Is the Queen Ishtar?

Went to the British Museum with my mate K today.

It was a gorgeous day and not really the kind of weather for museum visits so we decided to only visit the rooms I had planned. This was especially handy since K hadn't visited those rooms when he was at the museum a fortnight before.

We went to the Assyrian rooms (6-10) where I wanted to see Ashurnasirpal II's stuff - particularly his human/bull statues but also the reliefs that once decorated his palaces.

The main reason I was there though was to see some of the stuff they have from Ur and the Queen of the Night , a relief which probably stood in a brothel 3,000 years ago. Not only is it beautiful and alluring (she, as I said to K at the time, has lovely tits), but it is also a sign of everyday life at the birth of civilisation and I like those more everyday things just as much as the grand 3 metre statues that guard palaces. The crude statues of wide eyed worshippers left as offerings tell me more about life in cities 5,000 years ago than massive stone bull-men.

Having said that, the massive statues are lovely too.

I bought a guidebook and a wee book about the Queen of the Night at the giftshop. I wanted a poster of the Standard of Ur 'cos it's lovely, but there weren't any posters so I was disappointed for a wee bit, but then K got his mate who works at the museum to ring my stuff through and I got 30% off so I soon cheered up!

Had a spliff next to the BM's lovely lawn and went for a pint in Soho after three hours 'cos it was too good a day for being lost in a museum.