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With its origins dating back some 40,000 years, the small ivory sculpture known as ‘The Lion Man’ for its melding of human and animal forms is the oldest known image of a creature sprung from human imagination. Created for the exhibition ‘Living With Gods’ (2017-18) at the British Museum in London, this animation traces the fascinating archeological history of the iconic object, as well as what its preternatural character tells us about our prehistoric ancestors – and, indeed, humanity itself.
Video by BBC Radio 4 and The British Museum
Animator: Cribble
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Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
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Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
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Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
14 minutes
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Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
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Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
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Meaning and the good life
The world turns vivid, strange and philosophical for one plane crash survivor
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Cities
The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith
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Art
Inside the unique creative space where ‘outsider’ artists find their form
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Gender
When aggression is viewed as brilliance, it hurts women in science, and science itself
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