A History of the World
<center>In 100 Objects</center>
A History of the World
In 100 Objects
Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, narrates 100 programmes
that retell humanity's history through the objects we have made.
The series spans two million years of history and uses objects
from the British Museum's collection to tell a history of the world
from the earliest times to the present day.
The 15-minute programmes are broadcast Monday to Friday on BBC Radio 4,
and the podcast is published daily.
Beginning in January 2010 the programmes will be broadcast in three tranches through the year.
30 episodes so far. 70 more to go.
As usual, updates are free.
History of the World in 100 Objects - (0001) - Mummy of Hornedjitef
******This is the mummy of Hornedjitef an Egyptian priest who was buried in a coffin,
within a second, outer coffin. Examining his body using CAT scans and X-rays revealed
that he suffered from arthritis and osteoporosis suggesting he was a mature man when he died.
The embalmers have placed four packages inside his torso, probably his lungs, liver, stomach
and intestines. He lived over a thousand years after Tutankhamun and Ramesses the Great
at a time when Egypt was ruled by Greek kings.
Why did the Egyptians mummify their dead?
When ancient Egyptians like Hornedjitef died they believed they were setting off on a journey
from this world to the afterlife. The process of mummification, spells and elaborate coffins enabled
them to travel to the next world. This coffin is decorated with images of gods and extracts from the
Egyptian Book of the Dead. A figure of the sky goddess Nut is painted on the interior of this coffin.
This symbolically locates Hornedjitef in the womb of the goddess, ready to experience rebirth.
In medieval Europe, Egyptian mummies were ground to powder to be used as medicine.
Learning from the people of the past
The bodies of people from the remote past rarely survive as anything other than nameless bones.
The ancient Egyptian priest Hornedjitef is an exception.
Because of their custom of preserving the dead body through mummification and recording the name
in writing, many ancient Egyptians are among us today in museums, with skin, hair, fingernails and
identities all intact. We can even see the faces of the great kings who ‘made history’, noticing that
behind their heroic portrayals in sculpture there were real people with familiar human strengths
and weaknesses.
Looking at a mummy is a powerful and emotive experience, one which can transport us back instantly
through thousands of years, making us feel close to them. Yet at the same time we are aware of how
different their lives must have been from our own.
Beyond these startling encounters, Egyptian mummies have much to teach us. Sealed within their
wrappings and painted coffins, they are a storehouse of information, most of which was never recorded
in writing. Modern scientific techniques allow us to look beneath the wrappings and to gather this evidence
about life and death – how long people lived, what they looked like, what illnesses they suffered from,
how they died, how they were mummified.
In this way we can picture Hornedjitef as a man of mature years, enjoying a privileged life as a
‘servant of the god’, yet suffering from the discomforts of arthritis like any modern man. The writings on his
coffins also tell us when he lived and reveal the religious beliefs and knowledge of the world which learned men
had at that time, including lists of stars which reflect the birth of the science of astronomy.
The learning process does not stop. When Hornedjitef’s tomb was discovered in the 1820s the hieroglyphic
script had just been deciphered. Much of what is written on his coffins was still a mystery then, but now we can
read it all. And after we are gone, he will still remain, unchanged, revealing more about his world as science finds
better ways to gather the answers to its questions.
How exciting it would be to know what our successors might learn from him a hundred years from now.
John Taylor, Curator, British Museum
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0002) - Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool
*******The Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, retells the history of
human development from the first stone axe to the credit card, using 100 selected
objects from the Museum.
Neil goes back two million years to the Rift Valley in Tanzania, where a simple
chipped stone marks the emergence of modern humans.
One of the characteristics that mark humans out from other animals is their desire for,
and dependency on, the things they fashion with their own hands. Faced with the needs
to cut meat from carcasses, early humans in Africa discovered how to shape stones into
cutting tools. From that one innovation, a whole history of human development springs.
Neil tells the story of the Olduvai stone chopping tool with contributions from flint napper Phil Harding,
Sir David Attenborough and African Nobel Prize winner Dr Wangeri Maathai.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0003) - Olduvai Handaxe
*******This handaxe made of green volcanic lava represents a tradition of tool-making
which began about 1.6 million years ago. Smaller handaxes became common handheld
tools used for cutting meat or woodworking. Produced with great skill by ancestors we
would recognize as becoming human, this object shows that manufactured things,
sometimes of distinctive quality, were starting to be important in
the evolution of our behaviour.
Humans spread out of Africa
The makers of handaxes are the first humans to spread across Africa into Central Asia,
the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Handaxes reflect the first great spread of humankind
and the establishment of a way of life in which we recognize the beginnings of our human
characteristics. No humanly made object has ever been manufactured over such a long period
and before the 20th century no other object has spread over such a wide geographical area.
This handaxe is made in the outline shape of a human hand
This artefact is one of the oldest objects in the British Museum that combines function,
design and style in one piece.
The handaxe was found in 1931 by Louis Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, and is
dated to about 1.2 million years ago. It was crafted from a block of hard, green lava called
phonolite by striking the edges with a round pebble. Flakes were removed from across two
faces to create a carefully shaped symmetrical tool with sharp, all-round cutting edges.
