The exhibition is billed as “two million years of history in one room”, but Mathew Trinca, director of the National Museum of Australia, describes it simply as “the story of us”.
Sourced from the British Museum with some Antipodean additions, A History of the World in 100 Objects is the National Museum’s spring/summer blockbuster exhibition: a collection of objects that show the span of human history, from early stone tools to Javanese shadow puppets to an HSBC sharia-compliant, no-interest credit card.
It covers all the advances and disruptions in one space: the invention of tools and weapons; currency and cosmetics; the shrinking world of globalisation; the advent of Wi-Fi technology.
Each carefully curated object tells a story about human progress, but to view them all at once is to experience a sort of existential vertigo. In the context of such a tangible and broad sweep of history, it’s impossible to ignore just how small a part we play in the great human project.
The idea for A History of the World in 100 Objects came in 2010 when Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, was featured on a BBC radio show of the same name. McGregor spoke for 15 minutes about each object he’d selected from the museum – but the listeners wanted to see them. The British Museum followed it up with an exhibition, which has since toured and spawned a bestselling book. Earlier this year it visited the Western Australian Museum, and this week it opens in Canberra.
Around 50% of the objects in the original collection are too fragile to travel to Australia, including the Sutton Hoo Helmet – an Anglo-Saxon helmet from a Viking long ship burial – and a double-headed mosaic serpent from Mexico. But senior curator Michael Pickering says they have been replaced with “companion pieces” that “tell the same stories and are often from the same archeological site. So instead of the helmet, they are travelling Viking silver. It’s very valuable and fascinating. It talks to the dark ages and trade.”
Each object is more than the sum of its parts, Pickering says. “They are objects in time but they are also symbolic of human thought and activity. What’s amazing is the story they tell.”
In Canberra ahead of the opening, Pickering takes Guardian Australia through the exhibition’s catalogue. On one page there’s what looks like a pretty ordinary rock. “It’s a chopping tool,” Pickering explains. “It’s the oldest object in the exhibition – two million years old. It’s a piece of rock that can break up bone. This is when humans become human – it requires thought. It’s the beginning of human thought.”
We flick to an image of a hand axe. “It’s around 800,000 years old, and to use it requires technical skills and dexterity.”
We move to a picture of an Egyptian cosmetic palette, used for kohl. Humankind has discovered makeup. This too is significant. “People are starting to have items that are lovely to look at, not just because of their religious or utilitarian values,” says Pickering.
Indigenous Australia is represented with a basket from Arnhem Land – a “representation of a continuing culture” says Pickering, as the baskets are still in use today.
The most arresting image in the catalogue is object 28 – a bronze of the head of Caesar Augustus with painted eyes. One of the most important surviving portraits of Rome’s first emperor, it was originally part of a statue that was beheaded, and was a considered a major find when excavated in Sudan in 1910. “It’s bigger than life-size and it’s very powerful. Look at its strength of character – it’s much more than a sculpted head,” says Pickering.
Trinca says it’s one of his favourites too. “I love the bronze head of Augustus. It’s a gorgeous piece and it’s a rare artefact to have in bronze from this time. I love the story of it – how it speaks of the extension of imperial power, but was also taken as loot. The head was lopped off the statue. It was found many years later and what it talks of is the fragility of power.”
All the objects are displayed with a minimum of set dressing, Trinca says. “The objects are the focus and they’re beautiful.”
Pickering agrees – the beauty is what drew him to this project. “These objects are so damn beautiful,” he says. “From an aesthetic sense they stimulate the imagination. They make me think about how they were made. They make us think about why we should bother.”
Conversely, the objects from our time look utilitarian to us – but they tell a bigger story.
Object 99 is a counterfeit Chelsea football shirt from Indonesia. It is an example, says Pickering, of a shrinking world. “The world is getting smaller – the manufacture and distribution of that shirt spread worldwide.”
For this century, we can “add something of our own”. Pickering shows me a photo of a strange-looking box. “We’ve added the wireless local area test bed,” he says of technology invented in Australia. The other day the three inventors – former CSIRO workers – visited the museum; this item, Trinca says, shows “our capacity to innovate comes from teams”.
“If you had five of these objects in a show, I’d go to the show. The premise itself is so strong. Two million years of history in one room … I love the span of this show. From the knockoff Chelsea shirt to items reaching back to the dawn of humanity.”
• The History of the World in 100 Objects is on from 9 September 2016 to 29 January 2017 at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra
