Thank you for downloading this podcast of the sound of the past.

In fact it's the sound of a ghost. It's a haunting magnetic pulse. It's all

that's left of a mighty star. And we can still hear it today, thanks to the

centre for astrophysics at Jodrobank. The explosion that killed this star was so intense that it was seen in broad daylight

across Europe, North America and China in the summer of the year 1054.

At least that's what the year was called in Europe. So what was our world up to when

men and women however they counted the years were gazing up to the heavens at this

dying star which they could see and we can still hear. What were they doing, making,

thinking? Well, a thousand years ago in America, pyramids are taking shape on the Mississippi

river. The world's first banknotes are circulating in China,

a magnificent Baghdad is the largest city in the world, in West Africa, Ghana rules a vast empire, and on a Chile island in Northern Europe,

there's a nasty surprise on the horizon for a king called Harold. In these programs I'm traveling back in time and across the globe to see how we humans over 2 million years

have shaped our world and been shaped by it.

And I'm going to tell this story exclusively through the things

that humans have made, all sorts of things, carefully designed and then either admired

and preserved or used, broken and thrown away.

I've chosen just a hundred objects from different points on our journey,

from a cooking pot to a golden galleon,

from a stone age tool to a credit card. And in each

program I'm going to be talking about one object from the British Museum's

collection. When I see it, I immediately think all a mastery of technology and art, the welding of the two.

I just thought it was beautiful to look at that made me feel that it was used and used again and again.

...