Rocks like phonolite are difficult to work, and to me highlight the remarkable skills of their makers.
These hand-held tools would have been efficient for the range of tasks involved in animal butchery from
slicing hide and filleting meat to disjointing carcasses. The efficiency of handaxes is reflected in their
widespread use across Africa, and from a million years ago in Asia and Europe.
Handaxes were first being made in Britain some 600,000 years ago and were still being used by Neanderthals
only 40,000 years ago. One mystery is how these traditions of manufacture were passed on from one generation
to the next over such huge distances and vast lengths of time? Perhaps this is simply an efficient tool that was
reinvented time and again.
Handaxes, however, seem to have been more than simple functional tools. Their symmetry in two, or sometimes three,
planes shows a design beyond the utilitarian.
Some researchers have argued that they were status symbols, perhaps to attract mating partners or indicate power,
while others have suggested that specific shapes were used to indicate group identity.
For me, these remarkable tools reveal not only the skilled craftsman, but also the appreciation of aesthetics in our
earliest ancestors, and are a reflection of the thinking minds of the individuals who made them.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0004) - Swimming Reindeer
******Found in France and dating back 13,000 years, this is a carving of two swimming reindeer -
and it's not just the likeness that is striking. The creator of this carving was one of the first humans
to express their world through art. But why did they do it?
Neil tells the story of the Swimming Reindeer and its place in the history of art and religion with contributions
from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and archaelogist Professor Steven Mithen.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0005) - Clovis Spear Point
******Neil describes an object that dates from the earliest settlement of North America,
around 13,000 years ago. It is a deadly hunting weapon, used by the first inhabitants
of the Americas.
This sharp spearhead helps us understand how humans spread across the globe.
By 11,000 BC humans had moved from north-east Asia into the uninhabited wilderness
of north America; within 2,000 years they had populated the whole continent. How did these
hunters live, and how does their Asian origin sit with the creation stories of modern-day Native Americans?
Including contributions from Michael Palin and American archaeologist Gary Haynes.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0006) - Bird-shaped Pestle
******This bird-shaped pestle was used by early farmers in Papua New Guinea, probably to grind
the vegetable taro in a mortar. People in Papua New Guinea learnt how to grow crops 9000 years ago.
Papua New Guinea was one of seven locations where farming independently developed after the
last Ice Age. The pestle's long neck meant it was too delicate to be used regularly and its bird-shape
suggests it may have been used for pounding food on special occasions.
When did humans start to farm?
Growing plants and raising animals is one of the most important developments in human history.
It was a gradual change that took place over several thousand years about 10,000 years ago. Farming created
an abundant food supply that for the first time could support larger populations. People began to settle in one
place to grow crops rather than being constantly on the move searching for new food sources.
This led to the creation of the first villages.
At about the time objects like this were used, Britain and Ireland were separated by rising sea levels
The mysteries of the bird pestle
This stone pestle was found over 100 years ago by gold miners in the banks of the Aikora River in Oro
in Papua New Guinea.
At the time of its discovery other stone pestles and stone mortars, or bowls, were being unearthed across
British New Guinea and German New Guinea. What was intriguing was that the local people did not know
when they were made or who had made them. Their history was a mystery.
Archaeology is now helping to reveal their story as some have been found among deposits of archaeological material.
The dates of these deposits tell us that these artefacts were made and used between about 8,000 and 3,000 years ago.
The stone pestles and mortars are always found in areas where taro, an edible starchy tuber (or plant stem),
can be grown. This tells us that the objects might have been used to pound cooked taro and local nut products
into a rich edible paste. This dish is still prepared for feasts in a few predominately coastal areas of
Papua New Guinea.
Unlike this pestle, the majority of pestles and mortars are undecorated. Most stone bird pestles have been found in
Papua New Guinea. The largest cluster of finds comes from the shores of a former inland sea, which was in-filled about
4,000 years ago.
Curiously most of the birds sculpted on the handle tops of the pestles found in this cluster have their wings folded
rather than raised like this stone bird pestle.
Birds sculpted with raised wings like this one have been discovered in other areas of the island instead, usually
where only small numbers of other stone mortars and pestles have been found.
Many have been found on major pathways from the coast to highland valleys. Why this should be the case is not
fully understood. It may be related to the trading of bird of paradise plumes between the highlands and the coast.
Pamela Swadling, Archaeologist, Australian National University
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0007) - Ain Sakri Lovers Figurine
******Neil investigates a palm-sized stone sculpture that was found near Bethlehem,
which clearly shows a couple entwined in the act of love. The contemporary sculptor
Marc Quinn responds to the stone as art and the archaeologist Dr Ian Hodder considers
the Natufian society that produced it. What was human life and society actually like all
those years ago? Possibly a lot more sophisticated than we imagine.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0008) - Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle
******This clay model of four cows was made in Egypt over 5000 years ago. It was placed in a grave,
perhaps to provide its owner with food in the afterlife. Cows were revered in Egypt as a source of life in
the harsh desert environment and whole cows were sometimes also buried with people. Later they were
worshipped as the cow goddess Bat - the protector and mother of the pharaoh.
When were cows first domesticated?
