“After his death, Augustus was declared a god by the Senate, to be worshipped by the Romans. His titles Augustus and Caesar were adopted by every subsequent emperor, and the month of Sextilius was officially renamed August in his honour.” — Neil MacGregor Copy Share Image
“And the more you look at the history of Homo sapiens, it’s all about movement, right from the very first time they decided to… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
In the world of the Middle East at the moment, the debates are shrill. But ... the wisest voice of all of them may… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
The focus in the Western pictorial tradition is on the body of Christ, the bit you can paint, the Nativity and the infancy, but… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
For the Greeks, there was no single canonical version of creation, but a number of overlapping stories. — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
The deciphering of ancient scripts changed forever the way Europeans were able to imagine the story of humanity, destroying centuries of received authority about… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
The distinction between a gallery and a museum is enormous. The gallery is about looking at a thing of beauty; the purpose of the… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
While there are few records of Viking women participating in battle, they certainly held positions of high status in society as human sorceresses known… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
“Gold was the attribute of the great Inca sun god and represented his generative powers – gold was described as the ‘sweat of the… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
Creation stories, so central in the religions of the Middle East, play a surprisingly marginal part in Greek myth. The Greeks had nothing to… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
The collapse of the Tower of Babel is perhaps the central urban myth. It is certainly the most disquieting. In Babylon, the great city… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
The spread of Viking bling is a good indication of the spread of its culture. — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
Our collective memories are welcoming places, and one image, that of Jesus, has absorbed and appropriated elements of other traditions and aspirations in order… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
The things we make have one supreme quality - they live longer than us. We perish, they survive; we have one life, they have… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
In 1600, when Shakespeare's audience at the Globe heard 'Hamlet' for the first time, every one of them knew very well what it meant… — Neil MacGregor Copy Share
