A History of the World in 100 Objects | |
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Presentation | |
Format | Audio |
Production | |
Audio format | MP3 |
No. of episodes | 103 ![]() |
Publication | |
Provider | BBC |
Related | |
Website | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nrtd2 ![]() |
A History of the World in 100 Objects was a joint project of BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum, consisting of a 100-part radio series written and presented by British Museum director Neil MacGregor. In 15-minute presentations broadcast on weekdays on Radio 4, MacGregor used objects of ancient art, industry, technology and arms, all of which are in the British Museum's collections, as an introduction to parts of human history. The series, four years in planning, began on 18 January 2010 and was broadcast over 20 weeks. [1] A book to accompany the series, A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor, was published by Allen Lane on 28 October 2010. [2] The entire series is also available for download along with an audio version of the book for purchase. The British Museum won the 2011 Art Fund Prize for its role in hosting the project.
In 2016, a touring exhibition of several items depicted on the radio programme, also titled A History of the World in 100 Objects, travelled to various destinations, including Abu Dhabi (Manarat Al Saadiyat), Taiwan (National Palace Museum in Taipei), Japan (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Tokyo, Kyushu National Museum in Daizafu, and Kobe City Museum in Kobe), Australia (Western Australian Museum in Perth and National Museum of Australia in Canberra), and China (National Museum of China in Beijing, Shanghai Museum in Shanghai and Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Hong Kong). [3] [4] [5] [6]
The ownership claims of the British Museum over some of these objects is highly contested, in particular those belonging to the Benin Bronzes and the Elgin Marbles, which are the subject of continued international controversy. [7]
The programme series, described as "a landmark project", [8] is billed as 'A history of humanity' told through a hundred objects from all over the world in the British Museum's collection.
In these programmes, I'm travelling back in time, and across the globe, to see how we humans over 2 million years have shaped our world and been shaped by it, and I'm going to tell this story exclusively through the things that humans have made: all sorts of things, carefully designed, and then either admired and preserved, or used, broken and thrown away. I've chosen just a hundred objects from different points on our journey, from a cooking pot to a golden galleon, from a Stone Age tool to a credit card. [9]
Telling history through things, whether it's an Egyptian mummy or a credit card, is what museums are for, and because the British Museum has collected things from all over the globe, it's not a bad place to try to tell a world history. Of course, it can only be "a" history of the world, not "the" history. When people come to the museum they choose their own objects and make their own journey round the world and through time, but I think what they will find is that their own histories quickly intersect with everybody else's, and when that happens, you no longer have a history of a particular people or nation, but a story of endless connections. [9]
Accompanying the series is a website, described by The Guardian as "even more ambitious [than the radio series itself] that encourages users to submit items of their own for a place in world history", along with much interactive content, detailed information on all the objects featured in the radio programmes and links to 350 other museum collections across the UK. [10] The radio programmes are available on the website permanently for listening or downloading.
The museum has adapted exhibitions for the series by including additional easily identifiable plaques for the 100 objects with text based on the programme and adding a section to the gallery maps showing the location and numbers of the 100 objects.
On 18 January 2010, an hour-long special of The Culture Show on BBC2 was dedicated to the launch of the project. [11]
The first part of the series was broadcast on weekdays over six weeks between 18 January and 26 February 2010. After a short break, the series returned with the seventh week being broadcast in the week beginning 17 May 2010. [12] It then took another break in the middle of July and returned on 13 September 2010, running until the 100th object was featured on Friday 22 October 2010.
It has been repeated a number of times, mostly recently over the summer of 2021.
