We’ve been Decorating for 10,000 years

I’d recommend listening to the BBC’s new radio series “A History of the World in 100 Objects”. It’s on radio 4 each weekday and has been made with the British Museum, presented by its director Neil MacGregor

Today’s object was a bird shaped pestle which was used by early farmers in Papua New Guinea, probably to grind the vegetable taro in a mortar, sometime between 4000 and 10,000 years ago.

Ten thousand years ago we, humankind, were making objects that did not just perform a useful function, one that allowed great expansion of the population, but that were made to look good as well. Evidence, if it were needed, that we humans have always desired to live not by bread alone, but by enhancing our everyday lives with beautiful objects.