Yamato Period: Did you mean...?

A clay dogu figurine. From Kamikurokoma, Fuefuki-shi, Yamanashi, Japan. Jomon Period, 3000-2000 BCE. (Tokyo National Museum)

An eight-lobed cast bronze mirror with flowers and luan (a mythical bird) decoration. From Mount Tsuwado, Mukuno, Yamaga-machi, Kitsuki-shi, Oita, Japan. Nara Period, 8th century CE. Tokyo National Museum)

A jar of the Yayoi Period, 1st-3rd century CE. From Kugahara, Ota-ku, Tokyo. Important Cultural Property. (Tokyo National Museum)

A gilded cast bronze cinerary urn from the Nara Period (710-794 CE). From Kamori, Katsuragi-shi, Nara, Japan. Important Cultural Property (Tokyo National Museum)

A bronze dotaku bell, Yayoi Period, 4th-2nd century BCE, Japan. (Tokyo National Museum)

This terracotta figurine represents a cow and dates back to the Ubaid period, 4th millennium BCE, Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The Sulaimaniya Museum, Iraq).

This pottery bowl (brown with a rough surface) was found in tomb 5769. From El-Badari, Egypt. El-Badari Period, 5000-4000 BCE. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London (with thanks to The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL...

This mascot is made of white marble and represents the "goddesses of the eye." Jemdet Nasr period, circa 3000 BCE, Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The Sulaimaniya Museum, Iraq).

A Japanese sanage ware jug with natural glaze. Nara Period, 8th century CE. (Tokyo National Museum)

These are miniature stupas (hyakumanto). A stupa is a structure in a Buddhist temple that contains religious relics. Empress Shotoku (reigned 764-770 CE) ordered a million of these miniature wooden stupas to be made. Each one contained a...