Podcast Review: The Museum of Lost Objects
By Sofia Lambis, Second Year English
The decapitated statue of a Syrian poet. A four and a half thousand year old necklace cleaved apart and divided between countries. An imposing winged bull, once guardian of an ancient city, with eyes bored out by a pneumatic drill.
The Museum of Lost Objects chronicles artefacts that have been stolen and looted from Iraq, Syria, India and Pakistan (among other countries). Presented by Kanishk Tharoor and produced by Maryam Maruf for BBC Radio 4, the podcast’s 20-minute episodes are quick, informative and accessible.
Taking us from the ruins of the Temple of Bel in Palmyra to the basement of a looted Iraqi museum, the podcast shows us just how much has been lost or destroyed due to conflict. No item is deemed too small or too insignificant, with everything from a grand minaret to a tiny Sumerian stamping seal featured.
But cataloguing missing items isn’t what makes the podcast brilliant. It’s not just a list of facts about objects we can’t see. Interspersed with information about ancient artefacts are stories from real people who lived alongside them. The tale of the looted museum is moving and heart-breaking because it’s delivered by people who called it home, and the artefacts of old friends. We hear about a boy who cycled to the museum everyday, bringing lunch to his hardworking father, with strict instructions to return the empty containers so his mother knew they had eaten. He now speaks with his adult voice, thanking God his father wasn’t alive to see what became of his beloved museum.
The podcast doesn’t merely mourn the destruction of objects. It centres the human experience, showing us that with the taking of these artefacts comes a loss that’s far greater. A loss of culture, memories, and ancestral connection. Modern identities shaped by an ancient past.
In one episode, I was surprised to hear the presenter suddenly switch to first person, telling a story about their grandmother. What had been a calming, detached voice now actively became part of the narrative. We also hear from the father of Maryam Maruf, the producer. I was reminded that while artefacts may be tucked away or displayed behind glass cases, they don’t exist in a vacuum. There are always stories, both ancient and modern, about how they touched people’s lives, contributing to a sense of shared cultural identity and pride.
‘This Museum of Lost Objects is home not just to the artefacts themselves but to the ways they move so many, and continue to carry meaning even after they’re gone.’
Interestingly, the podcast dedicates an entire episode to a neighbourhood in Aleppo. Specifically, to an old-build courtyard house that changes from a family home to a makeshift hospital. It makes us consider a skyline permanently altered and what it must feel like to no longer navigate your city in the same way. A pharmacist’s brief moments of respite are held in the old courtyard amidst the violence. Drawing on details of the human experience, it asks us to imagine the relief of drinking in coffee and the strong smell of jasmine that permeates Aleppo.
My favourite episode discusses the Winged Bulls of Nineveh, an imposing set of statues that guarded the ancient Assyrian city. Whilst we hear details of the curls in their hair, the intricacy of their unfurled wings and tumbling beards, these aren’t the speaker’s focus. What she remembers most fondly isn’t the grandeur of the statue, but the tiny, faint lines carved into its base. A game played by Assyrian guards when they were bored. Probably similar to tic-tac-toe or dominoes. This tiny detail sums up the ‘human touch’ that shapes the podcast, reminding us why we care so much about artefacts. They’re evidence that despite shifting powers, violent conflict and the onset of time, things can survive. Like the pharmacist creating a hospital from an old house, and the little boy making signs for his museum, and the city’s bored guards playing games on a statue, humans have always interacted with their environment.
‘You hadn’t fully toppled a king until you had also annihilated his images.’
In weaving together ancient and modern stories the podcast shows people resisting the cultural erasure that destroying artefacts tries to enact. It keeps history alive and gives us hope that the damage caused by twenty-first century violence won’t be the last chapter.
The BBC website contains numerous in-depth articles on the artefacts featured in the podcast, complete with pictures, video clips and podcast episodes.