1. A History of the World in a Dozen Objects
Lynda Balloni
HIST 170: World History I
May 20, 2015

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As far as science tells us, the Earth has existed for about six billion years, and although
only the last 150,000 or so have had the presence of humankind as we understand ourselves
today, the world has gone through some comparatively vary serious changes in this relatively
short amount of time. Many people would argue that the world has changed for the better or
adapted to meet people’s needs, but evidence suggests that life is not necessarily any easier or
more enjoyable than it was thousands of years ago. Undoubtedly, the world has changed, but it
has not progressed to a point where mankind is any better off. In The World: A History, Volume
One, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto argues that there are two stories in world history being told
simultaneously: “One is the story of how people connect and separate, as cultures take shape and
influence and change one another. Alongside this story, there is another one of how humans
interact with the rest of nature – other species, the unstable natural environment, the dynamic
planet,” (xv). Mankind strays away from actually progressing when it mistakes its fellow
humans for two things they are not – animals (debatable) or gods. The movement from nomadic
societies to agricultural ones, brought on by the agricultural revolution and domestication, did
the same thing to animals that either enslavement or hero-worship would continue to do for
thousands of years. The history of the world, or at least the history of humankind from the
agricultural revolution forward, has been a history of exploitation and manipulation to further
individual interests rather than a collective goal.
Neil MacGregor attempted to give A History of the
World in 100 Objects, and similarly this paper will attempt
to give a history of human manipulation in a dozen objects.
Since this history began with the agricultural revolution
and domestication of animals, it is fitting to start off with

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one object dedicated to a crop and one representing a domesticated animal. The object on the
previous page is an “Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle” from Abydos, Egypt in approximately 3500
B.C.E. It was removed from Grave A-23 where it had rested alongside the body of a man for
thousands of years (43). Although the state of the mummy beside the figurine, and the
implications about Egyptian society that it reveals, is an interesting case that will be examined
later on in this paper, the focus for now is on the clay cattle, or rather the living animals they
represent. Once humans started domesticating animals, they became dependent upon them as a
part of their food supply and as a means to make planting and harvesting crops, their only other
source of food, more efficient. This relationship fostered some of the earliest religions, as far as
we can tell, which focused on worshipping entities in the natural world that were (and are still)
necessary for human survival eg., cattle, the sun, rain, fire, and plants. Humankind has
collectively moved away from this type of worship in favor of pleasing either one or several
supreme beings, usually with humanlike qualities, but worshipping or giving thanks to nature
may have been the more logical approach.
The photograph to the left demonstrates man
worshipping nature and man worshipping his fellow
man. The “Maya Maize God Statue” comes from the
opposite side of the world as the cattle sculpture and
from a period about three thousand years later, but it
represents the same principles. It comes from present-
day Copun, Honduras, where the Olmecs rule in 715
C.E., the time when this statue was fashioned (49). It
depicts a god in the form of a human, showing how

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arrogant mankind kind often be, but the function of the god was to bring abundant maize, a crop
the Olmec civilization (and countless others) relied on for its survival. People are selfish and
manipulative, but they are also good at pinning down what items they actually need to carry on
their lives.
The “Flood Tablet” on the left came from Ninevah in
Northern Iraq. It was crafted sometime between the years 7,000
and 6,000 B.C.E. and tells the tale of biblical Great Flood, when
a man (Noah) was told by God to build a giant boat and fill it
with his family, along with two of every animal (97). Without
Noah stepping up to the task, humanity would be completely
wiped out. More or less the same story is told in the Old
Testament of the Judeo-Christian tradition and in what is
believed to be the first great work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh. This tablet is very
significant to the development and potentially the legitimacy of the three great monotheistic
faiths that still survive today – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Its importance to this paper is
within God’s supposed decision to choose Noah, a man, to save all of life on Earth. It reveals the
conceited and perhaps naïve idea people have that we are the most powerful and most important
beings in the universe, and on other note, why did God speak to Noah and not his wife?
The next object (to the right) revisits the idea of
humans trying to put themselves on a level playing field
with gods to further their own selfish desires. The granite
“Statue of Ramesses II” from Thebes, Egypt was
constructed around 1250 B.C.E. It is 2.5 meters tall and

