A small label, made from hippopotamus ivory and attached to the sandals of one of the earliest known kings of Egypt. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at what this label, with its hieroglyphs describing the king and...

A small clay tablet made in Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago. It is covered with sums but also some of the world's earliest writing - about beer rationing. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at how humans invented...