I recommend Neil MacGregor's "A History of the World in 100 Objects" on BBC Radio 4

This is an entrancing series of 15 minute episodes, each one about a significant artefact from the British Museum's collection. Mr MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum, is an enthusiast who compels our interest by the quality of the story he tells and by the scholarship and insight he brings to bear to enrich our understanding of peoples and civilisations in the past. It is a revelatory experience. I had always considered that I'd had an excellent education but these programmes show it had some large and important gaps.

As well as being able to listen to the programmes themselves: A History of the World in 100 Objects, we can view photos of the objects, we can listen again on the iPlayer and we can download programmes from the series.