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weighs seven tons, and it immortalized the king of Egypt from 1279 – 1213 B.C.E. who lived to
be over ninety years old and set out on campaigns to expand his empire to the north and the
south. Like many other Egyptian rulers, and those from other societies of well, Ramesses told
his subjects that he was actually a god, and by doing so, he was continuously worshipped like a
God even in Cleopatra’s time, over a millennium later (49). The fact that he probably used slave
labor to order the construction of a giant statue of himself once again shows the arrogant and
devious qualities of mankind; it was still not enough to be worshipped like a god during his
lifetime, Ramesses also had to force his fellow men to dedicate their day to building this
momentum of his rule.
Staying in Egypt for a little while, the next
important object is the “Mummy of Hornedjitef” from
around 240 B.C.E. who was a priest under the pharaoh
Ptolemy III. It also came from Thebes, only about a
thousand years after Ramesses II’s reign, and it
demonstrates many of the same principles of the
aforementioned statue (3). Mummies were constructed
and surrounded by the deceased’s possessions so that Egyptians (at least the ones who could
afford it) would be able to live as lavishly in the afterlife as they did on Earth.
Continuing with the same theme but jumping across the Mediterranean Sea and back a
couple centuries, the “Parthenon Sculpture” from Athens
reveals the ways in which Athenians honored their gods and
humans. The Parthenon is dedicated to the goddess Athena
(a virgin warrior who was born directly from Zeus’s helmet

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rather than conception) and it depicts countless other Greek gods. In ancient Greece, instead of
worshipping kings as if they were gods, people were expected to worship gods that had the same
imperfect qualities as human beings. Just like the Egyptians, they blurred the line between man
and god, or life and the afterlife, by merging the concept of mankind with that of some
omnipotent force. Although nature does behave erratically and without regard for what is fair
and just, exactly like humans do, the evidence to support the existence of people who are also
gods or vice versa (besides the people who were receiving the treatment of the gods) is seriously
lacking.
Stepping away from the religious realm, the next object is
the “Jade Axe” from between 4000 and 2000 B.C.E. near
Canterbury, England. Since it is made out of a precious stone and
has no visible wear and tear this object was mostly likely a piece
of art rather than an axe intended for any practical use. Without
belittling the role that art has played as a means of expression,
communication, and individuality, it is important to understand
that even art, especially when it is for sale, holds an ulterior motive. The main function of this
axe, along with decoration, was probably as a wealth symbol (85). People like to fee important
and powerful, especially when they are being compared to other people, and art has been a tool
to demonstrate the amount of wealth people have for thousands of years. Although dangling
wealth in front of people can be a dangerous act that inspires revolts (or at least petty theft), it
also helps the owner demonstrate the amount of power they have over their competition. If
someone had enough money to purchase this jade axe, they probably also had enough money to
send someone after you if you tried to steal it. It is not enough for people to manipulate their

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peers to obtain the materials and prestige they desire, they also feel the need to brag about their
affluence to anyone who will listen.
The next object, the “Chinese Han Lacquer
Cup” marks the first object is this study from the
great and ever-changing territory of China. This
particular cup was actually found near present-day
Pyongyang, North Korea, but this area was under
the control of the Han dynasty when it was fashioned, circa 4 C.E. The Han dynasty was
notorious for using imperial gifts to build up its influence, or as MacGregor puts it: they were
exploiting the “murky boundary between diplomacy and bribery,” (215). Those people in a
position of power under the Han dynasty constantly feared the threat of “splittism” amongst their
colonial provinces, like the Korean peninsula, so they would bribe competing rulers with luxury
goods such as the lacquer cup pictured above (215). Rather than enslaving the populations they
were exploiting, Han dynasty emperors would instead bribe their competitors to manipulate them
into staying within the realm of Han control, at least on paper if not in the actual chosen
identities of the conquered people.
“The Hebrew Astrolabe”, our last
object is another luxury good like the
jade axe and the lacquer cup, so its
lavishness hold partially the same
meaning as its fore mentioned fellows.
However, the astrolabe, a portable model
of the “heavens” also symbolizes to arguably conflicting concepts: the power of science and

