I've never been to the British Museum, oddly. But I learn today, Easter Sunday, that it contains a series of ivory plaques from a casket which comprise the earliest surviving narrative depiction of the Easter story. Here's the one showing the scene of the empty tomb, with two snoozing soldiers and two rapt women:
It's believed to come from a Roman workshop and was made in around 420-30 AD and is rather lovely.
Alas, as I was reading this first thing today, I saw the horrific news from Sri Lanka.
Easter does seem to have been become a particular target for Islamic terrorists in recent years, from Egypt to Nigeria, from Pakistan to Kenya, etc. And here we are again on the most joyous day of the year for Christians, with Christian worshippers being specifically targeted for massacre.
When will this end?
It will be interesting to see how coverage of the Sir Lankan mass murder is treated on the Beeb (and in places like the Guardian) compared with their treatment of the New Zealand massacre.
ReplyDeleteThe latter was greeted with hysteria about "white supremacy/toxic white masculinity/evil Trump" etc.
I suspect the first concern of the Beeb, Guardian etc today will be that we hug a Muslim. There will also probably be much ruminating about the dangers of an anti-Muslim backlash (which never happens, of course).