Cows were first domesticated in North Africa in 8000 BC. After the Ice Age the earth had grown warmer and
the lush savannah was transformed into the Sahara desert. As the climate became drier people became
restricted to the Nile valley, where they relied on cows for food and as beasts of burden to carry water.
Cows were also domesticated independently in the Middle East and today all cattle across the World
are descendents of these Middle Eastern cows.
When cows were first domesticated people could not drink their milk. It took a long time
for humans to become tolerant.
Tracing the earliest cattle
This figurine shows the form of the earliest domestic cattle in Africa, with high shoulders but without humps
and graceful, lyre-shaped horns. They resemble modern Kuri cattle of Africa’s western Lake Chad.
Genetic studies shed light on when and where cattle were first domesticated. After the Ice Ages, wild cattle
thrived from Pakistan and North India across the Near East into North Africa and Europe. DNA from living cattle
and ancient bones suggests there were three domestications, that all took place 8,000-10,000 years ago.
One domestic line originated in the mountains that run from Turkey through to Iran. Humped cattle like India’s
“sacred cows,” were domesticated around the Indus River Valley in the north-west of the country, and wild African
cattle may have been domesticated in north-eastern Africa.
Modern African breeds have genetic markers that show they descend from a common regional gene pool.
Europe’s cattle breeds descend from Southwest Asian stock which had been introduced into Europe by 7,500 years ago.
The remains of the earliest known African domestic cattle date to about 7,800 years ago. Humped cattle, including
cross breeds common in Africa today, have South Asian ancestors.
Art from the time, made in the then-green Sahara, depicts spotted cows like these, with curving horns and full udders.
Later Egyptian tomb paintings show cattle pulling plows and being milked.
These pottery cattle were buried to offer help in the afterlife.
Professor Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, Anthropologist, University of California
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0009) - Maya Maize God Statue
******Neil focuses on the world of the Mayan civilisation and a stone Maize God,
discovered on the site of a major Mayan city in present-day Honduras. This large
statue is wearing a headdress in the shape of a giant corn cob.
Maize was not only worshipped at that time but the Maya also believed that all their
ancestors were descended from maize. Neil reveals why maize, which is notoriously
difficult to refine for human consumption, became so important to the emerging
agriculture of the region.
Neil is joined by the anthropologist Professor John Staller and the restaurateur
Santiago Calva, who explain the complexity of Mayan mythological belief and the
ongoing power of maize in Central America today.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0010) - Jomon Pot
******Neil tells the story of a 7,000-year-old Japanese clay pot which has
managed to remain almost perfectly intact. Pots began in Japan around
17,000 years ago and by the time this pot was made had achieved
a remarkable sophistication.
Neil explores the history of this cooking pot and the Jomon, the hunter-gatherer
society that made it. Archaeologists Professor Takeshi Doi and Simon Kaner
describe the significance of agriculture to the Jomon and the way in which they
made their pots and used decorations from the natural world around them.
This particular pot is remarkable in that it was lined with gold leaf in perhaps the 18th century
and used in that quintessentially Japanese ritual, the tea ceremony. This simple clay object
makes a fascinating connection between the Japan of today and the emerging world of
people in Japan at the end of the Ice Age.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0011) - King Den's Sandal Label
******The figure holding a mace on this hippopotamus ivory label is King Den.
He was a member of the first dynasty of rulers that united Egypt into a single
state. This label was attached to one of Den's sandals and placed in his tomb
when he died. In front of Den a much smaller enemy cowers. Hieroglyphs on
the label celebrate, 'the first occasion of smiting the east'. They refer to
King Den's military conquests in Sinai, eastern Egypt.
Why did civilisation develop in Egypt?
The world's first states and cities developed in river valleys. Along the Nile in Egypt the annual flooding
created a fertile valley and delta ideal for growing crops. Egypt's individual towns were unified and
governed by a single king, described in later times by the title 'pharaoh'. The pharaoh, however,
was more than just a leader; he was also a representative of the gods and the focus for the state's religion.
Egypt would be ruled by pharaohs for the next 3000 years.
In Den’s time the role of ‘keeper of the sandals’ was a high rank with privileges
Who was King Den?
Den was the fourth ruler of the first dynasty of Egypt and the first to adopt the title ‘King of Upper
and Lower Egypt’. This later became the title used for all Egyptian kings.
When he came to power, the dynasty was well established throughout the country and Egyptian
authority was being extended by military expeditions to the south and east, into Nubia and the Sinai.
Most of our knowledge about Den comes from his tomb at Abydos and the tombs of his high officials
at Saqqara. The limited inscribed material available adds some interesting details, such as the fact that
Den celebrated a jubilee festival and took part in religious ceremonies.
Although the dynastic family came originally from southern Egypt, the court ruled from the city of
Memphis in the north. Den chose to make his own tomb in the south, returning to the region of his origin.
This tomb and its contents have provided most of the information we possess about the material
culture of his reign. The tomb was a large brick-built monument with a burial chamber sunk into the
desert gravel, floored with granite slabs but lined and roofed entirely with wood.
In front of the tomb stood a pair of monumental tombstones inscribed with the name of Den. The idea of
a stairway into the burial-chamber was invented during Den’s reign and used in his tomb as well as those
of others. This enabled the roof of the tomb to be finished before the funeral.
The wealth of Egypt at this time is reflected in the array of goods placed in the tomb as offerings for the
dead king. Even after repeated raids by tomb-robbers, the remains of the tomb equipment included
pieces of fine furniture inlaid with ivory, tools, weapons, metal, stone and pottery vessels,
jewellery and even games.
In addition to these gifts, the king was also accompanied into the afterlife by members of his personal
household staff, over 130 individuals, who were buried in rows of graves around his tomb. Each of these
graves originally had its own small tomb-marker of limestone, inscribed with the name of the occupant.
Higher ranking officials were buried in their own tomb. The names of certain high officials who served under
Den have been preserved on clay seal-impressions. The most important were named Hemaka and Ankhka,
and their tombs on the desert at Saqqara were almost as lavishly equipped as that of Den himself.
Jeffery Spencer, Curator, British Museum
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0012) - Standard of Ur
******What the Standard of Ur was used for remains a mystery but it seems to have royal connections. It was buried
in a royal grave and depicts two contrasting scenes of a king of Ur – identifiable as larger than the other figures.
On one side captured enemy prisoners are presented to the king by his soldiers. On the other side the king enjoys
a ceremonial banquet accompanied by lyre music.
Where did the first cities develop?
Ur in Mesopotamia was one of the earliest cities in the world. The Greek word Mesopotamia means the land between
the rivers and Ur was one of many cities that developed in the fertile plains between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Unlike Egypt at this time, these cities were not unified into a single state but were individual self-governing centres
of power. They were ruled by kings and contained palaces, temples and sophisticated irrigation systems.
The Standard of Ur is the earliest depiction of a vehicle with wheels
The tipping point
We live in a world of cities. In 2010 for the first time in history more of the world’s population lives in cities than in the
countryside. A tipping point passed in Britain over a hundred years ago.
Because of this, it is hard to imagine a world without any towns or cities, or what a major change creating the world’s
first towns and cities must have been. Yet for over 5,000 years people lived in small farming settlements –
farms and villages – over large parts of the world without any towns or cities. That is from 10,000 years ago
to 5,000 years ago.
This long time period, 200 generations, does suggest that there was nothing direct that links the origins of farming
to the emergence of towns and cities 5,000 years ago in southern Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan and north west India.
When thinking about how cities emerged it might be assumed that the average size of a settlement slowly grew so that
small hamlets turned into villages, which in turn grew into large towns or cities. However, archaeological evidence
shows this was not the case. Across the world villages of farmers rarely grew to be larger than housing more than
1,000 or 2,000 men, women and children. So the appearance of towns and cities in the fourth and third millenniums BC
with 10,000 to 40,000 people was a big jump in size – and there are few settlements in the archaeological record that
fall between the two.
What lay behind this is one of the biggest questions in archaeology. To answer it helps to answer an even bigger
question in world history and archaeology – why did states and cities emerge for the first time when they did
and where they did?
It would seem the answer lies in how people worked out how they could live together. It appears that about 2,000 people
is a natural upper limit to the size any group of people can live together without needing layers of administration,
formal political institutions or marked differences in wealth and power. The jump in settlement size to create towns
and cities of up to 40,000 people implies a major change in how people solved the day to day problems of organising
people, resolving disputes between neighbours and allowing people who were actually strangers to each other to live
together in the same settlement.
Whether large settlements were created first, or new ways of organising people to live together came first, is not clear.
But this was a major change in how people lived their lives – you might even describe it as the origins of politics.
It is a change that shaped the rest of world history and we are still working through its ramifications.
JD Hill, Lead curator, A History of the World, British Museum
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*******This seal was found in the 1870s and led to the discovery of an ancient civilisation in the Indus Valley.
It was probably used to close documents and mark packages of goods. This suggests that the Indus civilisation
was part of an extensive long-distance trading network. The animal on this seal was originally mistaken for a unicorn
but is now thought to be a bull. The seals carry the oldest writing in South Asia. It has yet to be deciphered.
What was the Indus Civilisation?
The earliest civilisation in South Asia developed along the Indus river and India's western coast. The Indus civilisation
produced writing, built large cities and controlled food production through a central government. Unlike Egypt and
Mesopotamia, the Indus civilisation was not dominated by powerful religious elites. No temples were built and no
images of state gods or kings have been found. Deforestation, climate change and a series of invasions all contributed
to the Indus civilisation's decline in 1500 BC.
The Indus civilisation had complex sanitation systems and there is even evidence that houses had bathrooms.
Legacy of the Indus Valley civilisation
In 1924 when the civilisation was discovered, India was colonised. So to begin with there was a great sense of
national pride and a sense that we were equal if not better than our colonisers and considering this that the
British should actually leave India. This is the exact sentiment that was expressed in the Larkana Gazette –
Larkana is the district where Mohenjodaro is located.
After independence, the newly created state of India was left with just one Indus site, in Gujarat and a couple of
other sites towards the north, so there was an urgency to discover more Indus sites in India. This has been
among the big achievements of Indian archaeology post-independence – that hundreds of Indus sites today
are known, not only in Gujarat but also in Rajasthan, in Punjab, in Haryana, and even in Utter Pradesh.
