I LOVE IT WHEN THINGS COME FULL CIRCLE. Like this story, that begins in Peru, travels to London, then to Ohio and spans all of human history. Ready?
The History of the World in 100 Objects
We met Luke in 2010 in Peru. He is a nice London kid with a penchant for travel. During one of our discussions, Luke mentioned a BBC 4 podcast called The History of the World in 100 Objects and then he explained what a podcast was and how to download it — he worked for Apple, after all.
Well, back in the States we listened to all one humdred as we were driving and fell in love with the podcast. Host Neil MacGregor selected 100 artifacts from the British Museum and made each, from #1, a stone ax from the Rift Valley to #100, a credit card, come to life as he explained how they symbolized the society of the period. So on our next trip through London we tracked down more than 70 of them in the British Museum.
Effigy Mounds
Cahokia Mound
Mound City
We also obsessively “collect” sites in the US National Park System, as attested to by the thickness of Connie's NPS Passport. Of countless thousands of ceremonial mounds created by Native Americans, only 30 or so remain. Three are National Monuments and we recently visited all three; Effigy Mounds, Cahokia Mounds and just finished with Mound City Group in Ohio.
Ceremonial Pipes, Mound City
Coincidentally, we were reprising the 100 Objects podcast and had just listened to the "Ancient Pleasures; Modern Spice" segment. Number 37 was an otter tobacco pipe from the Hopewell culture found in Mound City, Ohio. We had just seen the replica at the site! The original is still in the Museum’s collection.