Maev Kennedy of The Guardian described the programme as "a broadcasting phenomenon", while Tim Davie, head of music and audio at BBC radio, commented that "the results have been nothing short of stunning", exceeding the BBC's wildest hopes for the programme. At the time of the writing of Kennedy's article, just before the start of the last week of the series, the radio broadcasts regularly had up to four million listeners, while the podcast downloads had totalled 10,441,884. Of these, just over half, 5.7 million, were from the UK. In addition, members of the public had uploaded 3,240 objects with the largest single contribution coming from Glasgow historian Robert Pool who submitted 120 objects all relating to the City of Glasgow, and other museums a further 1,610, and 531 museums and heritage sites across the UK had been mounting linked events – an unprecedented partnership, MacGregor said. Museums all over the world are now copying the formula, as thousands of visitors every day set out to explore the British Museum galleries equipped with the leaflet mapping the objects. [13]
Writing in The Independent , Philip Hensher described the series as "perfect radio", saying "Has there ever been a more exciting, more unfailingly interesting radio series than the Radio 4/British Museum venture, A History of the World in 100 Objects? It is such a beautifully simple idea, to trace human civilisations through the objects that happen to have survived. Each programme, just 15 minutes long, focuses on just one thing, quite patiently, without dawdling. At the end, you feel that you have learnt something, and learnt it with pleasure and interest. For years to come, the BBC will be able to point to this wonderful series as an example of the things that it does best. It fulfils, to a degree that one thought hardly possible any more, the BBC's Reithian agenda of improvement and the propagation of learning and culture." [14]
Dominic Sandbrook in The Telegraph said that the "joyously highbrow" series "deserves to take its place alongside television classics such as Kenneth Clark's Civilisation and Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man ." [15]
In 2019, 100 Histories of 100 Worlds in 1 Object was launched as a response to the original 100 Objects project. [16] Addressing critiques by the same project of the Radio 4 series that pointed to the programme's perceived failure [...] ‘[ to engage with the provenance and repatriation of objects]’, [17] especially those which were collected under colonial conditions of duress, the response project sought instead to democratize curatorial narratives with input from source and diaspora communities who hold long-standing relationships with objects now-held in museums. [18] The project aims to focus on voices from the “Global South” that the original series left out. Co-initiated and facilitated by Dr Mirjam Brusius and Dr Alice Stevenson, the project works collaboratively and has an editorial board with members from India, Namibia, Thailand, Ghana, Nigeria, Torres Strait Islands, Aotearoa, Jamaica, USA, Mexico and the United Kingdom. [19]
"Neil MacGregor reveals the earliest objects that define us as humans." [20] First broadcast week beginning 18 January 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
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| 1 | Mummy of Hornedjitef | Egypt | 300–200 BC | BBC | BM | Amartya Sen, John Taylor |
| 2 | Stone (basalt) chopping tool | Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania | 1.8–2 million years old | BBC | BM | Sir David Attenborough, Wangari Maathai |
![]() | 3 | Hand axe | Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania | 1.2–1.4 million years old | BBC | BM | Sir James Dyson, Phil Harding, Nick Ashton |
