Living With The Gods

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Living with the Gods

Factual: History

Neil MacGregor explores the role and expression of shared beliefs around the world.

Neil MacGregor explores the role and expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world. Produced in partnership with the British Museum.

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Living with the Gods: Here Comes the Sun

Here Comes the Sun

BBC Radio 4 - Living with the Gods, Here Comes the Sun

Neil MacGregor experiences the winter solstice in the passage tomb at Newgrange, Ireland.

Neil MacGregor focuses on light: the sunrise on the winter solstice in the passage tomb at Newgrange, Ireland, and the story of Amaterasu, Japanese sun goddess, who hid in a cave.

Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world, and focuses on light. 

He experiences the sunrise whilst inside the monumental stone passage tomb at Newgrange, Ireland, a structure older than Stonehenge or the pyramids in Egypt. Here, on the winter solstice, thanks to the design of the tomb, a bright, narrow beam of sunlight reaches deep inside the structure. 

He also considers the story of Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess, whose decision to hide herself in a cave plunged the world into darkness, and reflects on how - centuries later - the image of rising sun became closely linked with Japanese national identity. 

Producer Paul Kobrak

The series is produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph: (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

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