The Paleolithic
Olduvai Chopping Tool ; Olduvai Ball ; Olduvai Cleaver ; Olduvai Handaxe (object catalogue entries, all Olduvai objects with images)
Swimming Reindeer (11,000 BC, object catalogue entry)
Ice Age Art (video)
The Lion Man: an Ice Age Masterpiece (blogpost)
Living with the Gods: The Beginnings of Belief (podcast)
History of the World: Swimming Reindeer (podcast)
Rock Art in the Green Sahara (podcast)
The Neolithic
Jericho Skull (8500-6000 BC, object catalogue entry) ; (The oldest portrait in the British Museum (probably) (video)
Jade Axe (4500-4000 BC, object catalogue entry)
World of Stonehenge Exhibition (exhibition website)
What’s the meaning of Stonehenge? (video)
The Mold Gold Cape (1900-1600 BC, object catalogue entry)
The Ancient Near East
Sumer
Cuneiform Tablet (3100-3000, object catalogue entry)
Standard of Ur (2500 BC, object catalogue entry, objects from the Royal Cemetery of Ur)
Gareth’s Posh Mesopotamian Beer Drinking (video)
Idrimi: a 3,500-year-old refugee from Aleppo (video)
Ancient Demons with Irving Finkel (video)
A 4,000-year old tale of trade and contraband (video)
Irving Finkel teaches how to write cuneiform (video)
The Babylonian Map of the World with Irving Finkel (video)
The palace decoration of Ashurbanipal (video)
Lachish Reliefs (700-692 BC, object catalogue entry)
Til Tuba Reliefs (660-650, object catalogue entry) ; Assyria vs Elam: The battle of Til Tuba (video)
Flood/Gilgamesh Tablet (7th C. BC, object catalogue entry)
Deciphering the world’s oldest rule book (video)
Ancient Egypt
Predynastic Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle (3500 BC, object catalogue entry)
Label for a Sandal (2985 BC, object catalogue entry)
5,000-year-old tattoos from Ancient Egypt (video)
Making a 3,000 year old bed (video)
Statue of Ramses II (r. 1279-1213, object catalogue entry)
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus – Part I, Part II (1550 BC, object catalogue entry)
Conservation of Sherborne Cartonnage – Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5
Taharqo Sphinx (680 BC, object catalogue entry)
Everything you wanted to ask about ancient Egypt (provided you’re a 9-year-old) (video)
Ancient Egyptian fashion I Curator’s Corner (7C-15C AD, video)
Bronze Age Europe
Big swords and Bronze Age war protests (video)
Basse-Yutz Flagon, second (420-360 BC, object catalogue entries)
Iron Age Europe
How to make a Celtic Torc: The Snettisham Great Torc (video)
Scythians: scientific analysis of the Oxus treasure (video)
The Iron Age Shield… that isn’t made of metal: The Enderby bark Shield (video)
Ancient Greece
Minoan Bull and Acrobat (1600-1450 BC, object catalogue entry)
Schliemann’s porky pies (lies) about excavating Troy (video)
Killing time during the Trojan War with Ajax and Achilles (video) ; Greek pots have ‘B-sides’, and The Ajax and Achilles ‘B-side’ is a banger (video)
Lydian Gold Coin of King Croesus (550 BC, object catalogue entry)
Parthenon Metope (447-438, object catalogue entry) ; other Parthenon metopes ; Pediment Sculptures
Scaraboid with Peacock and Serpent (5th C. BC, object catalogue entry) ; Mirror Case with Peacock (300-275, object catalogue entry) ; Why Peacocking in Ancient Athens might get you ostracised (ostrichsised?) (video); Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece (exhibition website)
Rhyton (500-470, object catalogue entry) ; Achaemenid Rhyton (5th C. BC, object catalogue entry) ; How the Greco-Persian Wars changed the way Athenians drank their wine (video)
Coin of Alexander (305-281, object catalogue entry)
Achaemenid Persia
Cyrus Cylinder (tpq 539 BC, object catalogue entry) ; A new beginning for the Middle East: The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia (video)
Oxus Chariot (5th – 4th C. BC, object catalogue entry), Other objects from same site
Ancient Rome
The first example of a Roman Pythagoras / Tantalus cup? (video)
Pompeii Live from the British Museum (video tour of exhibition)
Parthia V Rome: The battle of Carrhae (video)
How ‘Roman’ was Roman-Britain? | Britannia 55BC to AD69 (video)
The Meroë Head (27-25 BC, object catalogue entry)
Curators’ tour of Nero: the man behind the myth (video)
How to Read a Broken Roman Statue | The Head of Nero (video)
Mary Beard’s favourite objects from Nero: the man behind the myth (video)
Hadrian and the Second and Third Jewish Revolts (video)
Hinton Saint Mary Mosaic (early 4th C. AD, object catalogue entry)
Hoxne Pepper Pot (300-400 AD, object catalogue entry, other objects from the Hoxne Hoard)
Sasanid Empire
Sasanian Plate (4th C. AD, object catalogue entry)
