Nimrud in the British Museum

Описание: On my way to excavate at Nimrud in the Spring of 2023 I stopped in the British Museum. Many British archaeologists have worked at Nimrud over the past 200 years, including Austen Henry Layard (1840s), William Kennett Loftus (1850s), and Max Mallowan (1950s). Some of the objects they excavated are stored in the British Museum and there's an entire gallery of stone reliefs from the site on display.

I wanted to refresh my memory on Neo-Assyrian representational styles and see some of these large monuments. And as I went, I recorded a bit of my observations and ramblings. I was not there on official business and this video is not sponsored or endorsed by the British Museum. Any mistakes I make or opinions I give are my own.

Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that the Assyrians had some sort of alien guidance in making such impressive objects. Did they have anti-gravity technology, military tanks, and diving gear? I'll show a few images that have been (rarely and with no evidence) interpreted that way. The obvious answer, however, is no. As science fiction ideas, however, they're fun and I'd like to write a short story that has the Neo-Assyrians utilizing some of these technologies. If you haven't read any of my sci-fi stories (most not related to the ancient world in any way) you could do worse than start with a futuristic one I wrote ten years ago that was turned into an audio version and recapped in 2020 on Escape Pod:
https://escapepod.org/2020/06/12/esca...

Enjoy!

timestamps for video chapters:
00:00 intro
00:39 stelae (monuments)
01:17 apkallu reliefs
03:32 warfare reliefs
05:08 river crossing
05:47 lion statues
06:53 outro