The beginning and end of time
Almost all stories
describing the creation of the world we live in include
explanations of how the sun, moon and stars came into being, giving
us day, night and the seasons. These phenomena are our basic
measuring blocks for time. An interesting question raised by this
is whether time exists if nobody measures it?
The Museum collection can give us an insight into how some cultures
have viewed ideas of eternity, reincarnation and cycles of
time.
Cycles of time
In the Hindu world, the god Shiva appears as Lord of the Dance –
Nataraja - at the end of one cosmic cycle and the beginning of the
next. He is therefore associated with both creation and
destruction.
In his hands he holds both destructive fire and the double-sided
drum, the sound of which, summons up new creation. Traditionally,
time in India is considered to be cyclical, rather than linear, as
it is in the West.
The end of time
People in most cultures are fascinated by imagining the end of
time and express their visions through the objects they create.
Whether through natural or manmade causes, apocalypse, or the
end of the world, features highly in our social consciousness. The
threats of war, famine, disease and death are as relevant today as
they were thousands of years ago.
A sculpture carried in the Mexican Day of the Dead annual
celebrations from the 1980s depicts the Atomic Apocalypse,
referring to political events such as the threat of nuclear
war.
Several centuries earlier, this fifteenth century English
alabaster carving of the end of the world was created. Though
separated by hundreds of years, both objects show how art has been
used to remind people of their impending doom.
People have always considered the passage of time and what it
means, as well as how it started and how it will end. Modern
scientists are still investigating theories of time, space and the
origin of the universe.
More information about objects featured here (from
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