Jill Cook

This is an informal catalog of the exhibit "Living with gods" at the British Museum, which I saw Feb.25, 2018. It is a selection of artifacts related to religious beliefs and practices world-wide. Though it includes items fro all the major religions, it may have more representation proportionately of the local animist traditions than the "great" religions. It covers a wide range of times and places and the objects are arranged by functional categories rather than by religion or region. The thesis of the exhibit is that belief in some kind of supernatural power is a (virtually) universal human trait. To me the most interesting single item was the oldest, the "lion-man" from Stadel, Germany carved about 40,000 years ago from mammoth ivory, with the head of a cave lion and the body of a man, very reminiscent of later Egyptian (or Nubian, e.g. Apedemak) gods. Apparently this statue is believed to be the oldest specific image of a supernatural being, though other items possibly related to religious/magical belief have been found.… (plus d'informations)