About two summers ago, I took the train from Norristown to the 30th Street Station in Philly and walked about 1-2 miles to the West Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. This was an exceptional museum based on others I have visited in the past. The quality of the presentations, the artifacts, the mummies, and the impressive displays made this a trip worthwhile. I have been visiting several different kinds of museums through the years and the greatest one I think is Wright Airforce Museum in Dayton, Ohio. My dad and I visited it twice and what a spectacular sight to see! From the beginning of the history of aviation to present-day, it is a trip worth pursuing. Another museum worth visiting is the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburg. I was amazed at how many displays they had and how many different categories were addressed from the Indians, to precious gems and jewels, to the dinosaurs, to ancient civilizations, the Carnegie Museum with its four floors, had just about everything. You could never spend too much time there. So anyway, here are a few pictures (there are more) of my time there and all that The West Penn Museum offered....
This display case is from the Ancient Greeks. The whole floor was devoted to Worlds Intertwined,
or the ancient Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans.
The Nippur Dig. Here is a link to explain it.
The Law Stele of Hammurabi, supposedly the first law-giver which I say, NOT!! Moses was of course. Hammurabi was the most famous of the early Babylonian rulers, "there is a large number of his diplomatic records that survive, which documents his crafty rise to power" (Backman 39). Hammurabi issued a set of laws which were known as the Code of Hammurabi. Of course, it was meant to be a permanent record of his "greatness." Most steles dug up or found are monuments of a king or great leader that boasts of their conquests.
And lastly, The Epic of Gilgamesh and our lovely monster Humbaba the great who stars in the Epic written by an anonymous scribe in Babylon. Gilgamesh never found eternal life which was his quest in the Epic and so man today is still on that quest through the philosophy of Transhumanism because man just has to be god. Just like at the Tower of Babel when God confounded the tongues of men because they wanted to go their way instead of God's. The Towel of Babel explains the multitude of languages that we have in our world today.
References:
Backman, Clifford R. Cultures of the West. Oxford University Press, 2016