³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

So that's your lot for a few weeks. Thirty episodes in the first part of A History of the World in 100 Objects has taken us from around 2,000,000BC to about 300BC.

In terms of objects, our route through history so far could be plotted as: mummy, rock, rock, tusk, stone, kitchen utensil, figurine, figurine, idol, saucepan, designer label, box, stamp, axe, notepad, storybook, textbook, sports memorabilia, eveningwear, monument, war report, sculpture, bowl, cloak, coin, toy car, sculpture, wine glasses, pendant and a bell.

But storywise - and off the top of my head - I've learnt about flint knapping, ancient astrology, maths, pottery, myth, weaving, propaganda, drinking and Chinese philosophy, among others. Which, I think, is sort of the point that objects can tell you more than you may think at first glance.

If you're catching-up with the programmes then there are several choices. From Friday 5 February there is a weekly omnibus on Radio 4 in the evenings, which will look at the objects so far in sets of five. If you want to hear the original shows again, then you can listen to any of them online from the object page. Pick one from the list above and just look for the big pink button on the British Museum objects. Finally, if you want to take the episode away and listen elsewhere then you can now download the mp3 file from the object pages - the link is just under the 'Listen to this programme' button - or find them all on our podcast page.

We'll still be having features here on the blog while we wait for the new series to begin in May. There will be some behind-the-scenes stuff from the British Museum and I'll be looking at more objects around the country and elsewhere on the web, as well as taking a closer look at your objects.

So keep adding your objects to the site and let us know what you think about the series so far.

• The photo is by and it's used .
• Mark Damazer, Controller of Radio 4, has posted his thoughts on the first part of A History of the World, the wider project and the return of Book of the Week on the Radio 4 blog.
  

What do you think? Add a comment

Have you started humming the theme tune to the series yet? It can't just be me. Mind you, I'm also developing a bit of a Pavlovian response to it. Not that I start drooling down my shirt at the beginning of every programme. It's just, when I hear the music, a little bit of my mind tells me: "Sit up. Brain food time." and I get ready for my 15-minute knowledge shot.



But how do you write music for a series that covers six continents and two million years of human history? I asked , the composer for the series, where he started with the soundtrack for such an eclectic group of objects.

We don't really know what music sounded like even 350 years ago. So, if we're talking about 3,000 years ago, or 30,000 years ago, we haven't got a chance. You're just trying to evoke a sense of time and place.

I used lots of woodwind instruments because they can be quite primitive; things like ocarinas and various types of whistles. Also primitive versions of the oboe and the bassoon. Instruments with reeds in them tend to make you think of the Middle East.

There are a couple of very early bagpipes. If you hear a bagpipe, not a Scottish bagpipe but a much simpler kind of bagpipe, it makes it plausible for something in ancient Britain or France.

But the human voice is the thing that pre-dates every instrument and the opening title sequence has my daughter singing four notes that we hear at the beginning of every programme.

This explains something that I'd sensed but never quite processed, which is that the soundtrack for each episode is different. But how do they bring that subtly different atmosphere to each programme?

There are two elements to the music we've done so far: the signature tune, which is a piece of music with a beginning, a development and a conclusion, and then we've got hundreds of pieces of musical punctuation.

I write a whole load of motifs and musical phrases - quite short ones - and get the people in the studio to play them on dozens of different instruments. You get very interesting outcomes from that. Not all of the instruments can play all of a phrase because of the nature of the instrument. They have limitations and the limitations of the instrument produce quite interesting effects.

So far we've used a different instrument to play the punctuation phrases in every single programme. In the first series there were 30 different programmes, so we've used 30 different instruments.

So it looks like the music in the series will continue to develop as we move through the rest of the 100 objects. I forgot to ask Steven if that means that the 99th episode, about a credit card, will have a wailing electric guitar solo on it. (I rather like the idea.) But I did ask him to nominate a musical instrument for the website. Is there an instrument that can tell us about the history of music?

There's a medieval reed instrument called a curtal. In some of the programmes we did use a soprano saxophone - a very modern instrument which you associate with jazz - but played in a way that makes it sound quite ancient and Middle Eastern.

It suddenly made me realise that the curtal is not a million miles away from the saxophone. You never imagine that Charlie Parker's alto saxophone in New York could be at all related to the curtal but you can see, in families of instruments, connections across the centuries - or even the millennia.

Unfortunately, Steven doesn't own a curtal, so we couldn't take a photo and add it to the site. Don't suppose anyone out there has a 600-year-old bassoon lying around the house?

• The photo of a flute is by and it's used .

What do you think? Add a comment

Remember when you could leave your front door unlocked and local bobbies upheld the peace with nothing more than a wink and a cuff round the ear? Me neither. But it's something of a habit in us humans to look for a moment in time when things were somehow better than they are now.

In week six of A History of the World in 100 objects we're parachuted back to between 500 and 300 BC a point in human history when ability, knowledge and vision had seemingly reached a high point.
Ìý
As lead curator JD Hill puts it:
Ìý

We have philosophical, intellectual and artistic traditions being created which will survive, be discussed and continue to influence for the next 2,500 years.

Ìý
For our objects this week, we look at five examples of this 'golden age', and ask whether it was really so golden.
Ìý
Take the Centaur and Lapith sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens. This is Classical Greece, when great statesmen were steering the earliest democracy, Plato was sharing ideas with anyone who'd listen and where one of the great masterpieces of world art was sculpted in marble on the Acropolis.

But Athens wasn't alone.
Ìý
In China, Confucius was forming ideas that would influence philosophical and political life in the east, and beyond, for thousands of years. The Chinese bronze bell shows the importance of music in China at this time and its influence on Confucius and his belief in musical harmony as a metaphor for social harmony.
Ìý
It was also at this point that the Persian Empire spanned three continents and, under the rule of Cyrus, enjoyed such familiar staples as religious tolerance, regional government and a postal service. We get all that from a tiny gold chariot model found in Tadjikistan.
Ìý
But, explains JD, as golden as this age clearly was, there are practical reasons why we tend to look to this moment as a high point of civilisation.
Ìý

Both in the West and in China there is a tendency to look back at the fifth century BC as somehow being an important intellectual age - as if there wasn't a similar tradition taking place before.

One of the big questions we have to ask is how much is that really true? Or do we in the west look to Classical Greece or the 'Age of a Hundred Schools of Thought' in China as the high point because it is a cultural tradition that left behind writings which are constantly picked up for the next 2,500 years? While other traditions have not left this continuing literary legacy.

Ìý
Telling a history of the world through objects, as we are, we can look past the page, papyrus or tablet.
Ìý
Greek and Roman writers describe the Celts of northern Europe as barbarians or noble savages. But the Basse Yutz flagons are evidence of a sophisticated, skilled and artistic people. The Olmec stone mask, made in what is now Mexico, reveals the culture behind the calendars, religion, town-planning and art that would characterise Central American civilisation for millennia.
Ìý
So how about it: was this really a 'golden age'? Were our 2,500 year-old ancestors better off, or more advanced, than those who came before?

Or are we living dangerously if we only believe everything we read?

What do you think? Add a comment

Have you made it to an A History of the World event this week? There have been special days in museums around the country. Several of them included an area where you could bring along your object and add it to the site, and we've had almost two hundred objects uploaded by people visiting the events.

One of the most interesting was an example of a forgotten British invention. Beryl Knight brought in a salt and pepper set made from Bandalasta, a forerunner to plastics and formica, which her father had helped invent in Birmingham. to hear Beryl explain why Bandalasta sadly wasn't to become another British success story.

Other objects we saw included a calcium carbide lamp in Teesside, a Sunday schools commemorative medal in Leicester, a record of King Edward VIII's abdication in Berkshire, an English concertina in Gloucester, a World War One trench telephone in Lincolnshire and, at the event organised by ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Solent, some slightly ghoulish looking pieces of Victorian dolls.

