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Bbc Podcasts: Episode 6: Bird Shaped Pestle 25 Jan 10
At the end of the Ice Age, one of the most important parts of human existence was finding enough food to survive. Taking a pestle from Papua New Guinea as an example, Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, asks why our ancestors...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 7: Ain Sakhri Lovers Figurine 26 Jan 10
A palm-sized stone sculpture made in Northern Israel 12,000 years ago clearly shows a couple entwined in the act of love. Sculptor Marc Quinn responds to the stone as art, and archaeologist Dr Ian Hodder considers the Natufian society...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 8: Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle 27 Jan 10
Four frail-looking cows were made from Nile mud in Egypt 5,500 years ago, long before the time of the pyramids or the pharaohs. They show the major changes that early man was undergoing at the end of the Ice Age. Why did the Egyptians...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 9: Maya Maize God Statue 28 Jan 10
This stone Maize God was discovered on the site of a major Mayan city in present-day Honduras and 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 their...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 10: Jomon Pot 29 Jan 10
A 7,000-year-old Japanese clay pot 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. This simple clay object makes a...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 11: King Den's Sandal Label 1 Feb 2010
A small label, made from hippopotamus ivory and attached to the sandals of one of the earliest known kings of Egypt. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at what this label, with its hieroglyphs describing the king and...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 12: Standard of Ur 2 Feb 2010
A set of mosaic scenes, mounted on a single box, show powerful images of battle and regal life. The Standard of Ur was found nearly 100 years ago at a royal burial site in the city of Ur, in southern Iraq, and remains remarkably well...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 13: Indus Seal 3 Feb 2010
The ancient city of Harappa lies around 150 miles north of Lahore, in Pakistan. It was once one of the great centres of a civilisation with vast trade connections, which built over 100 cities, some with sophisticated sanitation systems,...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 14: Jade Axe 4 Feb 2010
A 6,000-year-old, polished, stone axe found in Canterbury but made in the Alps. Between 5,000 and 2,000BC Mesopotamia built the royal city of Ur, the Indus valley boasted the city of Harappa, and the great early civilisation of Egypt...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 15: Early Writing Tablet 5 Feb 2010
A small clay tablet made in Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago. It is covered with sums but also some of the world's earliest writing - about beer rationing. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at how humans invented...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 16: Flood Tablet 8 Feb 2010
A small tablet, found in modern Iraq, tells of a plan by the gods to destroy the world by means of a great flood. Pre-dating the story of Noah, when it was translated in 1872, this fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh caused a storm around...
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Bbc Podcasts: Episode 17: Rhind Mathematical Papyrus 9 Feb 2010
An ancient Egyptian papyrus from around 1550 BC, used to train scribes. 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....
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 18: Minoan Bull Leaper 10 Feb 2010
A small, bronze sculpture of a man leaping over a bull from the island of Crete is the starting point for an exploration of the Minoans, their rich bronze making tradition and the role of the bull in myth and legend. Neil MacGregor,...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 19: Mold Gold Cape 11 Feb 2010
A gold cape made almost 4,000 years ago and discovered in 1833, by a group of workmen looking for stones in a field near the village of Mold in North Wales. This sheet of pure gold, found wrapped around a skeleton, inspires Neil...
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Bbc Podcasts: Episode 20: Statue of Ramesses Ii 12 Feb 2010
Colossal statue of Ramesses II, one of ancient Egypt's most famous and successful pharaohs. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, considers the achievements of Ramesses II, a ruler who built monuments all over Egypt, inspired a...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 21: Lachish Reliefs 15 Feb 2010
Stone carvings from the palace of King Sennacherib of Assyria, showing his army attacking the town of Lachish, near Jerusalem. The Assyrian war machine was to create the largest empire that the world had ever seen and used the terror...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 22: Sphinx of Taharqo 16 Feb 2010
A sphinx with the black African face of pharoah Taharqo of Kush, in Sudan. These days few people even know that the mighty land of the Pharaohs was once ruled over by its southern neighbour. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 23: Chinese Zhou Ritual Vessel 17 Feb 2010
A Chinese bronze vessel used both for feasting and as an object to be buried alongside the dead for use in the afterlife. What can this beautiful bronze bowl tell us about life in China at this time? Neil MacGregor, Director of the...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 24: Paracas Textile 18 Feb 2010
Pieces of cloth found wrapped around a mummified body on the coast of Peru. The early Peruvians went to astonishing lengths to make and decorate their textiles whose colours remain striking to this day. Neil MacGregor, Director of the...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 25: Gold Coin of Croesus 19 Feb 2010
One of the world's earliest coins, minted in ancient Turkey about 2,500 years ago. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at how a powerful new state found a dramatic way to help run its increasingly complex economy and...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 26: Oxus Chariot Model 22 Feb 2010
This hand-sized model of a gold chariot pulled by four horses helps explain the rule of Cyrus, the 'king of kings', and his ambitions for his vast territory. Cyrus, the first Persian emperor, created the largest empire the world had ever...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 27: Parthenon Sculpture: Centaur and Lapith 23 Feb 2010
Sculpture of a half-man, half-horse rearing over a dead human from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Carved out of marble around 440BC, these beautiful figures continue to generate huge controversy around the world for the fact that they...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 28: Basse Yutz Flagons 24 Feb 2010
The Basse Yutz Flagons - two bronze drinking flagons made by the Celts in Northern Europe 2,500 years ago and considered to be the most important and earliest examples of Celtic art. Writer Jonathan Meades and Barry Cunliffe help...
BBC
Bbc Podcasts: Episode 29: Olmec Stone Mask 25 Feb 2010
A stone face made by Olmecs, the first Central American culture to build cities and develop writing. As the Parthenon was being created in Greece and the Persians were expanding the world's biggest empire, Neil MacGregor, Director of the...