BBC: "dense" objects

The British Museum and the BBC team up to tell the history of the world through a relatively few objects. (To be precise, through 100 objects at the start.  Individuals have added more.) Their site says nothing about dense facts, but their approach will be familiar to students of American studies.  Read an object, perhaps an ordinary one or perhaps a rare one; follow the story it unfolds to see what can be learned about the world it was a part of.

Doc Marten Boots

Unlike the probate lists we consulted in class or the dorm room inventories students prepared, these objects are selected rather than being everything one person or household or empire possessed  The objects are selected from the museum's collection which suggests that a museum is, intentionally or not, a sort of time-capsule.  The difference is that the makers and users of the objects did not set them aside for this purpose as we might when determining which things to put in a time capsule for 2010.  (The Doc Marten's are an individual contribution, so intentional for a recent decade.)

BBC has broadcast all 100 episodes.  (Among the more recent objects: a plastic credit-card. This would inevitably lead us to "The Graduate," to department stores, to identity theft, to bottled water, to recycling, and more.)  The pod-casts are available along with photos of objects, a time-line, and other interesting stuff.