纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 048莫希战士锅(1)(在线收听

048:EPISODE 48 - Moche Warrior Pot莫希战士锅

Moche warrior pot (made between 100 and 700 AD), from Peru

So far this week, we've been in Damascus handling the first Islamic coinage, and in Suffolk with the great Anglo-Saxon burial ship at Sutton Hoo. The famous helmet found there leaves no doubt that it was the grave of a warrior chief. If pursuing this week's themes of war, empires and faith, we spin the globe of the world around 650 AD on its axis, and if we keep moving west to what is now Peru, we're going to find there another warrior commemorated.

Here in Peru, a forgotten people have left to history not just a face, but an entire three-dimensional portrait of their fallen warrior. And from this small sculpture - from the clothes and the weapons it shows, from the way it was made and buried - we can begin to unravel the mystery of a lost civilisation. It couldn't possibly have had any contact with the societies then flourishing in Europe and Asia but, astonishingly, it shows a great number of similarities with them. What does that say about what it means to be human?

"I suppose you could sort of compare them in our culture to Toby jugs, because you sort of imagine people sort of sitting round getting smashed really, and each having their own characteristic drinking vessel." (Grayson Perry)

"We had indeed a smoking gun, and also a plethora of sacrificial acts on the human remains themselves, on the bones." (Professor Steve Bourget)

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