![]() | 4 | Swimming Reindeer from Montastruc rock shelter | France | 13,000 years old | BBC | BM | The Most Reverend Rowan Williams, Steve Mithen |
![]() | 5 | Clovis spear point | New Mexico, USA | 13,000 years old | BBC | BM | Michael Palin, Gary Haynes |
"Why did farming start at the end of the Ice Age? Clues remain in objects left behind." [20] First broadcast week beginning 25 January 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
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![]() | 6 | Bird-shaped pestle | Papua New Guinea | 4,000–8,000 years old | BBC | BM | Madhur Jaffrey, Bob Geldof, Martin Jones |
![]() | 7 | Ain Sakhri lovers | Israel | about 11,000 years old | BBC | BM | Marc Quinn, Ian Hodder |
| 8 | Clay model of cattle | Egypt | about 3500 BC | BBC | BM | Fekri Hassan, Martin Jones |
![]() | 9 | Maya maize god statue | Honduras | AD 715 | BBC | BM | Santiago Calva, John Staller |
![]() | 10 | Jōmon pot | Japan | about 5000 BC | BBC | BM | Simon Kamer, Takashi Doi |
"What happens as people move from villages to cities? Five objects tell the story." [20] First broadcast week beginning 1 February 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
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![]() | 11 | King Den's sandal label | Egypt | about 2,985 BC | BBC | BM | Toby Wilkinson, Steve Bell |
![]() | 12 | Standard of Ur | Iraq | 2600–2400 BC | BBC | BM | Lamia Al-Gailani, Anthony Giddens |
| 13 | An Indus seal | Pakistan | 2600–1900 BC | BBC | BM | Richard Rogers, Nayanjot Lahiri |
![]() | 14 | Jadeite axe | from the Alps, found in England | 4000–2000 BC | BBC | BM | Mark Edmonds, Pierre Petrequin |
![]() | 15 | Early writing tablet | Iraq | 3100–3000 BC | BBC | BM | Gus O'Donnell, John Searle |
"4,000 years ago, societies began to express themselves through myth, maths and monuments." [20] First broadcast week beginning 8 February 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
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![]() | 16 | Flood tablet | Iraq | 700–600 BC | BBC | BM | David Damrosch, Jonathan Sacks |
![]() | 17 | Rhind Mathematical Papyrus | Egypt | about 1550 BC | BBC | BM | Eleanor Robson, Clive Rix |
![]() | 18 | Minoan Bull-leaper | Crete | 1700–1450 BC | BBC | BM | Sergio Delgado, Lucy Blue |
![]() | 19 | Mold gold cape | Wales | 1900–1600 BC | BBC | BM | Mary Cahill, Marie Louise Sørensen |
![]() | 20 | Statue of Ramesses II | Egypt | about 1,250 BC | BBC | BM | Antony Gormley, Karen Exell |
"Across the world new regimes create objects to assert their supremacy." [20] First broadcast week beginning 15 February 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 21 | Lachish Reliefs | Iraq | 700–692 BC | BBC | BM | Paddy Ashdown, Antony Beevor |
![]() | 22 | Sphinx of Taharqa | Sudan | about 680 BC | BBC | BM | Zeinab Badawi, Derek Welsby |
![]() | 23 | Early Zhou dynasty gui ritual vessel | China | 1100–1000 BC | BBC | BM | Dame Jessica Rawson, Wang Tao |
![]() | 24 | Paracas Textile | Peru | 300–200 BC | BBC | BM | Zandra Rhodes, Mary Frame |
![]() | 25 | Gold coin of Croesus | Turkey | c. 550 BC | BBC | BM | James Buchan, Paul Craddock |
"Can meanings hidden in friezes and flagons tell us as much as the writings of great men?" [20] First broadcast week beginning 22 February 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 26 | Oxus Chariot model | Tajikistan | 500–300 BC | BBC | BM | Michael Axworthy, Tom Holland |
![]() | 27 | Parthenon sculpture: Centaur and Lapith | Greece | about 440 BC | BBC | BM | Mary Beard, Olga Palagia |
![]() | 28 | Basse Yutz Flagons | France | c. 450 BC | BBC | BM | Jonathan Meades, Barry Cunliffe |
![]() | 29 | Olmec stone mask | Mexico | 900–400 BC | BBC | BM | Carlos Fuentes, Karl Taube |
![]() | 30 | Chinese bronze bell | China | 500–400 BC | BBC | BM | Dame Evelyn Glennie, Isabel Hilton |
