Page 163
Ground Floor. BERLIN. Section 5. 129
and Schliemann's Trojan Collections; the two upper floors are
devoted to the Ethnographical Collections, which rival in extent and
scientific value those in the British Museum. —Adm. see p. 37;
the official guide (1906; 50 pf.) is not clearly arranged. As the collec¬
tions are constantly being added to and the arrangement of the
exhibits altered, visitors are referred to the directing arrows
and instructions on the door-posts of the rooms and to the labels
attached to the various objects.
Court. — The Vestibule, the ceiling of which is adorned with
a mosaic of the planets, and the adjoining glass-covered Court,
which is surrounded by galleries, contain the larger objects, not¬
ably numerous sculptures in stone from Mexico and Central
America. In the vestibule is a colossal Buddha from Japan. In
the middle of the court, a large outrigged boat from the Bismarck
Archipelago; opposite the entrance, a plaster cast, 33 ft. in height,
of the E. door of the great tope of Sanchi in Central India,
dating from the 3rd cent. B.C., and adorned with reliefs from Indian
mythology and history; to the left and right are two Indian totem
poles from Canada, and on the right the chariot of a god from Orissa
in S. India, and a plaster cast of a monolithic gateway in Bolivia.
In the corridors at the sides are large dug-out canoes.
Ground Floor. — To the left of the vestibule are the Prehistoric
Collections. The Anteroom contains the European antiquities, with
the exception of those of German origin, which occupy Rooms I-IV.
The gold and silver objects in R. II, the tree-coffins and the skeleton-
tombs of the later stone age, found near Merseburg, in R. Ill, and
the objects taken from the burial-ground near Reichenhall (5-7th
cent. A.D.) in R. IV are of special interest.
Room V, partly belonging to the ethnographical department,
contains the * Peruvian, Antiquities collected by Prof. Bassler (see
also R. VI on the first floor; p. 130). At the end of the room are
collections from Persia, Turkestan, Siberia, Mongolia and the
country of the Ainos (aboriginal inhabitants of Japan).
The Rooms to the right of the court contain the *Schliemann
Collections, presented by the distinguished discoverer (d. 1890) to
the German Empire. Most of the objects were excavated in 1871-82
on the site of ancient Troy, including the famous series of gold
articles, formerly called the 'Treasure of Priam' (in the 2nd Room).
In 1909 this collection is to be transferred to the Antiquarium in
the Old Museum (p. 74).
First Floor. — The Corridor contains antiquities from South¬
ern Peru and Argentina and life-size figures and other carvings
from North Cameroon. — Proceeding to the left, we enter —
Room I. Africa. Close to the door is a * Collection of Bronze
Objects from Benin, being some of those obtained by the British
in the West African expedition of 1897: heads of negroes; reliefs
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