Pinnotheres here, and I've got a tasty read for you crafters and artsies today. It's also a great one for history buffs - which I occasionally am.
I read this more than a month ago, and have been trying to do it justice for a while. I've finally got to the point where I don't think I CAN do it justice, and really just need to write about it and move on. So here it is:
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| Image courtesy bookworld.com.au |
Now, why post about a history book in an arts and crafts blog? Well, here's the long answer:
Written by the director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, and published in 2011, this is actually a bookified version of a BBC 4 radio series that aired in 2010. I haven't looked up the archived broadcasts, but if this book is any indication, I probably should. The premise is fairly simple: A group of experts at the British Museum chose 100 items from around the world that they felt exemplified key ideas and innovations in human history. The book begins sort of in the middle, with the wooden mummy case of the Egyptian priest Hornedjitef (circa 240 BC), which forms the basis of a discussion of the power of objects to excite us about the past, and why humans maintain history museums to begin with. MacGregor then goes on to discuss how objects give us a window into not only the ceremonial life of the elite (like Hornedjitef), but more importantly, the everyday lives of everyday people from long ago.
As dense and broad in scope as this book is, it was really approachable for me as a layperson. It includes a lot of quotes from experts who appeared on the radio show, and the choice of those experts is one of its major strong points. Instead of only involving academic historians, archeologists, and anthropologists, the book and the radio series brought in the expertise of potters, textile makers, painters, architects, bankers, biologists, and activists - basically whomever they thought could speak to how the object was made, how it might have been viewed when it was made, and how similar objects are constructed and used today.
What made me want to share this on an arts and crafts blog was the excitement I read from the artists who got to interact with and help interpret things made by their intellectual predecessors. In some cases, ancient manufacturing techniques were similar to those used today, but whether or not that was the case, there was this magical feeling of connecting to ancient people through the eyes and hands of modern artists. I love and take a lot of inspiration from visiting museums, and this book let me feel like I was visiting one of the most famous museums in the world with a whole group of talented people who could interpret those objects in a deep and fascinating new way.
Of course, it's not just museums that give us this feeling of deep connection to past artists. Going though old quilts, paintings, scrapbooks, and other artistic creations in our own attics and back rooms is, I think, a very similar experience, with the added interest that we may be recently biologically descended from the creators. So this book also made me feel more connected to human history as a whole, particularly as it begins its timeline where we all began - with one of the most ancient of human creations found so far: a hand axe unearthed in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge.
Now, there were things I thought the book could have done better, but overall, it's a great read. I really encourage anyone interested to give it a try.
Overall, reading this book was like opening up the hope chest of humanity.
- Pinnotheres
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