Age of Exploration: Did you mean...?

Viking ships were built by the Scandinavians during the Viking Age (c. 790 CE - c. 1100 CE) and were used both within Scandinavia and beyond for purposes ranging from being the most important means of transport to trade and warfare. Viking...

Hercules and Geras, son of Nyx and the personification of old age. Detail from an Attic red-figure pelike attributed to the Geras Painter, c. 480-470 BCE. Louvre, Paris.

Three Viking Age swords dated to between c. 750-950 CE are shown here. They were found in the river Meuse near Den Bosch, Aalburg and Wessem, in the Netherlands. They now belong to the collections of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden...

A photograph showing part of the exhibition space of the 2022-23 exhibition Baroque, Age of Contrasts in the Swiss National Museum, Zürich. ©Swiss National Museum (used with permission)

Bone/antler comb from Björkö, Adelsö, Uppland, Sweden. The Swedish History Museum, Stockholm.

An engraving by Henry Hoppner Meyer showing George III of Great Britain (r. 1760-1820) towards the end of his life when his mental illness led to his son becoming Prince Regent (1811-20). (National Portrait Gallery, London)

In the 5th century BCE, the Carthaginian explorer Hanno sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules, out of the Mediterranean and into hitherto unknown territory down the Atlantic coast of Africa. In his search to find new resources and trading...

The Age of Discovery, when European explorers uncovered whole new worlds, is well known, but what prompted this unprecedented push into the unknown? This animated video explores how spices provided the initial impetus for exploration and...

Sculptures of the female form are a feature of the exhibition Ice Age art: arrival of the modern mind. Here, exhibition curator Jill Cook and artist Ghislaine Howard explore these representations of women in Ice Age and contemporary art.

Nancy Marie Brown, author of The Real Valkrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women joins us to talk all about female Vikings, warrior women and women in the Viking Age. Nancy uses two very different kinds of sources in The Real Valkyrie...