The Beeb is running a series on Radio 4 (the posh channel) about 100 objects chosen from the collection by the Director of the British Museum. Well worth a listen - hopefully it's not one of those stupid sites confined to those who live in the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/

Thanks endure, looks great!

Thank you endure.

Hmmmm. The first object I saw, today's object, was a "ceremonial ballgame belt". It put me off investigating further.

I was intrigued, and was expecting a list of objects that would sum up the world's history....wheel, flint, arrowhead, compass, dynamite, printing press, nazi flag, computer, and many things inbetween.....

Oh well, never mind.

If you made the effort to listen to them you'd see that they do indeed sum up the world's history. A few examples:

038 Ceremonial Ballgame Belt 26 May 2010

Wed, 26 May 10

Duration:

15 mins

A ceremonial stone belt from central America. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at the ceremonial version of the leather and fibre padding used in an ancient ball game - the world's oldest-known organised sport. Historian Michael Whittington considers the ritual aspects of the game and writer Nick Hornby describes how sport straddles the emotional territory between the sacred and the profane.

012 Standard of Ur 2 Feb 2010

Tue, 2 Feb 10

Duration:

15 mins

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 preserved given its 4,500-year-old history. Uncovered with magnificent gold and silver jewellery at the heart of one of the first great civilisations in the world, what can it tell us about the nature of kingship and power in Mesopotamia?

014 Jade axe 4 Feb 2010

Thu, 4 Feb 10

Duration:

14 mins

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 spread along the Nile. But in Britain, and most other places, life was much simpler. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, tells the story of how this beautiful jade axe may have been used and traded, and how its source was traced to the heart of Europe.

021 Lachish Reliefs 15 Feb 2010

Mon, 15 Feb 10

Duration:

14 mins

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 tactic of mass deportations. These giant stone carvings show powerful images of war and, perhaps for the first time, the terrible consequences on civilian populations. Includes contributions from the statesman Paddy Ashdown and the historian Antony Beevor.

032 Pillar of Ashoka 18 May 2010

Tue, 18 May 10

Duration:

15 mins

A fragment from a pillar edict of Indian ruler Ashoka. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at how Ashoka turned his back on violence and plunder to promote the ethical codes inspired by Buddhism. Ashoka communicated to his vast new nation through a series of edicts written on rocks and pillars, but what is 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 came together.

033 Rosetta Stone 19 May 2010

Wed, 19 May 10

Duration:

15 mins

Ancient Egyptian stela with text in Greek, heiroglyphs and demotic. The Rosetta Stone is one of the British Museum’s best known objects and a valuable key to the decipherment of hieroglyphs. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum tells the story of the Egypt of Ptolemy V. He also looks at the Greek kings who ruled in Alexandria and the struggle between the British and the French over the Middle East and their squabble over the stone. Historian Dorothy Thompson and the writer Ahdaf Soueif help untangle the tale.

The Rosetta Stone is one of the British Museum’s

A good link endure, something I will look through more when I have more time.

This particular one made me look into straight away, I knew it had been rediscovered by the French during the Egyptian campaign, but was intrigued why it was in the British Museum.

A Napoleonic Marble, no less.

If you made the effort to listen to them you'd see that they do indeed sum up the world's history. A few examples:

.........

Ok.... I was impatient and impetuous.

It is all very interesting, I see now.

For those of us who live outside the UK, check out http://www.my-expat-network.co.uk/

It costs five quid a month and you can watch all the UK telly from your home. I have used for three months now truly excellent. All the BeeB stuff ITV channel 4/5 etal............

For those of us who live outside the UK, check out http://www.my-expat-network.co.uk/

It costs five quid a month and you can watch all the UK telly from your home. I have used for three months now truly excellent. All the BeeB stuff ITV channel 4/5 etal............

yes but most of the stuff you poms watch is from Australia anyway. Prisoner, neighbours, Kylie and Danny Minogue just to name a few.

Oz Television is a lot like our beer, we reserve the worst crap for export. Fosters and the entire Minogue family are prime examples. Only fit for foreign consumption, no one here can swallow the shit.

CB

Earls Court in London used to be knee deep in crappy Oz exports - most of them propping up the White Swan and Duke of Richmond bars, with the poofters down at the ??? (Connaught? Castlereay? Can't remember the name)

The Coleherne.

What a marvel Google is!

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/resul...Court%3BLondon/

(Maybe the other pubs are now defunct - it's over 40 years since I was living there)

For those of us who live outside the UK, check out http://www.my-expat-network.co.uk/

It costs five quid a month and you can watch all the UK telly from your home. I have used for three months now truly excellent. All the BeeB stuff ITV channel 4/5 etal............

yes but most of the stuff you poms watch is from Australia anyway. Prisoner, neighbours, Kylie and Danny Minogue just to name a few.

Oz Television is a lot like our beer, we reserve the worst crap for export. Fosters and the entire Minogue family are prime examples. Only fit for foreign consumption, no one here can swallow the shit.

CB

This is cruel and heartless (...and true ).

Earls Court in London used to be knee deep in crappy Oz exports

We used to refer to Earls Court as "Kangaroo Court" for that very reason.

It used to annoy me in London to have someone, trying to be friendly, buy me a beer and come back with a flamin' Fosters. Gawd I hate that swill. Living there developed my taste for Belgian Beers.

CB

Earls Court in London used to be knee deep in crappy Oz exports

We used to refer to Earls Court as "Kangaroo Court" for that very reason.

It used to annoy me in London to have someone, trying to be friendly, buy me a beer and come back with a flamin' Fosters. Gawd I hate that swill. Living there developed my taste for Belgian Beers.

CB

i didnt know they sold belgian beer in the redback, backpackers, the walkabout or the church.

must have some new branches springing up in places like crouch end, islington, highgate, muswell hill, clapham and s.kensington then

Before the Belgian jokes start...I'll get my coat

When I did my BIG OE, as we in NZ and OZ call our regulation UK holiday.

I stayed in Holland Park, not bad pad.

On my return to Melbs, a guy where I was working commented that he had done his Big OE.

On asking me where I stayed, he asked why I did not stay in Earls Court.

I asked him why stay there?

He answered, "That's where all Kiwis and Aussies stay.

I answered, "Really, I guess you ate OZ butter and cheese, likewise lamb etc."

"Of course," he answered.

My reply was, "What the <deleted> did you go for, far cheaper to stay home,"

At my 1st OZ job, me a Kiwi, I was asked, "How come you speak English?"

<deleted>, all that set my perception of yer average Ockors.

Like where were they coming from, thank gawd for all the new AUSTRALIANS.

One could ask why you went there then, but it's like asking a moaning expat why he lives in Thailand.

Better women, better lifestyle, better weather, better people, cheaper to live....

Imagine the reaction of a Kiwi who bypassed Australia and went straight to Thailand.

The shock could well be fatal, better to start off slowly.