The great cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, which were first excavated, are in Pakistan, and subsequently
one of the most important pieces of work on the Indus civilisation was done by a Pakistan archaeologist –
Rafique Mughal (presently a professor at Boston University) who discovered nearly 200 sites in Pakistan
and Cholistan. But my own sense is that on the whole the state of Pakistan has been much more interested,
not exclusively but significantly, in its Islamic heritage so I think there is a greater interest in India as
compared to Pakistan.
There is not a competition but a certain kind of poignant sentiment that I have when I think of India,
Pakistan and the Indus civilisation, for no other reason than that the great remains - the artefacts, the pottery,
the beads etc that were found at these sites - are actually divided between the two states. Some of the most
important objects were actually divided right down the middle – like the famous girdle from Mohenjodaro.
It’s no longer one object, it’s really two parts that have been sundered like pre-independent India into
India and Pakistan - these objects have met with a similar fate.
Nayanjot Lahiri, Professor of History, University of Delhi
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******This jade axe is highly polished and would have taken hours to make. However, it is unmarked and was not used
to cut wood. It was probably a luxury status symbol, indicating its owner's power and prestige. Jade is not found in
Britain and this axe was made from a boulder high in the Italian Alps. It was possibly traded through Brittany in France
and then arrived in England as an object of ceremony or ritual.
How were axes used for farming?
The polished stone axe was a revolutionary tool that transformed society and the landscape after the Ice Age. At the time
Northern Europe was covered in thick forest. Stone axes set in wooden handles allowed people to clear space to plant
crops and graze domestic animals. The earliest known British farmers came from other parts of Europe, crossing the
sea with their animals and seed in small boats. These people later constructed stone monuments at Avebury
and the first Stonehenge.
Jade is prized so highly in China that medals awarded in the 2008 Summer Olympic games contained a ring of jade
More than just a cutting edge
Almost anybody presented with one of these things would just stop in their tracks!
They are stunning and they are not only visually very striking but if you have the good fortune to actually handle one
of these axes the feel in the hand, the balance, the weight, the smoothness – they have been polished to an
extraordinary degree.
We are talking about hour upon hour of grinding against stone and then polishing with fine sand or silt and water
and then rubbing backwards and forwards in the hand, perhaps with grease and leaves, to really get that polish -
that’s days of work. It gives the edge a really sharp and resilient bite to it but the polishing also brings out the shape,
allows the control of form, and brings out that extraordinary green and black speckled quality to the stone – it makes
it instantly recognisable, visually very striking, and maybe those things are equally as important as the cutting edge.
It’s also in some respects so delicate that you really would not want to hit anything harder than a soft cheese in
case it broke! That may suggest that beyond the practical tasks that you can use one of these things for, axes had a
further significance, a significance that came from where they were found, who you got them from, where and when
they were made, the sort of stories that were attached to them.
Sometimes they were tools to be used, and carried and forgotten about, but at other times they would come into focus
as important symbols to be held aloft, to be used as reminders in stories about the broader world, and sometimes to be
handed on – in an exchange with a neighbour, with an ally, with someone you had fallen out with, and perhaps in
exceptional circumstances, on someone’s death, the axe was something that had to be dealt with. It had to be broken up
like the body or buried like the body, and we do have hundreds if not thousands of axes in Britain that appear to have
been given that kind of treatment – buried in graves, deposited in ritual ceremonial enclosures and even thrown
into rivers.
Mark Edmonds, Professor of archaeology, University of York
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0015) - Early Writing Tablet
******Ancient Mesopotamian maths was based on 60, which is why we have
60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. This piece of clay contains
some of the earliest writing in the world. It's called 'cuneiform,' which means
wedge-shaped. This tablet is a record of the daily beer rations for workers.
Beer here is represented by an upright jar with a pointed base. The symbol for
rations is a human head eating from a porridge bowl. The round and
semicircular impressions represent the measurements.
All the signs were produced by a cut reed.
When did writing develop?
The oldest known example of writing comes from Mesopotamia and dates to about 3300 BC. In time
different-looking writing appeared in the river valleys of Egypt, the Indus Valley, China and Central America.
We cannot yet be certain whether writing spread from Mesopotamia, or developed independently in these
civilisations. As Mesopotamian society became more complex, writing allowed administrators to keep an
account of who had been paid and what had been traded. The earliest cuneiform tablets are almost all
records of accountancy.
Ancient Mesopotamian maths was based on 60, which is why we have 60 seconds in a minute and
60 minutes in an hour
The beginnings of a state
This tablet is amazing. For me it’s a first sign of writing but it also tells you about the growth of the early
beginnings of a state. You’ve got a civil service here, starting to come into place in order to record what
is going on. Here is very clearly the state paying some workers for some work that’s been done.
They need to keep a track of the public finances, they need to know how much they have paid the
workers and it needs to be fair.