"Neil MacGregor continues his global history told through objects. This week he is with the great rulers of the world around 2,000 years ago." [21] First broadcast week beginning 17 May 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 31 | Coin of Lysimachus with head of Alexander | Turkey | 305–281 BC | BBC | BM | Andrew Marr, Robin Lane Fox |
| 32 | Pillar of Ashoka | India | about 238 BC | BBC | BM | Amartya Sen, Michael Rutland |
| 33 | The Rosetta Stone | Egypt | 196 BC | BBC | BM | Dorothy Thompson, Ahdaf Soueif |
![]() | 34 | Chinese Han lacquer cup | China | AD 4 | BBC | BM | Roel Sterckx, Isabel Hilton |
![]() | 35 | Meroë Head or Head of Augustus | Sudan | 27–25 BC | BBC | BM | Boris Johnson, Susan Walker |
"Neil MacGregor explores the ways in which people sought pleasure 2,000 years ago." [20] First broadcast week beginning 24 May 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 36 | The Warren Cup | Israel | AD 5–15 | BBC | BM | Bettany Hughes, James Davidson |
![]() | 37 | North American otter pipe | USA | 200 BC – AD 100 | BBC | BM | Tony Benn, Gabrielle Tayac |
| 38 | Ceremonial ballgame belt | Mexico | AD 100–500 | BBC | BM | Nick Hornby, Michael Whittington |
![]() | 39 | Admonitions Scroll | China | AD 500–800 | BBC | BM | Shane McCausland, Charles Powell |
![]() | 40 | Hoxne pepper pot | England | AD 350–400 | BBC | BM | Christine McFadden, Roberta Tomber |
"Neil MacGregor explores how and when many great religious images came into existence." [20] First broadcast week beginning 31 May 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
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![]() | 41 | Seated Buddha from Gandhara | Pakistan | AD 100–300 | BBC | BM | Claudine Bautze-Picron, Thupten Jinpa |
![]() | 42 | Gold coin of Kumaragupta I | India | AD 415–450 | BBC | BM | Romila Thapar, Shaunaka Rishi Das |
![]() | 43 | Silver plate showing Shapur II | Iran | AD 309–379 | BBC | BM | Tom Holland, Guitty Azarpay |
![]() | 44 | Hinton St Mary Mosaic | England | AD 300 – 400 | BBC | BM | Dame Averil Cameron, Eamonn Duffy |
![]() | 45 | Arabian bronze hand | Yemen | AD 100–300 | BBC | BM | Jeremy Field, Philip Jenkins |
"Five objects from the British Museum tell the story of the movement of goods and ideas." [20] First broadcast week beginning 7 June 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 46 | Gold coins of Abd al-Malik | Syria | AD 696–697 | BBC | BM | Madawi Al-Rasheed, Hugh Kennedy |
![]() | 47 | Sutton Hoo helmet | England | AD 600–700 | BBC | BM | Seamus Heaney, Angus Wainwright |
![]() | 48 | Moche warrior pot | Peru | AD 100–700 | BBC | BM | Grayson Perry, Steve Bourget |
![]() | 49 | Korean roof tile | Korea | AD 700–800 | BBC | BM | Jane Portal, Choe Kwang Shik |
![]() | 50 | Silk princess painting | China | AD 600–800 | BBC | BM | Yo Yo Ma, Colin Thubron |
"Neil MacGregor gets an insight into the lives of the ruling elites 1200 years ago." [20] First broadcast week beginning 14 June 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
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![]() | 51 | Yaxchilan Lintel 24, Maya relief of royal blood-letting | Mexico | AD 700–750 | BBC | BM | Susie Orbach, Virginia Fields |
![]() | 52 | Harem wall painting fragments | Iraq | AD 800–900 | BBC | BM | Robert Irwin, Amira Bennison |
![]() | 53 | Lothair Crystal | probably Germany | AD 855–869 | BBC | BM | Lord Bingham, Rosamund McKitterick |
| 54 | Statue of Tara | Sri Lanka | AD 700–900 | BBC | BM | Richard Gombrich, Nira Wickramasinghe |
![]() | 55 | Chinese Tang tomb figures, specifically the Tang dynasty tomb figures of Liu Tingxun | China | about AD 728 | BBC | BM | Anthony Howard, Oliver Moore |
"How trade, war and religion moved objects around the globe 1000 years ago." [20] First broadcast week beginning 21 June 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 56 | Vale of York Hoard | England | about AD 927 | BBC | BM | Michael Wood, David and Andrew Whelan |
