Today, together with some friends from RAT , I went to Bonn to see two exhibitions, viz. Egypt's Sunken Treasures and War and Peace. Celts, Romans and Germans.

Sadly, photography at the first exhibit was strictly 'verboten'. There wasn't much I would have liked to photograph - Egyptian stuff means 80% religion and cult objects - but there was a nice Chalcidian helmet, some butt-spikes, sling bulletsand other miscellaneous items from Alexandria that I would have liked to add to my collection. I keep getting good proposals for Hellenistic articles, but they are difficult to illustrate!

The Rheinisches Landesmuseum, housing the other exhibition just opened a second, smaller exhibition that was recently in Nijmegen (travelling exhibitions seem to be en vogue now): Behind the silver mask. Having seen that already, I didn't expect much different, but they appeared to have a few extra masks and, as a gimmick, a reproduction mask that anyone could try on. Hilarity ensued, of course, but it was interesting to notice that the view is pretty good from the inside.

The exhibition on Celts, Romans and Batavians was definitely worth the trip. The Bonn museum had taken several figurative tombstones out of storage, as well as the contents from several grave finds and items on loan from other museums. Illuminating to see the equipment of some early auxiliaries in light of the Roman festival to be held this Summer here in Nijmegen. More on that later.