The history of your world in objects

Mr. G just bought me a book, A History of the World in 100 Objects.  It's based on the BBC Radio 4 series that came out last year, which you can hear here.  There were 100 fifteen-minute radio shows, one about each object, all of which were from the British Museum.  The goal was to span two million years of human history to the present.

Just the scale of the project is enough to leave me speechless.

What I particularly like is that this is not a catalogue of “the most valuable,” “the rarest,” “the earliest,” “the most beautiful,” though some of the artifacts are phenomenally old, rare, or exquisite. The objects are chosen for what they symbolize in human history, and the staggering variety of connections that exist across cultures.  Even the least complicated artifacts, the ones we could make by banging two rocks together, represent massive amounts of information about the individual, his culture, and the human species.  And this is what the book is trying to convey.

Love. This.

The earliest object is a stone chopping tool, from Olduvai in Tanzania, made about 1.8 million years ago.  It's not just a tool that's had an edge made by knocking a few chips from it, it's not just one of the earliest artifacts made by humans, it's not just a useful thing for stripping the meat and bone marrow from scavenged carcases (early humans let big predators do the dangerous work, first). It represents the first time we know humans tried to improve their situation by imposing their will on the outside environment.  It's the first material evidence of our big brains working hard, identifying a problem and coming up with a solution.  And then building on that to solve the next problem.

One of the latest artifacts in the series is a gold Visa credit card.  Two million years after Olduvai, we don't leave home without them.  Not a stone tool with which we can protect ourselves or dig in the ground or butcher meat—a thin piece of plastic that represents the promise of payment later for an object today.  It works globally, it works almost instantly.  Think about what that means in terms of communication and technology and finance. 

I turn to the sage, Douglas Adams, to summarize: “The History of every major Galactic Civilization 

tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question How can we eat? the second by the question Why do we eat? and the third by the question Where shall we have lunch?”

Just think about the amount of effort to go from hunting and gathering, to the invention of writing, to the ability to look up The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the Internet.

Humans are wanders and traders, moving thousands of miles to see if they could do a little better just beyond the hill, dealing in complicated, often messy or violent, exchanges of food and mates and ideas and pretty, shiny things that seemed to have no other purpose but to be pretty and shiny.  No matter language barriers, or political or cultural strife, humans keep reaching out to each other, they keep exploring.  And we have the stuff to prove it.

Just picking out the objects, from all across time, and all across the world—I can't even imagine the wrangling that went on among the folks working on the project.  I'd have a hard time picking ten objects to define my life so far, and I'm just one little monkey out of seven billion. Maybe five: my copy of Little Women (or maybe The Hitchiker's Guide), my WHS trowel, my Swiss Army knife, my wedding band, and...what?  What objects would you choose to define your life?

Comments

[Karen in Ohio]

What an intriguing idea!

Mine: a dictionary, a sewing machine, a suitcase, spectacles, a silk paisley scarf from Paris, the Joy of Cooking, garden gloves, a photo of my children, my beloved Nook Color, and a pair of hiking boots.

[Dana]

Nice, Karen! Any archaeologist looking at that assemblage would be intrigued!

[Elaine Viets]

My car, my wedding photos, contact lenses, black Chuck Taylor shoes, desktop computer, art glass lamp with two singing
frogs, Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express," Warner Bros. cartoon cel, Native American necklace, and a copy of "Shop Till You Drop," my first Dead-End Job mystery.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

OH--I have to think about this! What a wonderful question... but hey, you might know this! How do you catch the Babel fish?

The manuscript of my first novel. And that book. A photo of me and Jonathan taken by Elsa Dorfman. My first Emmy. My wedding ring. (The one I'm wearing now...)Hmmm...I have to think...

[Dana]

Excellent, Elaine! I'm still trying to decide among the books (having just thrown "Busman's Honeymoon" and my beat-up volume of Shakespeare into the mix).

Um...if you're talking about a game, Hank, then I don't know. If you're talking about the book...don't you just pop it into your ear and let it feed off brainwaves? But that portrait (if it's the one I'm thinking of) is boffo and you and Elaine raise the excellent issue of first books and awards.

This is fun!

[Charlaine Harris]

Wow, Dana, I'll have to think. Ten things. Well, my wedding ring . . . my Anthony Award . . . too many things to choose from.

[Dana]

Charlaine, narrowing it down to ten objects, for one's whole life, is tough!

I'm realizing it's a little like a game we used to play hanging out between classes or at lunch, on a dig: "What do you want for a funerary monument?" The idea was to pick your final resting place (pyramid? burial chamber? Viking ship aflame on the water?) and whether you'd have grave goods or wall paintings or what have you to tell people about your life.

[Toni LP Kelner]

Trying to do this off the top of my head... My Mac (where I spend so much time), the framed cover of my first book (the moment that book became real), my Agatha teapot (pure pride), baby pictures of the girls (more pride), current pictures of the girls (even more pride), my pocketbook (shows most of my life at any given moment), my troll doll Poindexter (to admit I still play with toys), the letters Steve and I wrote one another while still in a long-distance relationship (to show how the most important relationship in my life evolved), Steve's book (more pure pride), my dried-up mini pumpkin from 2 years ago (because it's weird).

[Kelly Saderholm]

Wow- what a great book and series! Thanks so much for blogging about it, Dana.

I'm going to download the series onto an i-pod and listen to it in the car. I do a lot of driving and there are some pretty monotonous stretches of road- this will be great!

I'll have to think about ten objects that define my life- my Pilot g-2 pen and my "Love what you do, do what you love" coffee mug would certainly make the list.

[Becky ~ Mystery Writers Unite]

Just ten...WOW! Memories of my children, my home, my brother's ashes, my parents wedding ring, my journals, my poetry,my MAC, my iPhone, my dog and my cat :-)

[Dana]

I like the letters idea, Toni! Good one!

Kelly, I hope you enjoy the series. I'm hoping to listen to them over the holidays.

Becky, I think my cats would wiggle too much to be included in an exhibit..