![]() | 57 | Hedwig glass beaker | probably Syria | AD 1100–1200 | BBC | BM | Jonathan Riley-Smith, David Abulafia |
![]() | 58 | Japanese bronze mirror | Japan | AD 1100–1200 | BBC | BM | Ian Buruma, Harada Masayuki |
![]() | 59 | Borobudur Buddha head | Java | AD 780–840 | BBC | BM | Stephen Bachelor, Nigel Barley |
![]() | 60 | Kilwa pot sherds | Tanzania | AD 900–1400 | BBC | BM | Bertram Mapunda, Abdulrazek Gurnah |
"Neil MacGregor examines objects which hold status and required skilful making." [20] First broadcast week beginning 28 June 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 61 | Lewis Chessmen | probably made in Norway, found in Scotland | AD 1150–1200 | BBC | BM | Martin Amis, Miri Rubin |
![]() | 62 | Hebrew astrolabe | Spain | AD 1345–1355 | BBC | BM | Sir John Elliott, Silke Ackermann |
| 63 | Bronze Head from Ife | Nigeria | AD 1400–1500 | BBC | BM | Ben Okri, Babatunde Lawal |
| 64 | The David Vases | China | AD 1351 | BBC | BM | Jenny Uglow, Craig Clunas |
![]() | 65 | Taino Ritual Seat | Santo Domingo, Caribbean | AD 1200–1500 | BBC | BM | Jose Oliver, Gabriel Haslip-Viera |
"Objects from the British Museum show how the faithful were brought closer to their gods." [20] First broadcast week beginning 5 July 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 66 | Holy Thorn Reliquary | France | AD 1350–1400 | BBC | BM | Sister Benedicta Ward, Right Reverend Arthur Roche |
![]() | 67 | Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy | Turkey | AD 1350–1400 | BBC | BM | Bill Viola, Diarmaid MacCulloch |
| 68 | Shiva and Parvati sculpture | India | AD 1100–1300 | BBC | BM | Shaunaka Rishi Das, Karen Armstrong |
![]() | 69 | Sculpture of Tlazolteotl | Mexico | AD 900 – 1521 | BBC | BM | Marina Warner, Kim Richter |
![]() | 70 | Hoa Hakananai'a | Easter Island | AD 1000–1200 | BBC | BM | Sir Anthony Caro, Steve Hooper |
"Neil MacGregor explores the great empires of the world in the threshold of the modern era." [20] First broadcast week beginning 13 September 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 71 | Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent | Turkey | AD 1520–1566 | BBC | BM | Elif Şafak, Caroline Finkel |
![]() | 72 | Ming banknote | China | AD 1375 | BBC | BM | Mervyn King, Timothy Brook |
| 73 | Inca gold llama | Peru | about AD 1500 | BBC | BM | Jared Diamond, Gabriel Ramon |
![]() | 74 | Jade dragon cup | Central Asia | about AD 1420–49 | BBC | BM | Beatrice Forbes Manz, Hamid Ismailov |
![]() | 75 | Dürer's Rhinoceros | Germany | AD 1515 | BBC | BM | Mark Pilgrim, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto |
"Neil MacGregor traces the impact of travel, trade and conquest from 1450 to 1600." [20] First broadcast 20 September 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 76 | Mechanical Galleon | Germany | c. 1585 | BBC | BM | Lisa Jardine, Christopher Dobbs |
![]() | 77 | Benin plaque: the oba with Europeans | Nigeria | 16th century | BBC | BM | Sokari Douglas Camp, Wole Soyinka |
![]() | 78 | Double-headed serpent | Mexico | 15th–16th century | BBC | BM | Rebecca Stacey, Adriana Diaz-Enciso |
![]() | 79 | Kakiemon elephants | Japan | late 17th century | BBC | BM | Miranda Rock, Sakaida Kakiemon XIV |
| 80 | Pieces of eight | from Spain, found in Bolivia | AD 1589–1598 | BBC | BM | Tuti Prado, William J. Bernstein |
"Neil MacGregor tells how the great religions lived together in the C16th and C17th." [20] First broadcast week beginning 27 September 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 81 | Shi'a religious parade standard | Iran | Late 17th century | BBC | BM | Haleh Afshar, Hossein Pourtahmasbi |
![]() | 82 | Miniature of a Mughal prince | India | about AD 1610 | BBC | BM | Asok Kumar Das, Aman Nath |