What’s amazing for me is that this is a society where the economy is in its first stages, there is no currency,
no money. So how do they get around that? Well, the symbols tell us that they have used beer -
beer glorious beer, I think that is absolutely tremendous; there is no liquidity crisis here, they are coming up
with a different way of getting around the problem of the absence of a currency and at the same time sorting out
how to have a functioning state. As this society develops you can see that this will become more and more
important and the ability to keep track, to write things down, which is a crucial element of the modern state –
that we know how much money we are spending and we know what we are getting for it – that is starting to emerge.
This tablet for me is the very equivalent of the cabinet secretary’s notebook, it’s that important.
Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the British Civil Service
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0016) - Flood Tablet
******A small tablet was found in modern Iraq and brought back to the
British Museum. When it was translated, back in 1872, it turned out to
be an account of a great flood that significantly pre-dated the famous
Biblical tale of Noah. This discovery caused a storm around the world
and led to a passionate debate about the truth of the Bible, about
storytelling and the universality of legend. In a week that looks at the
emergence new ways of expression like literature and mathematics,
Neil introduces us first to the British Museum's provocative Flood Tablet.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0017) - Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
******n a week that explores man's early experiments with numbers, Neil describes the
British Museum's most famous mathematical papyrus. This shows how and why
the ancient Egyptians were dealing with numbers around 1550 BC. It contains 84
different calculations to help with various aspects of Egyptian life, from pyramid
building to working out how much grain it takes to fatten a goose. Neil describes it
as 'a crammer for a dazzling career in an ancient civil service'.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0018) - Minoan Bull Leaper
******This bronze figurine depicts a man somersaulting over a bull. It comes from
the island of Crete and was probably used in a shrine or a cave sanctuary. Bulls
were the largest animals on Crete and were of great social significance.
Bull jumping was probably performed during religious ceremonies, although
a leap such as this would have been almost impossible. In Greek myth,
Crete was the home of the labyrinth and the fearsome Minotaur - half bull and half man.
Who were the Minoans?
The Minoan people of Crete built magnificent palaces, developed systems of writing
and were able to make tools and sculptures from bronze. Crete had no natural sources of
copper or tin to make bronze however, and relied on an extensive maritime trade network
to obtain these materials. The Minoans were proficient sailors and traded with Egypt,
Greece and the Middle East. Trade also spread Minoan ideas and art around the
Eastern Mediterranean.
Bull leaping still takes place today in south-west France and Spain
Connecting to the past in shipwrecks
The small bronze statuette from Minoan Crete, unique as it is, is also a very good indicator
of this key commodity, bronze, that was sought after throughout the eastern Mediterranean.
Bronze is essentially made up of copper in large quantities and tin in smaller quantities, and it was
bronze that underpinned the incredibly complex and expansive trade networks that developed across
the eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age. This trade depended on sophisticated ships and
a deep knowledge of the sea by their sailors.
The evidence we have for this trade is in the form of imported artefacts that we find around the coastlines
and the islands of the eastern Mediterranean in this period. Unfortunately there is only a limited number of
shipwrecks to substantiate these trading activities but one of the most important shipwrecks that we have
is that of the Uluburun. This was a vessel that sank off the Turkish coast 3,400 years ago.
The Uluburun was carrying 15 tons of cargo, nine tons of which was copper, copper in the form of ingots,
which was the essential raw material to make up bronze. In addition to the copper ingots the Uluburun was
carrying a very rich cargo, not only of additional raw materials such as glass, but amber from the Baltic,
pomegranates, pistachio nuts and olives. Organic materials rarely survive on land. But in an underwater
context when they’re buried in the sediments these organic materials will survive.
So, a shipwreck gives us an insight into elements of trade that are lost in the terrestrial archaeological record.
In addition there is also a wealth of manufactured goods, including bronze and gold statuettes, beads, tools
and weapons. There was even a wooden diptych, the first form of filofax, that would have been carried on board
with wax inside where they would have kept a note of the different cargoes that were being exchanged.
Shipwrecks show just how connected the different cultures of the Bronze Age Mediterranean were and,
most importantly, were connected by sea.
Lucy Blue, Archaeologist, University of Southampton
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0019) - Mold Gold Cape
******Neil MacGregor continues to explore the world of around
3,600 years ago through some of the most powerful objects
that remain - discovered in modern day Iraq, Crete, Egypt
and now Wales.
In 1833 a group of workmen were looking for stones in a field
near the village of Mold in North Wales when they unearthed a
burial site with a skeleton covered by a crushed sheet of pure gold.
Neil tells the story of what has become known at the British Museum
as the Mold Gold Cape and tries to envisage the society that made it. Nothing like the contemporary courts
of the pharaohs of Egypt and the palaces of the Minoans in Crete seem to have existed in Britain at that time,
but he imagines a people with surprisingly sophisticated skills and social structures.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0020) - Statue of Ramesses II
******The story arrives in Egypt around 1250 BC. At the heart of this programme is the
British Museum's giant statue of the king Ramesses II, an inspiration to Shelley and a
remarkable ruler who built monuments all over Egypt. He inspired a line of future pharaohs
and was worshipped as a god a thousand years later. He lived to be over 90 and
fathered some 100 children.
