Neil MacGregor continues his series about the expression of shared beliefs with a focus on how we come to comprehend sacred images.  Our understanding of the rock art created by the San people of southern Africa over many centuries is helped by written accounts, so that what first appears to be an image of a hunting expedition becomes a record of a spiritual journey into another realm of experience. "For many years it was a matter of gaze and guess," says David Lewis Williams, an authority on rock art: "You gaze at it, and if you gaze long enough, your guess will take you close to what it's all about - and I'm afraid that's not the case, but we don't have to gaze and guess any more." In the British Museum, a small 19th century Japanese shrine shows the spirits coming to visit a long-settled agricultural society. The curved doors of a small wooden box open to reveal, inside, a shimmering world of carved gilded wood, and a scene to which Japanese viewers would bring different interpretations.  Producer Paul Kobrak Produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

The Making of Meaning

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

History

Society & Culture

Neil MacGregor concludes his series about shared beliefs. He began with the Lion Man, an object created 40,000 years ago, and now reflects on the present, on the future and on hope Producer Paul Kobrak  The series is produced in partnership with the British Museum, with the assistance of Dr Christopher Harding, University of Edinburgh. 
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

Living with Each Other

Neil MacGregor continues his series on shared beliefs with a look at the attempts of some faiths to establish a state of their own. An over-printed coin from 2nd century Jerusalem tells of the failed attempt of Shimon bar Kokhba to lay claim to a state for the Jews, free from Roman rule - while a white cotton flag, framed in pale blue, flew over Sudan after it had been taken by Mahdist forces and before the Islamic state collapsed in the mid 1890s. Producer Paul Kobrak  Produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

The Search for a State

Neil MacGregor continues his series on shared beliefs with a focus on those faiths seen as a threat to the state. A plain board, to be found on a 17th-century Japanese roadside, offers generous rewards to anyone who informs on Christians. At almost exactly the same time a print from France depicts the officially sanctioned destruction of a Huguenot Church just a few miles east of Paris.  Producer Paul Kobrak Produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

Turning the Screw

Neil MacGregor focuses on societies which aimed to live without religious beliefs.  Neil examines a revolutionary clock, from around 1795, created in the wake of the French Revolution, and designed to mark a new way of living: in an age of reason, there would no longer be royalism or religion in France.  A poster from the Soviet Union celebrates the apparent triumph of scientific progress: the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin floats in space, looks out and proclaims 'There is no God!'. It seems that the heavens are empty of divine beings, but full, instead, of starry promise.  Producer Paul Kobrak  Produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

Living with No Gods

Neil MacGregor continues his series on shared beliefs with a focus on earthly rulers and the gods.  Queens and kings may be priests of the gods, or their representatives. They may be incarnations - or even gods themselves. Or the relationship may be so close that to divide spiritual from temporal power at all would simply make no sense.  Neil examines these ideas, with the help of objects including a bronze staff belonging to the Oba of Benin, and a bronze vessel from China, whose inscription suggests that its dynastic leaders enjoyed a mandate from heaven.  Producer Paul Kobrak  The series is produced in partnership with the British Museum, with the assistance of Dr Christopher Harding, University of Edinburgh. 
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.

The Making of Meaning

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