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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 Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD): Silk princess painting

Silk Princess Painting

Silk princess painting

The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD)

A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus

BBC Radio 4 - A History of the World in 100 Objects, The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD), Silk princess paintingSearch BBC

Neil MacGregor continues his history of the world with a painting from the Silk Road.

Neil MacGregor's history of humanity as told through objects travels the Silk Road to Western China and the story of silk.

Throughout this week, Neil MacGregor has been exploring the world of the late 7th century, with objects from South America, Britain, Syria and Korea. 

Today's object is from the 4000 mile tangle of routes that has become known as the Silk Road - that great conduit of ideas, technologies, goods and beliefs that effectively linked the Pacific with the Mediterranean. His chosen object which lets him travel the ancient Silk Route is a fragile painting telling a story of "industrial espionage". It comes from the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan, now in Western China, and tells a powerful story about how the secrets of silk manufacture were passed along the fabled route. The cellist and composer Yo Yo Ma, who has long been fascinated by the Silk Road and who thinks of it as "the internet of antiquity", and the writer Colin Thubron consider the impact of the Silk Road - in reality and on the imagination.

Producer: Anthony Denselow


A History of the World in 100 Objects: The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD)

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Five objects from the British Museum tell the story of the movement of goods and ideas

Five objects from the British Museum tell the story of the movement of goods and ideas, along the Silk Road out of China, to Korea and even as far as East Anglia

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A History of the World in 100 Objects

The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD)

Silk princess painting

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