‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’, From the British Museum

This may seem like a Friday Fillip, but it’s such an interesting idea that I thought Slaw readers might be interested.

Today, Radio 4 officially launched a major new series ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’, written and presented by the Director of the British Museum, Neil Macgregor. In brief segments over the next year, the history of mankind will be discussed by reference to a variety of objects.

The entire series will be accessible from ITunes as podcasts if you don’t want to watch them using the BBC IPlayer.

Ninety-nine of the 100 objects from the Brtish Museum’s collection are on the site and you can get a sneak preview of them now. They are tagged in blue on the Explorer and you can get closer to the objects with deep zoom and video on their object pages as well as hear the programmes as the series broadcasts. The final object will be revealed later in the year.

The programmes will travel through two million years from the earliest object in the collection to retell the history of humanity through the objects we have made. Each week will be tied to a particular theme, such as ‘after the ice age’ or ‘the beginning of science and literature’, and the programmes will broadcast in three blocks, in January, May and August.

Today’s object was the Mummy of Hornedjitef but tomorrow’s promises to start even earlier: