A History of the World in 100 Objects

Could you tell the entire history of the world using just 100 objects? That's exactly what British Museum director Neil MacGregor did with his 2010 BBC Radio series, which consisted of 15-minute segments devoted to each object. Now you can get a glimpse of all the objects thanks to his book A History of the World in 100 Objects, released last week. Everything we've created tells a story - a story about where we've come from and a story about where we're going. Here are a few of my favorite picks from a peek into history's past, along with MacGregor's thoughts...
Oxus chariot: "Our chariot doesn’t just tell us about travel and communications; it sums up the acceptance of diversity that was at the heart of the Persian imperial system."
Scroll painting from China: "The scroll became the prized possession of many emperors, who may have found it to be a useful aid in subduing troublesome wives and mistresses but who also admired its sheer beauty and used the act of collecting this previous masterpiece as a way of showing just how culturally astute and powerful they were."
Credit card: "It functions through the backing of the United States based credit association, Visa, and has on it writing in Arabic — it is in short connected to the whole world, part of a global financial system, backed by a complex electronic superstructure that many of us barely think about."

If you got the chance to capture the history of the world in just objects, what would you include? Is there anything you'd leave out? Those '80s shoulder pads, perhaps?

P.S. Can you guess object 100? Were you right? :)

[Via New York Times]