National Museum of Scotland

Visited the National museum of Scotland today. Very large, took most of the afternoon to just breeze through everything. A few of the gems:

The Lewis Chessman: Chess pieces dating back to the 12th century, made out of walrus ivory. One of the oldest complete chess sets in the world.

Mary Queen of Scots tomb

There was a very interesting section on the death rites in early Scotland. Mourning periods were long; for a parent the mourner wore black for at least a year. Another interesting piece was a group of 17 mini caskets, found on Arthur's seat in 1836. No one knows what they are, why they were there. They were very detailed; the little figures are hand carved with custom clothing, hand painted in lots of detail. One guess is that they represent the 17 people Burke and Hare killed and then proceeded to sell the bodies for dissection at the University. Others think that they were used for witchcraft, or perhaps by sailors for good luck.