Page:A guide to the Department of Greek and Roman antiquities in the British museum (IA guidetodepartmen00britiala).pdf/13



Scope of the Guide.The present guide may roughly be described as dealing with such material remains of the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome as are in the possession of the Trustees of the British Museum.

To define its scope more precisely several exceptions must be mentioned. Thus, Roman objects found in Britain are kept apart, because their primary interest is as illustrations of an early stage of national history. The coins of all places and periods are most conveniently kept together in the Department Coins and Medals. The Greek papyri, including works of Hyperides, Aristotle, Herodas, Bacchylides, and others, are grouped with other manuWhere the streams of later Egyptian and Greek scripts of a later period. histories mingle, it is impossible to make a complete separation of the two. The glass of all periods is for the most part collected in the Glass and Ceramic Room, and some of the finest pieces of Roman silver plate have been placed in the Early Christian Room. The objects bequeathed by Sir A. Wollaston Franks are for the present kept together, and some fine Greek bronzes are shown in the Waddesdon Bequest.

Method of the Guide.The method followed, so far as the arrangement of the collections permits, is that of tracing the historical progress of each class of objects. (A table is annexed to show the mutual relations of the various classes in respect of date.) For convenience in using the Guide, the objects in one room are generally described together. Sometimes, however, the visitor is taken through rooms, on his path, to which he is brought back later, to study their contents. Thus, from the Entrance Hall, we pass through the Roman Gallery (p. 93) and Graeco-Roman Rooms (p. 81), and begin with the sculptures in the Archaic Room.