![]() | 83 | Shadow puppet of Bima | Java | 1600–1800 | BBC | BM | Mr Sumarsam, Tash Aw |
![]() | 84 | Mexican codex map | Mexico | Late 16th century | BBC | BM | Samuel Edgerton, Fernando Cervantes |
![]() | 85 | Reformation centenary broadsheet | Germany | AD 1617 | BBC | BM | Karen Armstrong, Ian Hislop |
"Neil MacGregor on the misunderstandings that can happen when different worlds collide." [20] First broadcast 4 October 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 86 | Akan Drum | from Africa, found in the USA | 18th century | BBC | BM | Bonnie Greer, Anthony Appiah |
| 87 | Hawaiian feathered helmet | Hawaii | 18th century | BBC | BM | Nicholas Thomas, Kyle Nakanelua |
![]() | 88 | North American buckskin map | USA | 1774–75 | BBC | BM | Malcolm Lewis, David Edmunds |
| 89 | Australian bark shield | Australia | 1770 | BBC | BM | Phil Gordon, Maria Nugent |
![]() | 90 | Jade bi with poem | China | 1790 | BBC | BM | Jonathan Spence, Yang Lian |
"How industrialisation, mass politics and imperial ambitions changed the world." [20] First broadcast week beginning 11 October 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 91 | Ship's chronometer from HMS Beagle | England | 1795–1805 | BBC | BM | Nigel Thrift, Steve Jones |
![]() | 92 | Early Victorian tea set | England | 1840–1845 | BBC | BM | Celina Fox, Monique Simmonds |
![]() | 93 | Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa | Japan | c. 1829–32 | BBC | BM | Christine Guth, Donald Keene |
![]() | 94 | Sudanese slit drum | Sudan | 19th century | BBC | BM | Dominic Green, Zeinab Badawi |
![]() | 95 | Suffragette-defaced penny | England | 1903 | BBC | BM | Felicity Powell, Helena Kennedy |
"Neil MacGregor explores aspects of sexual, political and economic history of recent times." [20] First broadcast week beginning 18 October 2010.
Image | Number | Object | Origin | Date | BBC website | BM website | Additional contributors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 96 | "Kapital", a Russian Revolutionary Plate designed by Mikhail Adamovich | Russia | 1921 | BBC | BM | Eric Hobsbawm, Mikhail Piotrovsky |
See In the dull village | 97 | Hockney's In the dull village | England | 1966 | BBC | BM | Shami Chakrabarti, David Hockney |
![]() | 98 | Throne of Weapons | Mozambique | 2001 | BBC | BM | Kofi Annan, Bishop Dinis Sengulane |
99 | Sharia-compliant Visa credit card | United Arab Emirates | 2009 | BBC | BM | Mervyn King, Razi Fakih | |
| 100 | Solar-powered lamp and charger | China | 2010 | BBC | BM | Nick Stern, Aloka Sarder, Boniface Nyamu |
A special radio programme on Radio 4, first broadcast on 18 May 2011, featured one of the many thousands of items nominated on the BBC website by members of the public as an object of special significance. [22] The object chosen to be featured on the programme was an oil painting depicting a young woman that was nominated by Peter Lewis. The painting, which belonged to Lewis' uncle, Bryn Roberts, was painted from a postcard photograph of Roberts' girlfriend (and later wife), Peggy Gullup, by an anonymous Jewish artist for Roberts whilst he was a prisoner of war at Auschwitz in Poland. [23] [24]
Another special programme was broadcast on 25 December 2020. Neil MacGregor and a roundtable of guests, comprising Mary Beard, Chibundu Onuzo, Scarlett Curtis, David Attenborough, and Hisham Matar, discussed adding a 101st object to represent how the world has changed in the past decade since the end of the original series. [25] The objects ultimately chosen were the British Museum's collection of 'Dark Water, Burning World' sculptures by Syrian-British artist Issam Kourbaj. They depict small, fragile boats filled with matchsticks - representing the plight of refugees of the Syrian Civil War in particular and migrants in general.
