The Treasures of the British Museum
Gary A. Rendsburg / Rutgers University
The British Museum in London is the oldest national museum in the world, established in 1753, belonging neither to the church nor to the monarch, but rather to the people of Great Britain. Moreover, its 8 million (!) objects constitute the largest assemblage of artefacts, antiquities, and curiosities in the world. When the museum was created it also included a superb collection of medieval manuscripts, though that material eventually made its way to the newly founded British Library in 1997. The result is a simply astounding collection of world culture, gathered into a single institution.
Join us for this virtual tour of the British Museum, home to the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, the Gilgamesh Epic, the Cyrus Cylinder, Assyrian wall reliefs, the Sutton Hoo treasures, the Vindolanda letters, the Lewis Chessmen, and more – all of which will be presented and discussed by Professor Gary Rendsburg, who has spent countless hours in the British Museum over the course of his 40-year academic career.
Gary A. Rendsburg serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History at Rutgers University. His teaching and research focus on the Bible, ancient Israel, ancient Egypt, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Hebrew manuscript tradition, and Jewish life in the Middle Ages. Rendsburg has visited all of the major archaeological sites of Israel, Egypt and Jordan, excavated at Tel Dor and Caesarea, and conducted extensive research on medieval Hebrew manuscripts at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the Cambridge University Library, and the Vatican Library in Rome. Professor Rendsburg is the author of seven books, including his most recent: How the Bible Is Written.