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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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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: Meeting The Gods (1200 - 1400 AD): Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island statue

Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island Statue

Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island statue

Meeting The Gods (1200 - 1400 AD)

A History of the World in 100 Objects Omnibus

BBC Radio 4 - A History of the World in 100 Objects, Meeting The Gods (1200 - 1400 AD), Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island statueSearch BBC

Neil MacGregor with one of the extraordinary giant figures from Easter Island.

This week Neil MacGregor is with the gods between AD 1200 -1500. Today he tells the story of one of the astonishing giant sculpted figures from Easter Island. 

This week Neil MacGregor is exploring the sophisticated ways in which people connected to gods and ancestors in the Middle Ages. He is looking at religious images from India, France, Mexico and Turkey. 


Today - in the last programme of the second series - he is with one of the most instantly recognisable sculptures in the world: one of the giant stone heads that were made on Easter Island in the South Eastern Pacific Ocean. These deeply mysterious objects lead Neil to consider why they were made and why many were ultimately thrown down. 


What was the Easter Islanders understanding of their gods and their ancestors? Steve Hooper, an expert on the arts of the Pacific, and the internationally renowned sculptor Sir Anthony Caro both respond to this monumental work of devotion.


Producer: Anthony Denselow


A History of the World in 100 Objects: Meeting The Gods (1200 - 1400 AD)

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

Objects from the British Museum show how the faithful were brought closer to their gods

From Mexico to Easter Island, the followers of many world religions used objects to become closer to their gods. Neil MacGregor finds five such devotional items

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A History of the World in 100 Objects

Meeting The Gods (1200 - 1400 AD)

Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island statue

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