There are still a few final events on this weekend in , , and .

And finally, here are a couple of photos of the day in - click through to see more. Though I'm not sure if you find out where all that blood came from. Then again, I'm not sure I want to know.

It seems we may have started a trend. Fans of the The Archers have taken up the history in a 100 objects idea and are building a list on their message board for A History of The Archers in 100 objects. Nominations so far include, a jam jar, a blanket and a bed - I hope they aren't from the same storyline. There are also lots of mentions of Forsythia, which is clearly a small shrub of large significance.

Meanwhile, beyond Radio 4 we seem to have inspired the Shedman at his blog to challenge his readers to come up with :

From Lao Tzu to Gillis Lundgren, the Abbé Marc-Antoine Laugier to the Unabomber, from the baby Jesus to Frank Whittle, let's have your suggestions for the sheds that have really had an impression on world history.

Magnificent stuff. in the series is in Norway - and I think it's still there because I seem to remember Ray Mears trundling around it in a programme about the heroes of Telemark. I'm not a shed expert but I'll nominate from where he gently warped the minds of at least two generations of delighted children - me included.

Are there any other historical hundreds out there?

• The photo of a shed is by and it's used .

What object in your house, or your parents' house, or your grandparents' house could tell a history of life in the 20th century? For Rebecca Front, actress and star of The Thick of It, it's the radio that sat in her grandparents' house.

Radio, for the generation above mine, was your route into the outside world. It was as significant as tv is to us now.

Watch the video to discover the final surprise that her grandmother's wireless had in store for the family.



You can find out more about the history of broadcasting and the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's role in the development of radio on The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Story website.

Our Half-term events are up and running - find out what's happening in your area. There are A History of the World events in museums, and other places, across England. Some museums are showing off the unique objects they have added to the site and at some events there are also live local radio broadcasts. Plus you can bring in your object and get help adding it to the site.

In Lancashire, Sally Naden presented her show live from the in Preston. One of her listeners brought in his mother-in-law's clogs for the curators to take a look at and Sally couldn't resist slipping them on for a quick scamper around the museum.



I tried to get to the , in south London, yesterday but got there too late. All I managed to do was get extremely wet - it's further up that hill than I remember. But, apparently, it was a great day, with people bringing in all kinds of objects; from a docker's hook and a clockwork London bus, to a carpet beater. Plus Robert Elms was there in the afternoon with his ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ London show. You can and some more of the objects.

Meanwhile, in Leicester the roadshow at the Guildhall was uncovering, among other items, a first world war cushion cover, a gas mask tin and a forbidding looking pair of handcuffs.

There are more events this week in , , , , , , , , , , and many other places. Find out more about events in your area and get along with your objects.

As we all know, there are certain constants in this life and change is one of them. Like seasons, hairstyles or best friends when you're under 10 - nothing lasts forever.
Ìý
History teaches us how this is true of power and who holds it and, as every good student knows, empires come and empires go. According to lead curator JD Hill, week five in A History of the World in 100 objects takes this power shift as its central theme.
Ìý

Across the world, between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago, there are a series of quite marked changes and transformations - more than just the passing of one empire.
Ìý
Often when we look back at places like the Middle East, China and Egypt we think that civilisations just chug along quite nicely. But, actually, there is a big sea-change at this point, as old powers and dynasties come to an end and new powers and dynasties arise. This is a period of upheaval.