The British Museum won the 2011 Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries for its part in the A History of the World in 100 Objects series. The prize, worth £100,000, was presented to the museum by Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, in a ceremony at London on 15 June 2011. [26]
The chairman of the panel of judges, Michael Portillo, noted that the judges were "particularly impressed by the truly global scope of the British Museum's project, which combined intellectual rigour and open heartedness, and went far beyond the boundaries of the museum's walls". [27] The judges were also very impressed by the way that the project used digital media in ground-breaking and novel ways to interact with audiences. [27]
During 2016 and 2017 a touring exhibition of many of the one hundred objects, also titled History of the World in 100 Objects, was held in a number of countries and territories, including Australia, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, and China (first at the National Museum of China in Beijing, and then at Shanghai Museum). [28] [29] Due to the conditions encountered while touring different countries some exhibits had to be returned to the British Museum for maintenance during tour, and were replaced by other objects from the British Museum collections. Some controversial exhibits were excluded from the exhibition in some countries. Object 90 (Jade bi with poem) was not included in the exhibition held in China because it may have been looted from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. In addition, a piece of Chinese brocade that had been included in the touring exhibition elsewhere was not included in the exhibition in China because it was collected from the Mogao Caves by Aurel Stein under controversial circumstances. [29]
The Lewis chessmen or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most of which are carved from walrus ivory. Discovered in 1831 on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, they may constitute some of the few complete, surviving medieval chess sets, although it is not clear if a single complete period-accurate set can be assembled from the pieces. When found, the hoard contained 94 objects: 78 chess pieces, 14 tablemen and one belt buckle. Today, 82 pieces are owned and usually exhibited by the British Museum in London, and the remaining 11 are at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh; one chesspiece is owned privately.
BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland.
Robert Neil MacGregor is a British art historian and former museum director. He was editor of the Burlington Magazine from 1981 to 1987, then Director of the National Gallery, London, from 1987 to 2002, Director of the British Museum from 2003 to 2015, and founding director of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin until 2018.
A Good Read is one of BBC Radio 4's longest-running programmes in which two guests join the main presenter to choose and discuss their favourite books.
Shaunaka Rishi Das is the Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS), a position he has held since the centre's foundation in 1997. He is a lecturer, a broadcaster, and Hindu Chaplain to Oxford University. His interests include education, comparative theology, communication, and leadership. He is a member of The Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, convened in 2013 by the Woolf Institute, Cambridge. In 2013 the Indian government appointed him to sit on the International Advisory Council of the Auroville Foundation. Keshava, Rishi Das's wife of 27 years, died in December 2013.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Adamovich (1884–1947) was a Russian decorative and monumental painter, and porcelain artist. He is known for his porcelain works with agitprop and Soviet art imagery.
Our Top Ten Treasures was a 2003 special episode of the BBC Television series Meet the Ancestors which profiled the ten most important treasures unearthed in Britain, as voted for by a panel of experts from the British Museum.
Hornedjitef was an ancient Egyptian priest in the Temple of Amun at Karnak during the reign of Ptolemy III. He is known from his elaborate coffins, mummy mask and mummy, dating from the Early Ptolemaic Period and excavated from Asasif, Thebes, Egypt, which are all held in the British Museum. These related objects were chosen as the first of the hundred objects selected by British Museum Director Neil MacGregor in the 2010 BBC Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects.
