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Living with Many Gods

The role and expression of beliefs with a focus on societies living with many gods.

In the mid-1840s, a Roman earthenware jar was dug from the earth near Felmingham Hall in Norfolk. Inside, excavators found several belief systems, all mixed up together - for buried in the pot was a jumble of gods, deities of different kinds and origins, that tell us what it meant for people in Roman Britain around the year 250 to be living with many gods.

The great ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh includes a narrative with striking similarities to - but important differences from - the story of Noah in the Bible. Here a council of gods is persuaded to unleash a great flood to wipe out humankind.

Producer Paul Kobrak

The series is produced in partnership with the British Museum, with the assistance of Dr Christopher Harding, University of Edinburgh.

(Photo: Roman figurines of different gods. Credit: Trustees of the British Museum)

Available now

18 minutes

Last on

Sun 25 Mar 2018 18:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sun 25 Mar 2018 02:32GMT
  • Sun 25 Mar 2018 03:32GMT
  • Sun 25 Mar 2018 18:32GMT

Animations

Neil MacGregor tells the stories of some of the key objects in the series.

Living with the Gods - the Podcast

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