A History of the World in 100 Objects: Ceremonial Ballgame Belt

Director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor retells the history of human development from the first stone axe to the credit card, using 100 selected objects from the Museum. How were we amusing ourselves 2,000 years ago? Today's object is a large stone belt, a heavyweight ceremonial version of the leather and fibre padding that was used in an ancient ball game in Central America which dates back 3,500 years ago - the world's oldest known organised sport. Neil describes how it connected players to the realm of their gods, the historian Michael Whittington considers the ritual aspects of the game and the writer Nick Hornby describes how sport straddles the emotional territory between the sacred and the profane