A History of the World in 100 Objects: Arabian Bronze Hand

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. Neil turns his attention to the religious climate of pre-Islamic Arabia and a life-sized bronze hand cut at the wrist and with writing on the back. It turns out to be not a part of a god but a gift to a god in a Yemeni hill village. Neil uses this mysterious object to explore the centrality of Arabia at this period, with its wealth of local gods and imported beliefs. The hand surgeon Jeremy Field considers whether or not this was the modelled from a real human hand and the religious historian Philip Jenkins reflects on what happens to the old pagan gods when a new religion sweeps into town