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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: Old World, New Powers (1100 - 300 BC): Lachish Reliefs

Lachish Reliefs

Old World, New Powers (1100 - 300 BC)

A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus

BBC Radio 4 - A History of the World in 100 Objects, Old World, New Powers (1100 - 300 BC), Lachish Reliefs

Neil MacGregor's world history continues with images of war made over 2500 years ago

Neil MacGregor entounteres the huge stone carvings that describe an epic seige in Judah in 701BC.

Neil MacGregor's history of the world told through objects from the British Museum in London arrives at the Palace of Sennacherib in Northern Iraq. 

Throughout this week, Neil MacGregor explains the key power struggles taking place across the globe around 3000 years ago, as ambitious new forces were building sophisticated new societies. It seems that war has been one of the constant themes of our shared human history and, in this programme, Neil MacGregor tells the story of the Assyrian king Sennacherib and his bloody siege of Lachish in Judah in 701 BC. The siege is described unsparingly in giant stone carvings that were placed around the king's palace and that show, perhaps for the first time, the terrible consequences of war on civilian populations. The Assyrian war machine was to create the largest empire that the world had ever seen and used the terror tactic of mass deportations. Statesman Paddy Ashdown and the historian Anthony Beevor both reflect on these powerful images of war.

A History of the World in 100 Objects: Old World, New Powers (1100 - 300 BC)

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Across the world new regimes create objects to assert their supremacy.

From the very first coinage to burial shrouds, Neil MacGregor decodes five objects to reveal the ambition of new regimes across the world.

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A History of the World in 100 Objects

Old World, New Powers (1100 - 300 BC)

Lachish Reliefs

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