A History of the World in 100 Objects Folgen

A History of the World told through 100 objects from the British Museum moves to Japan and the story of a 7,000-year-old clay pot which has managed to remain almost perfectly intact. Pots began in Japan around 17000 years ago and, by the time this pot was made, had achieved a remarkable sophistication. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, explores the history of this cooking pot and the Jomon; the hunter-gatherer society that made it. The archaeologists Professor Takashi 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

This week Neil MacGregor is exploring the growing importance of agriculture around the world at the end of the Ice Age, with objects that show and celebrate the key elements of the time; power, sex, worship and food. Today the series 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 MacGregor reveals why maize, which is notoriously difficult to refine for human consumption, becomes 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

Neil MacGregor, in his history of mankind as told through objects at the British Museum, selects four miniature clay cows to show the major changes that early man was undergoing at the end of the Ice Age. These four frail looking cows were made from Nile mud in Egypt 5,500 years ago, way before the time of the pyramids or the pharaohs. Why did the Egyptians start burying objects like this one with their dead? Neil goes in search life and death on the Nile and discovers how the domestication of cattle made the humble cow transformed human existence.