Neil considers the achievements of Ramesses II in fixing the image of imperial Egypt for
the rest of the world, and sculptor Antony Gormley, the man responsible for a contemporary
giant statue, The Angel of the North, considers the towering figure of Ramesses
as an enduring work of art.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0021) - Lachish Reliefs
******Neil MacGregor's history of the world told through objects
from the British Museum arrives at the Palace of Sennacherib
in Northern Iran.
Throughout this week, Neil MacGregor explains the key power
struggles taking place across the globe around 3,000 years ago,
as ambitious new forces were building sophisticated new
societies.
It seems that war has been one of the constant themes of our
shared human history and, in this programme, Neil tells the story
of the Assyrian king Sennacherib and his bloody siege of
Lachish in Judah in 701 BC. The siege is described unsparingly
in giant stone carvings that were placed around the King's palace
and that show, perhaps for the first time, the terrible consequences
of war on civilian populations. The Assyrian war machine was to create
the largest empire that the world had ever seen and
used the terror tactic of mass deportations.
Statesman Paddy Ashdown and the historian Antony Beevor reflect on these
powerful images of war.
******************************
******Neil MacGregor continues to describe the power
struggles across the globe around 3,000 years ago, as
ambitious new forces set about creating the first cities
and building sophisticated new societies -
from the Middle East to South America.
Neil describes what was happening along the River Nile
and how a powerful new king conquered Egypt from Sudan.
His name was Taharqo and he ruled from a vibrant new
civilisation (in modern day Sudan) called Kush. These
days few people even know that the mighty land of the Pharaohs
was once ruled over by its southern neighbour. The evidence is
summed up by a sculpture at the British Museum that shows
the ruler from Kush as an Egyptian sphinx.
******************************
******The Chinese Zhou dynasty often referred to its
predecessor, the Shang, as alcoholics. This ritual
vessel was used for offering food to ancestors.
This example is decorated with large tusked
animal heads swallowing birds. Sacrifices to
ancestors ensured the survival and success of
those who performed them. Respect for ancestors
has been a central part of Chinese life for thousands of years.
This vessel was made through sophisticated bronze
working techniques that were not employed in the Middle East
or Europe until much later.
What is the legacy of the Zhou dynasty in China?
An inscription inside the vessel describes an attack by the Zhou king on the dynasty they overthrew -
the Shang. Many of China's significant institutions were established during the Zhou period.
Most important is the mandate of heaven - the notion that heaven blesses the authority of a just ruler.
An incompetent ruler could be displaced by the people with the favour of the gods. This would become
a central aspect of Chinese politics.
The Chinese Zhou dynasty often referred to its predecessor, the Shang, as alcoholics
Chinese bronze vessels
These bronzes that we call ritual vessels were used for a long time - from around 1300 BC down to
at least 300 BC. All ritual vessels were made to give food and wine to the dead.
The first dynasties of China, the Shang and the Zhou, made large numbers of fine bronze containers
for food, for alcohol, for water, and used these in a big ceremony, sometimes once a week, maybe
once every 10 days. The belief is that if food, wine or alcohol is properly prepared, it will be received
by the dead and nourish them and those dead, the ancestors, will look after their descendants
in return for this nourishment.
The bronze vessels which we see today were almost all buried in tombs or in hoards. They were prized
possessions for use in life. They were not made primarily for burial, but when a major figure of the elite died,
it was believed that he would carry on offering ceremonies of food and wine to his ancestors in the afterlife,
indeed, entertain them at banquets. They were also buried in large hoards when the state faced great danger.
A member of the royal family might own up to 200.
The most famous bronze vessels are those dating from the early Shang dynasty down to the early Zhou dynasty –
300 or 400 years. These are made in very exquisite shapes, often rather spiky, with very fine decoration that we
today can hardly replicate. They are all cast, that is, they are made by using mould sections and pouring hot
metal into them and then removing the clay moulds. And it is astonishing how detailed the decoration is.
Sometime around 850 BC, the Zhou dynasty which was then in power, came into some considerable difficulty,
political, perhaps dynastic. And all of a sudden, we see in the bronzes that they make, that some big religious
change has taken place. Gone are the very fine spiky shapes with the detailed decoration, instead the bronzes
are much larger. They have very smooth outlines and wave patterns, or rather, abstract patterns on them which
are not at all as delicate as the earlier ones.
We have more repetitive food vessels, and many fewer vessels for alcohol. That means the choreography has changed.
So when change of this sort in ritual has taken place, we have to infer that some rule, some decision was made at the
court of the Zhou dynasty to make this change, and then they ordered a completely new set of vessels to be used all
over the very large state that they ruled.
Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, Warden of Merton College, Oxford
******************************
******The theme so far has been one of empires collapsing, new regimes
and warfare. In South America there were no new empires and we still don't
entirely understand the cultures that were thriving there.
Here, Neil shows off some of the remarkably well-preserved textiles discovered
in the Paracas peninsula on the southern coast of Peru and tries to piece
together what life might have been like for these people living in around 500 BC.
The early Peruvians went to astonishing lengths to make and decorate their
textiles whose colours remain striking to this day. What were they for and
what do they tell us about beliefs of this time?
******************************
******Neil MacGregor has been looking at the collapse of old
regimes and the emergence of new powers from the
Middle East to China. In this programme, he describes how
a powerful new state finds a dramatic way to help run its
increasingly complex economy and trading networks - using coins.
