In the world of the Middle East at the moment, the debates are shrill. But ... the wisest voice of all of them may well be the voice of this mute thing, the Cyrus cylinder.
Neil MacGregorFor a million years the sound of making handaxes provided the percussion of everyday life. Anyone choosing a hundred objects to tell a history of the world would have to include a handaxe.
Neil MacGregorFrom the point where our ancestors started making tools, people have been unable to survive without the things they make; in this sense, it is making things that makes us human.
Neil MacGregor