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A History of the World in 100 Objects

Factual: History

Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, retells humanity's history through objects

Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, narrates 100 programmes that retell humanity's history through the objects we have made.

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A History of the World in 100 Objects: The First Cities and States (4000 - 2000 BC): Jade Axe

Jade Axe

The First Cities and States (4000 - 2000 BC)

A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus

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Neil MacGregor's global history told through objects - a 6,000-year-old axe found in Kent.

A History of the World arrives in Britain for the first time - with a 6,000-year-old jade axe discovered near Canterbury but made in the High Alps. What was Britain like then?

This week's programmes in the history of the world look at the growing sophistication of modern humans around the globe between 5000 and 2000 BC. Mesopotamia had built the royal city of Ur, the Indus valley boasted the city of Harappa, and the great early civilisation of Egypt was beginning to spread along the Nile. 

In Britain life was much simpler, although trade links with Europe were well established. In today's programme, Neil Macgregor tells the story of a beautiful piece of jade, shaped into an axe head. It is about 6000 years old and was discovered near Canterbury in Kent but was made in the high Alps. Neil MacGregor tells the story of how this object may have been used and traded and how its source was cunningly traced to the heart of Europe

A History of the World in 100 Objects: The First Cities and States (4000 - 2000 BC)

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What happens as people move from villages to cities? Five objects tell the story.

Five objects from the British Museum's collection tell the story of the emergence of the earliest cities in the river valleys of North Africa and Asia

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A History of the World in 100 Objects

The First Cities and States (4000 - 2000 BC)

Jade Axe

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