´óÏó´«Ã½

Today we start broadcasting the second part of A History of the World on Radio 4. Having steamed through almost two million years of human history in the first part of the series we gave you a bit of a breather, but now we're back with 40 more objects to carry on the story over another 2,000 years.

So, what do the next eight weeks have in store?

Well, this set of objects together covers about 1800 years of the world's history, from about 300 BC to AD 1500. This is a period of enormous political, social and religious change from the time of the Roman Empire to the end of the Middle Ages. But as this is a global history we also need to think of these programmes covering the period from the Han Chinese Empire to the rise of the Aztec and Inca empires in the Americas.

Our history will cover the rise and fall of great powers, such as Rome and Sasanian Iran; the spread of world faiths such as Buddhism and Islam; yet also deal in private moments and shared pleasures.

The objects we have chosen give us a chance to encounter players and powers well known to many Radio 4 listeners such as the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. Yet I hope that the objects will open new perspectives on the familiar.

Other objects will open doors to peoples, cultures and powers far less known to most listeners but in no way less significant, such as the Moche of Peru, the early great kingdoms of Indonesia and inhabitants of the Caribbean.

The objects you'll hear about might seem like ancient history, but actually in the context of a series covering more than 1.8 million years this is recent. But their closeness to us is more than just chronological. In so many ways we are living with the consequences of what went on during this period, when the seeds of our global world were sown.

For example, the great faiths that emerged and spread in this period are still the faiths that shape the modern world. Some see the twenty-first century world economy shifting back to the Asian focus it had in this Medieval period, while the legacy of developments from this time are still felt in many parts of the world - be it through allusions to the Roman Empire in Europe, or the continuing power of the idea of the Caliphate for some Muslims, or re-visiting China's Han and Tang dynasties.

A difference between this and the first part of the series is that you will have more time to explore the world in a particular slice in time. Across the next eight weeks the objects will often reflect on larger, broader themes and issues that run across this history. These include how political leaders should rule and represent their power; how religions visualise their deities and ideals; and the potency of even apparently mundane objects to unlock secrets of the past.

For me, one of the key themes running through the series is how connected cultures, powers and peoples were in the past. We can see this through objects that might have been crafted in one place but were absolutely made in a global context.

Take our Hoxne pepper pot; a grinder for spicing up the dining table of Roman Britain's elite. It would never have been made without pepper grown in India and transported thousands of miles across the Indian Ocean, and across Europe to Suffolk, where archaeologists found it buried in a field about 20 years ago. Or a handful of broken pot sherds from a beach in Tanzania; discarded pottery found on an East African beach but made as far away as China and the Middle East.

Uncovering and then working with Neil MacGregor to tell these surprising and vital stories that a handful of broken pottery or something as famous as the Rosetta Stone can reveal has been the great joy of this project. We hope that you will find them equally powerful.

• JD Hill is lead curator of A History of the World at the British Museum

What do you think? Add a comment