Ìý
Spinning the globe at this moment in time offers up five objects that show some of these major changes.
Ìý
In Africa, the Sphinx of Taharqo is sculpted proof of the moment the ruled became the rulers, as the Kingdom of Kush in modern Sudan took on the once mighty Egyptian pharaohs and won. In Iraq, the military might of the Assyrian Empire is made clear in the Lachish Reliefs, carved decoration for palace walls showing the ruthless crushing of a local rebellion. And in China, the upstart Zhou dynasty overthrows the long-established Shang and writes about it on a ritual bronze vessel.
Ìý
Change was also coming to Central and South America as the earliest complex societies began to emerge. From Peru, elaborate and highly-sophisticated textiles found wrapped around bodies in large underground cemeteries are a vivid window into one of these formative cultures - the Paracas.
Ìý
But change wasn't just to be found in the displacement or development of civilisations. New ways of approaching old challenges were devised at this time. For example, many societies across Africa, Asia and Europe started using iron instead of bronze to make tools.
Ìý
But one innovation was so good the change is still jangling in our pockets today.
Ìý
The world's first coins were minted and used in the eastern Mediterranean and China at this time and our Gold coin of Croesus, issued by the fabulously wealthy ruler of what is now part of Turkey, is one of the earliest.

While plenty of societies didn't use this new currency at first, those that did had a new way to run their economies. This profound change was so effective thousands of years ago, it's hardly changed since, explains JD:

Societies could have cities, international trade and empires without them, but coins represented a change in how economic relationships were worked out - a change that would shape the world for the next 2,500 years.

Coins would also provide a new tool for empire and self-promotion as images of rulers and symbols of cities and states struck into metal were circulated in standard sizes and weights.

Change and its effects are the central theme of this week, but maybe this is the theme of history in general - finding moments of change and watching to see what happens next, analysing causes and dealing with effects, many of which are still with us today.


What do you think? Add a comment
Ìý

Simon Mayo has added a bar of soap to A History of the World. You might think that he is trying to win a prize for the least historical object on the site but watch the video see the story behind it.

It turns out that a bar of soap isn't always just a bar of soap. As with many of the objects on the site, it shows that everyday things can evoke strong emotions unrelated to their original purpose and some even become a memento of world-changing events.


So that's Simon's object. Now what's yours?

During school half-term there will be events in museums all over the country encouraging people to take part in A History of the World. However, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Northern Ireland's Gerry Anderson couldn't wait to get started and somehow he managed to hijack a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ bus for a journey of historical discovery.

Gerry's day trip set off from Cookstown and swept around the south of Lough Neagh stopping at Lisburn and Dungannon before arriving in Belfast.

On the way he picked up a group of listeners, all holding objects with histories that they wanted to explore and ferried them to the curators at the Ulster Museum.

Take a look at the objects that Owen, Rodney, Rosemary, Paul and Priscilla bought along, from Viking cloak pins to a letter from Neil Armstrong, and listen to Gerry Anderson on Wednesday to hear more about his historic day trip.Ìý

What greater act is there in this life than the acquisition of knowledge? Working in a museum, I'm contractually obliged to think that. But most of this life is spent absorbing information; from how to communicate, or tie shoelaces, to serious things like looking up last week's football scores, and, well, historic dates. But how we pass on that knowledge on is always changing.

About 4,000 years ago, as cities and states continued to develop, science, maths and literature started to be recorded, shared and passed on for the first time.

Among our objects this week is the Rhind mathematical papyrus. With its maths problems and solutions it's something like an ancient encyclopaedia. Ben Roberts, British Museum curator of Bronze Age Europe, told me why maths was an essential tool in the ancient state builder's box.

You can't organise an army, build a big temple or have a large scale trading system without having some way of measuring and expressing measurement. This is maths, not the theoretical kind, but applied maths - the kind of mathematics you would use to run a state.

But documents and books are not just for maths. In the Flood tablet from the library of King Ashurbanipal of Assyria we have an example of a traditional story, written down to become some of the world's earliest literature - an epic tale of the hero Gilgamesh.

Telling stories is a thing that humans do, but the actual recording of stories means that they can be read in the original form years and years later. When you write something down you are obviously recording it for the ages

This is the first big, popular epic in world literature. When you look at all subsequent epics from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖr through to the Lord of the Rings, they all have the same things: the hero going on a big journey - a huge quest.

But long journeys weren't only for heroes. Another essential state builder's tool - trade - brought a flourishing civilisation to Crete. Without the natural resources to make their own bronze, the inhabitants of Crete had to set sail to get it. So it was trade that created the startling bronze Minoan Bull Leaper.