The El-Amra clay model of cattle is a small ceramic sculpture dating from the Predynastic, Naqada I period in Ancient Egypt, at around 3500 BC. It is one of several models found in graves at El-Amra in Egypt, and is now in the British Museum in London. The model is 8.2 centimetres high, 24.2 cm long and 15.3 cm wide. The model was made from clay, and fired at a low temperature before it was painted, however most of the paint is lost.
The Sphinx of Taharqo is a granite gneiss statue of a sphinx with the face of Taharqo. He was a Nubian king, who was one of the 25th Egyptian Dynasty rulers of the Kingdom of Kush. It is now in the British Museum in London.
The Minoan bull leaper is a bronze group of a bull and leaper in the British Museum. It is the only known largely complete three-dimensional sculpture depicting Minoan bull-leaping. Although bull leaping certainly took place in Crete at this time, the leap depicted is practically impossible and it has therefore been speculated that the sculpture may be an exaggerated depiction. This speculation has been backed up by the testaments of modern-day bull leapers from France and Spain.
Hedwig glasses or Hedwig beakers are a type of glass beaker originating in the Middle East or Norman Sicily and dating from the 10th-12th centuries AD. They are named after the Silesian princess Saint Hedwig (1174–1245), to whom three of them are traditionally said to have belonged. So far, a total of 14 complete glasses are known. The exact origin of the glasses is disputed, with Egypt, Iran and Syria all suggested as possible sources; if they are not of Islamic manufacture they are certainly influenced by Islamic glass. Probably made by Muslim craftsmen, some of the iconography is Christian, suggesting they may have been made for export or for Christian clients. The theory that they instead originate from Norman Sicily in the 11th century was first fully set out in a book in 2005 by Rosemarie Lierke, and has attracted some support from specialists.
The Mechanical Galleon is an elaborate nef or table ornament in the form of a ship, which is also an automaton and clock. It was constructed in about 1585 by Hans Schlottheim in southern Germany. It was in the possession of Augustus, Elector of Saxony. The model is now in the British Museum in London. Two other similar models are located in museums in France and Austria, the Château d'Écouen and the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
The Double-headed serpent is an Aztec sculpture. It is a snake with two heads composed of mostly turquoise pieces applied to a wooden base. It came from Aztec Mexico and might have been worn or displayed in religious ceremonies. The mosaic is made of pieces of turquoise, spiny oyster shell and conch shell. The sculpture is at the British Museum. Ancient Aztecs have also termed this creature as 'Mansee' which translates as 'The Voice of Heart'.
The Akan Drum is a drum that was made in West Africa and was later found in the Colony of Virginia in North America. It is now one of the oldest African-American objects in the British Museum and possibly one of the oldest surviving anywhere. The drum is a reminder of all three continents' involvement in the estimated twelve million people transported across the Atlantic Ocean as part of the transatlantic slave trade. The drum is normally displayed in Room 26, the North American gallery, in the British Museum.
The Throne of Weapons is a 2002 sculpture created by Cristóvão Canhavato out of disused weapons. It is owned by the British Museum and has been called the museum's most "eloquent object" and has been shown in a wide variety of ways.
Alistair Craig Clunas is Professor Emeritus of History of Art at the University of Oxford. As a historian of the art and history of China, Clunas has focused particularly on the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).
The Kang Hou gui is a bronze vessel that is said to have been taken from the city of Huixian, Henan province, central China. Dating to the Western Zhou period, this ancient Chinese artefact is famous for its inscription on the bottom of the interior. It has been part of the British Museum's Asian Collections since 1977.
Germany: Memories of a Nation is a 2014 book by British historian and then director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor. The work was published in conjunction with his BBC Radio 4 series and a major exhibition at the British Museum.
Living with the Gods is a 30-part BBC Radio 4 series presented by Neil MacGregor, a former director of the British Museum. It explores human societies and what MacGregor describes as "the connections between structures of belief, and the structures of society". The series examines artefacts from the 40,000 year-old Lion-man sculpture to the contemporary Lampedusa Cross created by Francisco Tuccio in response to the 2013 drowning of refugees off the island of Lampedusa.
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