Posted on November 23, 2009 - by MG
A Night in the British Museum
Yaxchilan lintel 35 and some of its fans
Those lucky Young Friends of the British Museum get the bonus treat of being allowed to attend up to 4 sleeppvers a year. Last weekend was a special Moctezuma-themed event, featuring storytelling about the Mexican Day of the Dead, warrior head-dress making, Mexican folklore from Mexicolore…and then some Mayan hieroglyph deciphering with me.
Meanwhile publicist Alex from Scholastic and I enjoyed being set free in the British Museum at night. We saw some strange stuff up in the Mesopotamian gallery, near the remains of the Temple of Ninhursag… but I won’t say any more.
What a great wheeze though! Picnic and sleep amongst one of the greatest (perhaps THE greatest) collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts outside of Cairo. All this an education too.
MG and Alex in the Egyptian gallery. At night!
It did bring joy to my nerdly heart to see more than 150 youngsters faithfully copying glyphs from a 6th century Mayan inscription, deciphering them and then standing up to present their translations to their fellow code-crackers. Round midnight, too!
Thanks to Claire Johnstone from the British Museum for inviting me, to Sky and Alex for helping with all four events, and to the very kind Simon Martin of Penn Museum for giving us his translation of the inscription.
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The MG Harris Blog
Website of MG Harris, author of the children's book series "The Joshua Files".Information for school visits and events.
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November 23, 2009
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This sleepover sounds a wonderful idea. Why didn’t they do exciting things like this when I was young?
At a recent work meeting a young writers sleepover was discussed. Historical buildings & museums were suggested. We must follow up on this.
Kat
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December 11, 2009
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[...] an amazing few weeks. There was the British Museum gig, which will rank as one of the highlights of my authorly life, I’m sure. Then my TV interview [...]
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February 9, 2011
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I deciphered the code in book 2.The password is “Ninhursag”the earth and mother goddess one of the major deities of ancient Sumer
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February 9, 2011
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by the way I posted it here because it says ninhursag in the blog post
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February 10, 2011
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Absolutely correct, Curtis. Do you know what the password is for?
If not, try looking at this site as a starting point.
http://whereisgabibeltran.blogspot.com