And trade brings wealth, like that shown by the owner of the Mold Gold cape. Are you getting the 'if you've got it flaunt it' tone in those glimmering shoulders too?

But no-one knew how to do 'image' like ancient Egypt's Ramesses II. His colossal statue is another physical record; a firm hint to subjects, enemies and indeed the future that he is not a man to be messed with.

So, what do we take away from this week? Maths is useful? The ancients blinged as brightly as anyone? Leaders knew the power of image just as well 4,000 years ago as they do now?

Or that committing information to tablet, or papyrus or stone, gave our ancestors access to more information than they could store in their heads alone? This is just one of the incredible achievements of the people of this period.

Together these objects also tell us about the people, motives and acts behind them, and give us access to the earliest recollections of the collective memory of humanity.

Bill Thompson, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's , has kindly recorded a video for us explaining how to add your object to the site. If you're nervous about uploading something on the internet, we promise we've tried to make it as easy as possible. Watch this short video and and let Bill reassure you.



See? Easy. Now go find that thing your granddad had in the back room, or the one your mum insisted on bringing back from that foreign holiday, and put it on the site.

Remember me extolling the virtues of deep-zoom a week or so ago with the swimming reindeer? Well, if you didn't try it then you really need to go and zoom in on the Standard of Ur. You can see all four sides of mosaics close-up by clicking on the images under the main photo. Use the + and - buttons to zoom in and out.

The mosaics are amazing. The jagged, blue stones in the background really give an illusion of depth to the scenes. Spotters badges for those who can find the startled-looking fisherman, the first recorded hit and run incident and a man and a boy trying to get a goat drunk. Any other hidden highlights that I've missed?

Humans are social animals and millions of us the world over live and work together in huge cities.

Week three of A History of the World in 100 Objects takes us back about 6-5,000 years to find out what happened when such large communities first developed.

After a process that took several thousand years, small villages in the river valleys of North Africa and Asia (modern Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan and India) grew into the world's first great cities and states.

JD Hill, A History of the World's lead curator, explained how this growth presented early urbanites with new questions:

We are having to find new ways of organising on a much larger scale than before. This is both the shift to cities and also the creation of political entities.

The question is how do you run a big city? How do you rule? How do you hold together these large societies and what are the consequences of that? In a way you need politics in the modern sense.

So, how do you do it? How do you organise a mass of people so large that most of them couldn't hope to get to know each other?

In our five objects this week we can see how some found answers to these questions.

In Egypt, King Den's sandal label shows an early ruler using the old 'them and us' trick; uniting a body of people by setting himself up as all-powerful in opposition to a common enemy. In Iraq, the Standard of Ur is an idealised image of a new, larger society, clearly divided into haves and have-nots, rulers and ruled, both at war and at peace.

Yet it wasn't just war that brought cities and states into contact with each other. The Indus seal is a tiny, but tantalising, glimpse of a whole civilisation and the mechanics of trade that linked early civilisations to the world around them.

And in another small object, we find a method of keeping track of what's going on. It might be surprising, but it was inevitable that some of the world's earliest writing should be invented by accountants.

So, in the drive for progress, cities grow, populations expand and life gets more complex. This week's objects offer proof, if ever it were needed, that humans like to come together and are pretty good at finding ways to work with each other when we do.

But there are always exceptions. Ours is a Jade axe - a highly-polished descendant of the revolutionary tool that helped shape the first million years of human evolution.

Quarried in the Alps, this stone found its way to southeast England. The people who made it were every bit as skilled, intelligent and developed as those who made the other four objects. But they didn't live in cities or large-scale states. In fact, most communities at this time, the majority of the world's population, did not need cities or states.

Perhaps it's better to end this week's view of the world 6,000 years ago by noting that we can look for patterns in history, but (to borrow again from my dictionary of cliché), there's always more than one way to skin a cat.