Croesus was a king in what is now western Turkey and his
kingdom was called Lydia. It's remarkable that over 2,000
years later we still have an expression that celebrates his
wealth. Neil considers how money, in the form of coins,
first came about, and describes the hugely
complex methods of creating them.
And whatever happened to Croesus?
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E:\A History of the World
=========================
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0001) - Mummy of Hornedjitef
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0002) - Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0003) - Olduvai Handaxe
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0004) - Swimming Reindeer
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0005) - Clovis Spear Point
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0006) - Bird-shaped Pestle
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0007) - Ain Sakri Lovers Figurine
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0008) - Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0009) - Maya Maize God Statue
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0010) - Jomon Pot
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0011) - King Den's Sandal Label
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0012) - Standard of Ur
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0013) - Indus Seal
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0014) - Jade Axe
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0015) - Early Writing Tablet
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0016) - Flood Tablet
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0017) - Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0018) - Minoan Bull Leaper
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0019) - Mold Gold Cape
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0020) - Statue of Ramesses II
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0021) - Lachish Reliefs
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0022) - Sphinx of Taharqo
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0023) - Chinese Zhou Ritual Vessel
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0024) - Paracas Textile
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0025) - Gold Coin of Croesus
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0026) - Oxus Chariot Model
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0027) - Parthenon Sculpture - Centaur and Lapith
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0028) - Basse Yutz Flagons
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0029) - Olmec Stone Mask
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0030) - Chinese Bronze Bell
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0031) - Empire Builders (300 BC - 1 AD) Head of Alexander
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0032) - Empire Builders (300 BC - 1 AD) Pillar of Ashoka
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0033) - Empire Builders (300 BC - 1 AD) Rosetta Stone
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0034) - Empire Builders (300 BC - 1 AD) Chinese Han lacquer cup
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0035) - Empire Builders (300 BC - 1 AD) Head of Augustus
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0036) - Ancient Pleasures, Modern Spice (1 - 600 AD) Warren Cup
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0037) - Ancient Pleasures, Modern Spice (1 - 600 AD) Ceremonial Ballgame Belt
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0038) - Ancient Pleasures, Modern Spice (1 - 600 AD) North American Otter Pipe
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0039) - Ancient Pleasures, Modern Spice (1 - 600 AD) Admonitions Scroll
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0040) - Ancient Pleasures, Modern Spice (1 - 600 AD) Hoxne Pepper Pot
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0041) - The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD) Seated Buddha from Gandhara
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0042) - The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD) Gold Coin of Kumaragupta I
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0043) - The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD) Silver Plate Showing Shapur II
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0044) - The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD) Hinton St Mary Mosaic
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0045) - The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD) Arabian Bronze Hand
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0046) - The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD) Gold Coins of Abd al-Malik
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0047) - The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD) Sutton Hoo Helmet
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0048) - The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD) Moche Warrior Pot
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0049) - The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD) Korean Roof Tile
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0050) - The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD) Silk Princess Painting
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0051) - Inside The Palace Secrets At Court (700 - 950 AD) Maya Relief of Royal Blood-Letting
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0052) - Inside The Palace Secrets At Court (700 - 950 AD) Harem wall painting fragments
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0053) - Inside The Palace Secrets At Court (700 - 950 AD) Lothair Crystal
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0054) - Inside The Palace Secrets At Court (700 - 950 AD) Statue of Tara
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0055) - Inside The Palace Secrets At Court (700 - 950 AD) Chinese Tang tomb figures
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0056) - Pilgrims, Raiders and Traders (900 - 1300 AD) Vale of York Hoard
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0057) - Pilgrims, Raiders and Traders (900 - 1300 AD) Hedwig glass beaker
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0058) - Pilgrims, Raiders and Traders (900 - 1300 AD) Japanese bronze mirror
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0059) - Pilgrims, Raiders and Traders (900 - 1300 AD) Borobudur Buddha head
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0060) - Pilgrims, Raiders and Traders (900 - 1300 AD) Kilwa pot sherds
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0061) - Status Symbols (1200 - 1400 AD) Lewis Chessmen 06-28-10
A History of the World in 100 Objects - (0062) - Status Symbols (1200 - 1400 AD) Hebrew Astrolabe 06-29-10
A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus After the Ice Age 12-03-10
A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus Making Us Human 05-03-10
A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus Old World, New Powers
A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus The Beginnings of Science and Literature 03-26-10
A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus The First Cities and States 03-19-10
A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus The World in the Age of Confucius
A History of the World in 100 Objects The World in the Age of Confucius (500 - 300 BC) Basse Yutz Flagons
A History of the World in 100 Objects The World in the Age of Confucius (500 - 300 BC) Chinese Bronze Bell 26-02-10
A History of the World in 100 Objects The World in the Age of Confucius (500 - 300 BC) Olmec Stone Mask 25-02-10
A History of the World in 100 Objects The World in the Age of Confucius (500 - 300 BC) Oxus Chariot Model 22-02-10
A History of the World in 100 Objects The World in the Age of Confucius (500 - 300 BC) Parthenon Sculpture Centaur and Lapith 23-02-10
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