I was lucky enough to win free tickets for The World of Stonehenge exhibition at The British Museum (from Silver Travel Advisor no less!) I have always been interested in Stonehenge, in fact I often took my son there many years ago back in the days when you could actually sit on the stones! I have also passed by the site many times when my family has been driving that way to continue our ongoing walk on the South West Coastal Path. So I was pleased to receive the tickets and invited a friend to join me. It is always a pleasure visiting The British Museum as it is such a lovely building and there are always a lot of things to see which are free as well as the temporary exhibitions that you have to pay for.
However I have to admit I was a little disappointed as the exhibition shone no new light on the mysterious Stonehenge. The exhibition was more about the hunter gatherers of the Mesolithic period and the artists and astronomers of the late Bronze Age. It tells the story of people’s changing ideas, skills and beliefs throughout 3000 years of prehistory.
There were some interesting artifacts such as green stone axes from the Italian alps, the amazing Nebra Sky disc from Germany, decorated stones from Orkney and most impressively an entire timber monument known as Sea Henge from Norfolk.
So the exhibition is more about the people who were around when the monument was built.
Unusually for the British Museum exhibitions there seemed to be no designated route around the exhibits and this meant people were going in all different ways and there were small crowds around the more popular items.
It was a pleasant morning but I am afraid I am a little disappointed that I was none the wiser about Stonehenge! Although I would recommend a visit, I feel the name could have been better worded to show what the exhibition is actually about!
The exhibition runs until 17th July 2022.
