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War and the Moche - Behind the scenes at the Horniman Museum
Like the proverbial iceberg, there is much more to a museum and its collection than you can see at any one time. Keeper of Anthropology, Wayne Modest, takes us behind the scenes to show us some of his favourite pieces. This collection...
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Ruins of Paikuli Tower
The tower lies on a hill near Barkal, a modern village south-west of Lake Darband-i-Khan, Sulaimaniya Governorate, Iraq. It was set up as a monument commemorating the victory of the Sassanian king Narseh over his nephew Warham III. The inscriptions...
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Alexander Sarcophagus
The Alexander Sarcophagus, c. 312 B.C.E., Pentelic marble and polychromy, found in Sidon, 195 x 318 x 167 cm (İstanbul Archaeological Museums)
Speakers: Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis and Dr. Steven Zucker
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Lamassu from the citadel of Sargon II
Lamassu (winged human-headed bulls possibly lamassu or shedu) from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (now Khorsabad, Iraq), Neo-Assyrian, c. 720-705 B.C.E., gypseous alabaster, 4.20 x 4.36 x 0.97 m, excavated by P.-E. Botta 1843-44...
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Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes (William Noel)
http://www.ted.com How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story...
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2600 years of history in one object (Neil MacGregor)
http://www.ted.com A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script, damaged and broken, the Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multi-culturalism. In this enthralling talk Neil MacGregor, Director of the British...
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Ancient wonders captured in 3D (Ben Kacyra)
http://www.ted.com Ancient monuments give us clues to astonishing past civilizations — but they're under threat from pollution, war, neglect. Ben Kacyra, who invented a groundbreaking 3D scanning system, is using his invention to scan and...
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Computing a Rosetta Stone for the Indus script (Rajesh Rao)
http://www.ted.com Rajesh Rao is fascinated by "the mother of all crossword puzzles": How to decipher the 4000 year old Indus script. At TED 2011 he tells how he is enlisting modern computational techniques to read the Indus language, the...
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The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting (Anupam Mishra)
http://www.ted.com With wisdom and wit, Anupam Mishra talks about the amazing feats of engineering built centuries ago by the people of India's Golden Desert to harvest water. These structures are still used today — and are often superior...
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The unheard story of David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
It's a classic underdog tale: David, a young shepherd armed only with a sling, beats Goliath, the mighty warrior. The story has transcended its biblical origins to become a common shorthand for unlikely victory. But, asks Malcolm Gladwell...