A History Of The World In 100 Objects

This week the history of the world as told through one hundred objects is looking at how the world's great religions began trying to find the perfect way to visually express the divine, less than 2000 years ago. Today, Neil MacGregor looks at how a stone sculpture from modern day Pakistan can tell us about how Buddhism set about creating the classic image to represent the real life Buddha who lived and roamed around North India in the 5th Century BC. It was not until over five hundred years later when the classic seated image of the Buddha was first formulated. Before then the Buddha was represented only by symbols. How did the Buddha image come about and why do we need such images? The Dalai Lama's official translator, Thupten Jinpa, and the historian Claudine Bautze-Picron help explain. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

Neil MacGregor's world history told through objects at the British Museum arrives in Britain at the time of the Roman collapse. Throughout this week he has been looking at how different cultures around the globe were pursuing pleasure, roughly 2000 years ago, from smoking in North America to team sports in Central America. Today, Neil looks at how the elite of Roman Britain sustained their appetite for luxury goods and good living in the years before their demise. He tells the story through a silver pepper pot that was discovered as part of a buried hoard - hidden possibly by Romans on the run. He describes the ambitions of the elite in Roman Britain and how they satisfied their particular taste for pepper, with contributions from the food writer Christine McFadden and historian Roberta Tomber. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

Throughout this week, Neil MacGregor has been exploring pleasure and recreation across the world of 200 years ago. Today he arrives in China to explore a painting based on a poem that attempts to define the proper behaviour for women during the tumultuous time that followed the collapse of the Han Empire. This eleven foot long scroll offers a guide to manners along well established Confucian principles. Neil MacGregor tells the story of the scroll and finds out what it is was about women's behaviour that was so worrying men of the period. The historian Shane McCausland, the politician Charles Powell, and the Chinese art expert Jan Stuart help paint the picture. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

Neil MacGregor's history of humanity as told through one hundred objects that time has left behind. This week he is looking at objects of leisure and pleasure around the world about 2000 years ago. How were we amusing ourselves back then? Today's object is a large stone belt, a heavyweight ceremonial version of the leather and fibre padding that was used in an ancient ball game in central America. This was a game with a rubber ball that dates back as far as three and a half thousand years ago - the world's oldest known organised sport. Neil offers up the rules of the game and describes how it connected players to the realm of their gods. The historian Michael Whittington considers the ritual aspects of the game while the writer Nick Hornby describes how sport straddles the emotional territory between the sacred and the profane. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

The history of the world as explained through objects arrives in North America 2000 years ago and a stone pipe used in ritual. It is one of hundreds of pipes shaped as animals that were found in huge mounds in present day Ohio. Neil MacGregor pieces together the evidence for how these pipes were used. Tony Benn and the artist Maggie Hambling consider the allure of smoking from a modern perspective while Native American historian Gabrielle Tayac describes how the pipe formed a central role in traditional ritual and religious life. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

Throughout this week Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum in London, is exploring the ways in which people were seeking pleasure around the world 2000 years ago, from pipe smoking in North America to court etiquette in China. He starts with the Roman Empire and a silver cup that offers a rare glimpse into the world of sex in ancient Rome. The cup features such explicit images of homosexual acts that it was once banned from America and museums refused to buy it. The Warren Cup is now one of the British Museum's better known objects. In today's programme Neil examines the sexual climate of Rome. Just how was sexuality viewed at this time, and why were the Romans so keen to copy the Greeks? The historians Bettany Hughes and James Davidson help provide the answers. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

Neil MacGregor concludes the first week of the second part of his global history as told through objects from the British Museum. This week he has been exploring the lives and methods of powerful rulers around the world about 2000 years ago, from Alexander the Great in Egypt to Asoka in India. Today he introduces us to the great Roman emperor Augustus, whose powerful, God-like status is brilliantly enshrined in a larger than life bronze head with striking eyes. Neil MacGregor describes how Augustus dramatically enlarged the Roman Empire, establishing his image as one of its most familiar objects. The historian Susan Walker and the politician Boris Johnson help explain the power and methodology of Augustus. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

In a week of programmes exploring the nature of power and the emergence of new rulers around the world 2000 years ago, Neil MacGregor takes us to Han Dynasty China. He tells the story of how the Chinese maintained loyalty and control by dispensing luxury gifts. He describes the world of the imperial Han through an exquisite lacquer wine cup that was probably given by the emperor to one of his military commanders in North Korea. The historian Roel Sterckx underlines the importance of lacquer for the period while writer Isabel Hilton looks at how the production of goods under state control has remained a consistent interest of the Chinese. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

