TV Review: How Art Changed The World ****
For those who haven’t noticed the ABC has been showing a most remarkable series at 8.30pm on Tuesday nights (but not this week because they’re going to show us pictures of the HMAS Sydney instead). It’s called “How Art Made The World” and if you’ve got any interest in history you won’t want to miss it.
While the first half of the show is taken up with regurgitated psycho babble about the importance of images in the world and how our brains process them; the second half, at least in the first two episodes, has hightlighted some real treasures.
They’ve got a lot of newer archaeology, things that have not had a lot of play in the media but are stunningly important, to back up their arguments. And the art is just gorgeous.
In particular their visit last week to Gobekli Tepe in Turkey blew my mind. The 10,000 BC ruins of a vast temple complex built with 50 tonne hewn pillars and decorated with sophisticated art throws a spanner in the works of most models of human civilisation I was brought up with.
That the site was also home to the original cultivation of wheat, thousands of years after the temple was built, means that architecture pre-dates agriculture. The temple came before the city which came before the farm.
Even more intriguing is that 8,000 years ago someone moved vast amounts of earth to bury the whole complex.
This YouTube video is in German but gives a good indication of the vastness and quality of what they’ve found there.
Anyway keep your eyes on the guide. This show will teach you new things and show you artifacts beyond your imagining.
Four Stars.




