Babylon Exhibition at the British Museum

A small collection of artifacts from ancient Babylon, but impressive nevertheless. I was pleased that all the pieces were put into context and brought in the nuggets of stories I vaguely

remembered from my childhood - so the Hanging Gardens, Daniel in the lions' den, Belshazzar's Feast, and the Tower of Babel. I was very taken by the ceramics taken from the processional route to Nebuchadnezzar's great city, so bright and fresh, even after close on 3000 years. I was fascinated by the written materials too, the tiny, almost microscopic writing on minute pieces of pottery or cylinders. There were useful maps extensive labelling, and Babylon-related pictures from medieval to modern times. It also made you realise how much we owe to that remarkable period of history - a period of civilisation in the middle east (the site of Babylon is just south of modern day Baghdad) when there was little evidence of a civilised life in the British Isles. The current system of hours divided into 60 minutes stems from Babylon, for this was a place of scientific developments. All in all a terrific exhibition and worth a rating of 8/10