Today's programme finds Neil MacGregor in the company of one of the best known inhabitants of the British Museum - the Rosetta Stone. Throughout this week he is exploring shifting empires and the rise of legendary rulers around the world over 2000 years ago and here he takes us to the Egypt of Ptolemy V. He tells the story of the Greek kings who ruled in Alexandria. He also explains the struggle between the British and the French over the Middle East and their squabble over the stone. And, of course, he describes the astonishing contest that led to the most famous decipherment in history - the cracking of the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone. Historian Dorothy Thompson and the writer Ahdaf Soueif help untangle the tale. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

The history of the world as told through objects at the British Museum arrives in India over 2000 years ago. Throughout this week Neil MacGregor is exploring the lives and methods of powerful new leaders. Today he looks at how the Indian ruler Ashoka turned his back on violence and plunder to promote the ethical codes inspired by Buddhism. He communicated to his vast new nation through a series of edicts written on rocks and pillars. Neil tells the life story of Ashoka through a remaining fragment of one of his great pillar edicts and considers his legacy in the Indian sub-continent today. Amartya Sen and the Bhutanese envoy to Britain, Michael Rutland, describe what happened when Buddhism and the power of the state come together. Producer: Anthony Denselow.

Neil MacGregor opens the second part of his global history as told through objects from the British Museum in London. This week he is exploring the lives and methods of powerful rulers around the world 2000 years ago, asking what enduring qualities are needed for the perfect projection of power. He begins with one of history's most famous leaders, one with a divine aura - Alexander the Great, a ruler whose empire was to stretch from Egypt to northern India, and who has left an impressive legacy on the world today. He tells the story of Alexander the Great through a small silver coin, one that was made years after his death by one of his former generals but that portrays an idealised image of the great leader as a vigorous young man. Political commentator Andrew Marr considers Alexander as a model for future rulers and the historian Robin Lane-Fox explains the motivation behind Alexander's extraordinary ascent.

Neil MacGregor continues to explore the emergence of sophisticated new powers across the world 2,500 years ago, from the Parthenon in Greece to the great empire of Cyrus in Persia and the forgotten people of the Olmec in Mexico. In this programme he arrives in China at the time of Confucius. He explores the Confucian view of the world with reference to a large bronze bell, and with help from the writer Isabel Hilton and the percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Confucius believed in a society that worked in harmony. How do his teachings go down in China today?

Neil MacGregor selects a miniature mask to tell the story of the Olmec, the mysterious people of ancient Mexico who lived before the time of the Aztecs or Maya. As the Parthenon was being created in Greece and the Persians were expanding the world's biggest empire, what was life like for the 'mother culture' of Central America? Neil explores the life of the Olmec and visits the remains of one of their greatest legacies. He considers their remarkable skills in mask making with the Olmec specialist Karl Taube and the Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes.

Neil MacGregor's history of the world recounted through objects at the British Museum arrives in Northern Europe 2,500 years ago. Neil explores the early world of the Celts through two bronze drinking flagons, considered to be the most important and earliest examples of Celtic art. Writer Jonathan Meades and Barry Cunliffe, one of the world's leading experts on this period, help describe the Celts, dissect the stereotypes and consider their celebrated love of drink.

Neil MacGregor examines the emergence of powerful new forces across the globe around the fifth century BC, from Confucius in China to Cyrus in Persia. In this programme he looks at the emotionally-charged sculptures that were made for the Parthenon in Athens. Carved out of marble around 440BC, these beautiful figures continue to generate huge controversy around the world for the fact that they remain in London and have not been returned to Greece. Neil acknowledges the political controversy of the Elgin Marbles (named after the British Lord who carried them off) but concentrates on their artistic story and on exploring the ancient Greek world that created them. He describes a culture besotted with the myths and imagery of battle. Greek archaeologist Olga Palagia and classicist Mary Beard help conjure up the extraordinary city of antiquity.

Neil MacGregor's world history told through objects at the British Museum arrives in Persia 2,500 years ago. Throughout this week, Neil examines powerful leaders across the ancient world. In this programme he focuses on Cyrus, the first Persian emperor who created the largest empire the world had ever known. It stretched from Turkey to Pakistan and required a hugely sophisticated network of communications and control. At the heart of the programme is a gold chariot pulled by four gold horses. This hand-sized model helps explain the rule of Cyrus, the 'king of kings', and his ambitions for his vast territory. How does this glorious pre-Islamic past sit with the people of Iran today? With contributions from historian Tom Holland and Michael Axworthy, of the University of Exeter.

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?

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. 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?

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. 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. Neil finds out what was happening in China during 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 both for feasting and also as an object to be buried alongside the dead for use in the afterlife. 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.

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.