of what the experience of the Hajj means. At one level it is a theological and religious experience. At another it is arguably the greatest logistical challenge on the planet.