Hercules Hercules!!!!

Day 5: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities)

So today was a late starting day due to the late night last night. I could not for the life of me fall asleep and I think finally fell asleep somewhere around 3 am then woke up around noon. I didn't do much before two besides take pictures of my dorm room and out my window.

A look outside my room! I am so excited there are trees and they will soon be green! 

Another picture that was taken from my window. I love how big the windows are here! You can see forever! 

My dorm room. Look mom it is clean! The bed is even made! :) 

I have to get me one of these wire things for all my jewelry back home! 

Another picture of the huge window. You can't see the whole thing because my bed covers the other half  which goes all the way down to the floor.

Well that is enough of my dorm until I get bored again. A group of us went to the "Mummy Museum" this afternoon. Of course there were more than mummies there, but this museum, outside of Egypt, has the largest collection of mummies in the world, at least that is what I thought I heard. We also saw things from the Greek and Roman empires, the ancient Near east, stuff found in and around Lieden, in other words in the Netherlands, and a special exhibit called Etrusken or Etruscan. Pretty much everything was in dutch so it made it really hard to learn what anything was....so I googled this and found out that it is the ancient civilization of Italy. Since I took a million and one pictures there I will chose a couple from each place and post them here! 

Me standing by some Egyptian Calligraphy.

Mummies! Enough said! 

These are coffins from a later period in ancient Eygpt. They are so artistically painted because they were put into a mass grave site due to people plundering the tombs. 

A mummified crocidile! They used to mumify everything. In this exhibit there were also monkeys, birds

I was so excited when I saw these! That is right we love fertility! I knew what these were even if I couldn't read the dutch caption! Way to go Jessica De Vega and her Women and Religion course! 

Christian or Heathen?  Lebanon and Syria started to burry the rich in these lead sarcophagi in the 3rd century AD. They don't know if this sarcophagus from Lebanon belonged to a "heathen" or a Christian because there are motifs of both fish and vines (Christians) and sphinxes and gorgons (heathens) on the outside.

This little guy, or should I say big owl came from the Roman empire. I was so excited to see an owl, I couldn't help but take a picture on him! 

This guy was found in the Roman empire time period. He made me laugh so I had to post him. I couldn't believe that he was made then.

Alright! ATHENA! She is one of my favorite greek goddesses! So awesome! I literally jumped up and down when I saw her! 

So when I saw that these were pots with Hercules  on them, I instantly said, "When are they going to start moving around and singing!" Dang you Disney for getting my hopes up! They don't really sing in real life!

Dames! All of these are women figurines found in ancient Greece.

 This is a roman mask found in Leiden. At one point this was Roman territory.

 I thought that these things looked like owls. I don't know exactly what they are, but they were in the same case with the Roman mask. I am assuming that they are Roman, but I don't know.

This is the smartest thing ever! Thank you rich Leiden women back in the day. In the center is a ring and around it are all of the stones that are interchangeable. One ring that can be worn a million and one ways! 

There were a lot of pictures and minimal story telling. I promise that if not tomorrow, tuesday for sure will be more writing! After that I don't know how much of my blogs will be interesting as I start my intensive Dutch 1 class. Two and a half weeks of five hour classes to learn the language! Bring it on! 

The pretty picture of the day!