A History of the World in 100 Objects Folgen

The history of the world as told through one hundred objects from the British Museum. This week Neil MacGregor, the Museum's Director, has been looking at the collapse of old regimes and the emergence of new powers from the Middle East to China. In today's 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 two thousand years later we still have an expression that celebrates his wealth. Neil MacGregor 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?

A history of the world described through individual objects at the British Museum. This week Neil MacGregor, the Museum's Director, is looking at what was happening around the world between 2000-3000 years ago. 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. In this programme, Neil MacGregor shows off some of the remarkably 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's history of humanity told through one hundred objects from the British Museum. Three thousand years ago, the world was in huge flux, with new powers creating sophisticated new societies - from the Middle East to South America - as older ones collapsed. In today's programme, Neil MacGregor finds out what was happening in China of that period and describes how a group of outsiders, the Zhou, overthrew the long established Shang dynasty. The story is told through a bronze bowl that was used for feasting. What does this beautiful bronze bowl tell us about the Zhou and life in China at this time? Dame Jessica Rawson and the Chinese scholar Wang Tao help paint the picture