The British Museum's collection has grown in many ways over the past three centuries, starting with the 1753 Act of Parliament which purchased for the public Sir Hans Sloane's collection of over ...

The Department of Egypt and Sudan houses an extensive collection that offers unique insights into the peoples and cultures of the Nile Valley, from the Palaeolithic (about 14,000 BC) until the present ...

Mechanical clocks were invented in Western Europe in the medieval period and were first used in cathedrals and churches. Rooms 38–39 trace their development from these earliest examples to complex and ...

The objects in Room 70 illustrate the rise of Rome from a small town to an imperial capital that controlled the Mediterranean basin and north-western Europe and the Near East, extending from Scotland ...

Marvel at the frieze, which was created to decorate the interior of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai, in Room 16. The Temple of Apollo Epikourios ('Apollo the Helper') was built high on a ...

The skilful transformation of ordinary clay into beautiful objects has captivated the imagination of people throughout history and across the globe. Porcelain was first produced in China around AD 600 ...

Conglomerate stela, rectangular, subsequently re-used as a nether millstone: two horizontal registers of hieroglyphs records the names of Shabako and the 'perhaps ancient fiction' of his attempt to ...

The Ancient Levant corresponds to the modern states of Syria (western part), Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Rooms 57–59 present the material culture of the region from the Neolithic farmers of ...

A corridor for trade and the movement of people and ideas, this territory was home to major civilisations. For thousands of years it was a vital link between central Africa, Egypt, the Eastern and ...

British Museum researchers have created a series of free Online Research Catalogues. They combine peer-reviewed introductory essays with carefully selected groups of object records generated from the ...

Discover the rise, influence and decline of Stonehenge across 6,000 years of history. Lying some 150km west of London in the Wiltshire countryside, Stonehenge is perhaps the world's most awe-inspiring ...

In this video, Amandine Mérat introduces a selection of Egyptian textiles from fashion and furniture. Egypt has a long history of textile production dating back to the fourth millenium BC. Where in ...