Maya Maize God Statue

Maya Maize God Statue

This week Neil MacGregor is exploring the growing importance of agriculture around the world at the end of the Ice Age, with objects that show and celebrate the key elements of the time; power, sex, worship and food. Today the series focuses on the world of the Mayan civilisation and a stone Maize God, discovered on the site of a major Mayan city in present-day Honduras. This large statue is wearing a headdress in the shape of a giant corn cob.

Maize was not only worshipped at that time but the Maya also believed that all their ancestors were descended from maize. Neil MacGregor reveals why maize, which is notoriously difficult to refine for human consumption, becomes so important to the emerging agriculture of the region.

Neil is joined by the anthropologist Professor John Staller and the restaurateur Santiago Calva who explain the complexity of Mayan mythological belief and the ongoing power of maize in Central America today

Jaksot(101)

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Benin plaque - the Oba with Europeans

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The mechanical galleon

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Inca gold llama

Inca gold llama

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Ming banknote

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This week Neil MacGregor's history of the world is exploring the great empires of around 1500 - the threshold of the modern era. Today he is in Ming Dynasty China and with a surviving example of some ...

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Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent

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Neil MacGregor's world history as told through things. This week he is exploring the great empires of the world around 1500 - from the Inca in South America to the Ming in China and the Timurids in th...

13 Syys 201013min

Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island statue

Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island statue

This week Neil MacGregor is exploring the sophisticated ways in which people connected to gods and ancestors in the Middle Ages. He is looking at religious images from India, France, Mexico and Turkey...

9 Heinä 201014min

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