16th century: Did you mean...?

A map illustrating the rise and expansion (c. 1750 - 1200 BCE) of the Hittites, ancient Anatolian people who spoke an Indo-European language. At its height around the mid-14th century BCE, the Hittite empire ruled most of Asia Minor from...

A drawing of a typical 17th-century musketeer. Musketeers were a standard component of European infantry armies of the period and particularly during the English Civil Wars (1642-51). Ink and watercolours. Drawn in the 19th century. (British...

The weapons of an English medieval knight in combat included the long sword, wooden lance with an iron tip, metal-headed mace, battle-axe, and dagger. Trained since childhood and practised at tournaments, the skilled knight could inflict...

The samurai (also bushi) were a class of warriors that arose in the 10th century in Japan and which performed military service until the 19th century. Elite and highly-trained soldiers adept at using both the bow and sword, the samurai were...

Empuries (also Emporiae or Emporion) was a Greek and then Roman colony on the northeastern coast of Spain. Thriving as a local and Mediterranean trading centre, it prospered from the 6th century BCE to the 2nd century CE. Several times the...

A map illustrating migrations of various peoples across fractured Europe and Western Asia after the division of the Roman Empire at the end of the 4th Century CE.

Gyeongju (Kyongju), formerly known as Seorabeol or Saro, was the capital of the Silla kingdom of ancient Korea from the 1st century BCE to the 10th century CE. Located in the south-east of the Korean peninsula, at its peak in the 9th century...

Segesta (or Egesta), located in the north-west corner of Sicily, was an important trading town from the 7th century BCE onwards. Situated on the strategically advantageous slopes of Mt. Barbaro, yet still close enough to the coast to support...

The Swahili Coast on the shores of East Africa was a region where Africans and Arabs mixed to create a unique identity from the 8th century called Swahili Culture. Swahili is the name of their language and means 'people of the coast.' The...

A map showing the early expansions of Rome, in the 2nd century BC.