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technology to inspire and satisfy curiosity as well as the intermingling of the three monotheistic
faiths mentioned previously, outside of any of their birthplaces. The trinket was probably crafted
in Spain between the years 1345 and 1355 C.E., a time when these three faiths coexisted
peacefully, and to further illustrate the point, it has etchings characteristic of Hebrew, Spanish,
Arabian, European, and Islamic artwork and iconography (399). Since it is unlikely that many
people in Spain during this period were actually trying to find their way around the heavens (at
least speaking literally), the main function of this instrument was probably to demonstrate wealth
and worldliness. Even during a time when people with opposing ideas were able to set aside
their differences and build one of the most impressive empires of all time, they still could not
resist the temptation to show off their success.
The last three objects deal with a new period of world history, one where both halves of
the world were finally united (to some extent) and this time, everyone in the world would
become aware of each other. The beginning of this period is marked by Columbus’s first
expedition to the “West Indies” in 1497, or with Amerigo Vespucci’s realization that the
territories Europeans had been exploring were in fact a new continent rather than some islands
off the coast of India, but either way it marked yet another huge shift in the way the world
functioned.
The “North American Otter
Pipe” found near Mound City,
Ohio was crafted centuries
before this event (circa 200-
1000 B.C.E.), but its function
and meaning subvert ties to any

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one specific location or era. It is a well-constructed piece of art, but its primary function is for
smoking tobacco, one of the most lucrative crops of all time whose origins appear to lie in North
America. If the English settlers in Virginia had not located and learned about the powers of
tobacco, there is no doubt that the world would be a very different place today. Tobacco is
linked to colonization of the Americas (and the ethnic cleansing of native people that went along
with it), the establishment of an unprecedented slave trade across four separate continents that
was based solely off of race, and some of the most frequent causes of American death today
(cancer and other forms of heart and lung disease). The pipe represents much more than the otter
it depicts, the person who crafted it, and even the tobacco inside of it – it symbolizes the next
great phase of manipulation in world history, the first age of imperialism.
The “Benin Plaque” represents the same
concepts that were foreshadowed by the otter
pipe, but this time the story comes from the
African rather than the American side. It shows
the first encounter that the Oba people of Benin
had with Europeans (in this case it was the
Portuguese, the first Europeans so explore and
open up trade with Sub-Saharan Africa during
the 1470s) and was constructed sometime
between the years 1500 and 1600 C.E. To once again illustrate the capacity of mankind to be
conceited, it is worth noting that the Oba people were named after the Beninese ruler of the time,
also called Oba. The plaque was presumably made to glorify the Oba people’s role as hunters in
addition to illustrating their experience with Europeans (497-499). Since the slave trade was still

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in the making and many tribes in Africa would actually capture their fellow Africans and sell
them to Europeans for a profit, the Beninese who fashioned the plaque would have had no idea
how much meaning their work would hold centuries later. Pompousness is a dangerous quality
since it implies that one person thinks they are somehow better than at least one other person and
therefore has the right and the capability to exploit the less fortunate person. However, it is also
a risky feeling for the conceited one because much like in the case of the Oba people, it can
cause one to underestimate their victim (who just became their worthy opponent), and in the
manipulative world we live in, it is almost never safe to be naïve.
The last object to be examined tells the same story of
the age of imperialism once again, but finally from the
European perspective. The “Pieces of Eight” are a type of
Spanish coin, in this instance minted in Potosi, Brazil
between 1573 and 1598 C.E. According to MacGregor, it
was the “first truly global money. It was produced in huge
numbers and within twenty-five years of its first minting in
the 1570s, it had spread across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas, establishing a global
dominance that it was to maintain until well into the nineteenth century,” (517). If producing
money (the ultimate symbol of wealth) in a newly established colony to be used around the globe
while implicitly telling the entire world that Spain is clearly the most powerful and important
country in the world does not demonstrate the exploitative and selfish nature of mankind, one
would be hard-pressed to find one object that does.
Since mankind unconsciously decided to separate themselves from other animals by
taking on the practices of agriculture and domestication, there has been a progression towards

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people trying to act or at least be treated more like gods, while simultaneously forcing some
segment of their fellow human beings to once again behave as animals. We used to work with
the rest of the environment to earn only what was necessary for survival, then we started
manipulating and trying to outsmart nature in the hopes of making less work for ourselves, and
now we are stuck in a pattern of exploiting our fellow humans in a feeble attempt to gain some
sort of recognition or legitimacy for ourselves. We worship people as if they were gods and
humanize gods to explain the complexities in nature, but in the end none of these actions will
really be constructive or detrimental to society, they simply change it. It is easy to condemn
people for their actions if they come from a foreign land or time period, but since we are selfish
creatures, time would be spent more effectively on attempting to improve oneself than to change
the world because in the end everything is relative anyway, so you would probably be wrong.

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Works Cited
Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. The World: A History, Volume 1: to 1500. New Jersey: Pearson
Education, Inc., 2011.
MacGregor, Neil. A History of the World in 100 Objects. New York: Penguin Group, 2010.