By Neil MacGregor

Director of the British Museum

Viking Press ISBN 978-0-670-02270-0

Reviewed by Greg Petty

What do an Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool, The Standard of Ur, a Jomon Pot, Seated Buddha from Gandhara and a Credit Card all have in common? They are some of the 100 cultural items in the British Museum of History that are included in this delightfully informative book. Each of the 100 items has been selected to tell its unique history of manufacture, its uses and the people, places and cultures that produced it. In short, the book is an exciting and informative glimpse at humanity’s common beginnings and the development of our civilizations through innovation and invention.

Originally the selected 100 items formed the basis of a hugely popular 2010 BBC radio program, and the objects were placed on the Museum and BBC’s respective websites. The popular demand for the stories greatly increased and this book is the result of the demand to hear the story of each of these unique items.

MacGregor, as Director of one of the world’s greatest museums, is in the position to tell this story as the British Empire touched almost all parts of our world at one time or another. Parliament set the museum up in 1753 with the express goal of aiming the museum at universality in its collection and making it free for all to see. They have been collecting objects that tell the story of humanity for over 250 years. The BBC collaboration in the project allowed the 2010 broadcasts to be heard around the world.

The books objects are roughly chronologically placed but MacGregor’s choice of the first object is the Mummy of Hornedjitef, about 240 BC from Luxor. He selected it because mummies are still one of the museum’s most potent artifacts and because it is a view into how the history of the 100 objects will ask and answer different kinds of questions about their importance. He uses the mummy to explain how modern science is still helping us decipher new information and as he puts it, “… [still] sending us messages through time.”

The Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool is dated at 1.8 – 2.0 million years old. The tool was discovered in 1931 by Louis Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge (East African Rift Valley) of modern day Tanzania. Upon its discovery it was the oldest known humanly made object. The tool was made to fit in the hand in order to strip meat and break bones for the protein rich marrow. Naturalist Sir David Attenborough expresses his reaction at being able to hold this Olduvai treasure. “Holding this I can feel what it was like to be out on the African savannahs, needing to cut flesh, for example, to cut into a carcass, in order to get a meal. Picking it up, your first reaction is it’s very heavy, and if it’s heavy of course it gives power behind your blow. The second is that it fits without any compromise into the palm of the hand, and in a position where there is a sharp edge running from my forefinger to my wrist. So I have in my hand now a sharp knife.”

I will not spoil your fun with further details of object descriptions and their importance in human development. Trust me when I say that reading the entire book will be a fun exciting experience for anyone even remotely interested in how cleverly humanity made it all the way to the year 2012.