Middle Ages
Sue’s Really Tiny Early Medieval Buckle (video)
Sue’s favourite Anglo-Saxon sword (video)
Hands on with the Sutton Hoo sword (video)
Sutton Hoo Helmet (object catalogue entry) ; Sue Takes on the Sutton Hoo Helmet (video)
Lothair Crystal (mid 9th C., object catalogue entry)
Vale of York Hoard – Brooch ; Cup ; Cup ; Armring ; Samanid Coin ; Anglo-Viking Coin ; Anglo-Saxon Coin (927-928, object catalogue entries)
Vikings Live: a tour from the British Museum (video tour of exhibtion)
The Blood Drinking Cult of Thomas Becket (video)
Sicily: Culture & Conquest (exhibition)
Lewis Chessmen (1150-1200, object catalogue entries) ; Irving Finkel and the Chamber of Lewis Chessmen (video)
Pearls, sapphires, diamonds & toadstones (video)
A ‘Greatest Hits’ of medieval myths on a casket | Gothic Ivories 1 (video)
A medieval casket that breaks the fourth wall | Gothic Ivories 2 (video)
Astrolabe (14th C., object catalogue entry)
The Holy Thorn Reliquary (1400, catalogue entry)
Triumph of Orthodoxy (1400, catalogue entry)
Middle East/Central Asian Art
Arabian Votive Bronze Hand from Yemen (2nd-3rd C. AD, object catalogue entry)
Gold Coins of Abd Al-Malik – 690, 695, 696-697 (object catalogue entries)
Samarra Fresco (9th C., object catalogue entry)
Making a 9th century Iraqi lustreware bowl replica (video)
Hedwig Beaker (12th C., object catalogue entry)
Celestial Globe (1275-1276, object catalogue entry) ; 13th century celestial globe (video)
Jade Dragon Cup of Ulugh Beg (1420-1449, object catalogue entry)
Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566, object catalogue entry)
Safavid Parade Standard (1650-1700, object catalogue entry)
How to use an astrolabe (video)
India
Seal from Mohenjo-Daro (object catalogue entry; objects from the Indus Valley)
The oldest, dateable depiction of the Buddha in human form (video)
Seated Buddha from Gandhara (2nd-3rd C. AD, object catalogue entry)
Mughal Miniature (1610, object catalogue entry)
China
Ancient and Modern China and South Asia in 10 Objects (video)
Zhou Bronze Ritual Vessel (11th C. BC, object catalogue entry)
Zhou Bronze Bell (5th C. BC, object catalogue entry)
Han Lacquer Cup (4 AD, object catalogue entry)
Admonitions Scroll (6th-8th C. AD, object catalogue entry)
Silk Princess Votive Panel (7th-8th C. AD, object catalogue entry)
Tang Tomb Figures (728, object catalogue entry)
David Vase, David Vase (1351, object catalogue entries)
Ming Banknote (1375, object catalogue entry)
An introduction to Ming blue and white porcelain (video)
Shang Jade Bi Inscribed by Ming Emperor (1790, object catalogue entry)
Japan
Jomon Pot, 5000 BC (object catalogue entry)
Bronze Mirror (13th-14th C., object catalogue entry)
Kakiemon Elephants (1655-1670, object catalogue entry)
Why Japanese Tigers have Flat Heads: Screen Painting by Maruyama Okyo (video)
Hokusai, The Great Wave (1831, object catalogue entry)
Korea
Roof Tile (7th-8th C. AD) (object catalogue entry)
Africa
Kilwa Kiswani Find of Pottery Shards (14th C., object catalogue entry)
Ife Head (14th-15th C., object catalogue entry)
Benin Brass Plaque (16th-17th C., object catalogue entry)
Akan Drum (18th C., object catalogue entry)
Pacific
Bird-Headed Pestle from Papua New Guinea (6000-2000 BC, object catalogue entry)
Rapa Nui Moai (1000-1200, object catalogue entry)
Java Shadow Puppet (1700s to 1816, object catalogue entry)
Mahiole Hulu Manu (before 1780, object catalogue entry)
Aboriginal Australian Bark Shield (late 18th/early 19th C., object catalogue entry)
Early Modernity
Renaissance Metalworking and Lifecasting with Rachel King (video)
Conserving Dürer’s Triumphal Arch (video)
Rhinoceros Print by Durer (1515, object catalogue entry)
Portraits and propaganda of Queen Elizabeth I of England (video)
Mechanical Galleon (1580-1590, object catalogue entry)
Silver Coin (1556-1598, object catalogue entry)
Mapa de Santa Barbara Tamasolco (late 16th C., object catalogue entry)
Automaton (1617-1620, object catalogue entry) ; The Automaton that is also a Drinking Game | with Rachel King (video)
Eight-day Clock (1665-1670, object catalogue entry) ; How to tell the time in the dark… in the 17th century | The Night Clock (video)
Rembrandt’s depictions of women (video)
Wendy’s Top Five Guns (video)
Marine Chronometer (1795-1805, object catalogue entry)
Wedgwood Tea Set (1840-1845, object catalogue entry)
Americas
Clovis Points (13050-12750 BC, catalogue entries)
Olmec Mask (900-400 BC, object catalogue entry)
Greenstone Yoke (300-1200 AD, object catalogue entry)
Buckskin Map (1770, object catalogue entry)
Nihil sub sole novum 