FROM a 2,000-year-old Roman tombstone to a shoe-glazing iron - a list of ten of the most important objects in Essex's history has been chosen.
In a move that is sure to cause considerable debate, BBC Essex has joined forces with museums across the county to announce a list of items which those involved believe best reflect its unique past and place in the world.
Views on history can be notoriously subjective, but the selection - which forms part of the BBC's nationwide 'A History of the World' project - is hugely wide ranging, both in date and subject.
The Waltham Abbey Bible, currently located at Epping Forest District Museum, has taken its rightful place on the list.
The book dates from around 1200 AD and is all that survives from the famous Waltham Abbey library, which contained a range of works including a Latin translation of Homer's Iliad.
The bible features both the Old and New Testaments in Latin and is thought to have belonged to the Prior of the Abbey.
Fast forwarding several hundred years, another item on the list is the iconic EKCO AD65 model radio, which sat on the sideboards of millions of british families during the 1930s and 1940s.
The device was made using Bakerlite plastic at a EK Cole & Co Ltd in Southend and was represented cutting edge design and engineering at the time.
An example is available to view at Beecroft Art Gallery in Westcliff-on-Sea.
The imposing tombstone of Longinus Sdapeze at Colchester Castle was also selected.
The plinth - dating from AD48 - was uncovered in 1928 near Lexden Road in the town and portrays a Roman cavalry soldier riding over the naked figure of an enemy.
It is considered one of the finest examples of its kind in the UK.
A more humble, if no less extraordinary piece of history is Mr Hurlo's shoe-glazing iron, which is kept at Hollytrees Museum in Colchester.
The tool belonged to refugee Kazimierz Hurlo who came to live in Colchester after an epic wartime adventure in which he was captured by the Soviets before eventually escaping to Iran from a prisoner of war near in Finland.
He joined the Free Polish Navy before settling in Colchester and starting a shoemaking business in Church Street where he used the iron.
A Viking necklace made of glass, carnelian crystal and silver is another chosen artifact.
The jewellery - which dates from around 875-900 AD and is located at Saffron Walden Museum - was excavated in 1876 from the grounds of Hill House, home of the Gibsons, a prominent Quaker family in Saffron Walden.
A beautiful silk, woven in Essex and used during the coronation of the Queen in 1953 has also made the list.
Queensway Coronation Silk - which was made in Braintree by Warner and Sons and is kept in the town's Warner Textile Archive - hung from the Royal Box and formed a backdrop to the altar at Westminster Abbey during the ceremony.
An item with solumn echoes of today's world is the famous painting of the battle of Gundamuk, Afghanistan, in 1842, which involved members of the Essex Regiment.
The picture, painted by WB Wollen in 1898, depicts the last stand of 45 men of the 44th Foot surrounded by Afghan tribesmen. One of the soldiers survived after wrapping the regimental colours around himself and was spared after being mistaken for a nobleman.
It hangs at the Regiment's Museum, in Chelmsford.
Another item on the list with a foreign influence is a hut used by designer Guglielmo Marconi to make the first - official - radio transmissions.
The 2MT station broadcast from the ex-army hut when it was located in Writtle, but it is now kept at Sandford Mill, in Chelmsford.
The site of a factory which once supplied the world with some of its first electric lamps has also been added to the list.
Colonel Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton (1845–1940) was a leading authority in electrical engineering and pioneered electric street lighting and electric traction motors. His factory in Writtle Road, Chelmsford, which made the famous arc lamp, has since been mainly demolished and replaced with houses.
A piece of tow rope from a famous maritime accident in the 1930s is also featured.
The material was used to pull the America's Cup yacht, Endevour, across the Atlantic in 1937 when it broke free. The ship was thought lost but reappeared to national relief.
Local man Jim Mussett, one of the Endevour's crew, donated part of the tow rope to Mersea Island Museum, where it remains.
Don't agree with that list? The people of Essex will now get the chance to suggest their own top historical items from the county as part of the BBC project.
A BBC spokesman said: "Listeners and viewers will be asked to suggest further objects and can actively participate by uploading photographs of their own objects that have a local or global appeal.
At the end of February 2010 it is hoped that each BBC Local website will have an additional “People’s 10 Objects” telling the history of their region and its global connections."
To see the ten listed objects and to find out more about the project visit: bbc.co.uk/essex.
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