Year of the Four Emperors: Did you mean...?

Alabaster bas-relief of an Apkallu with four wings. Neo-Assyrian Period, 865-860 BCE. Panel 26, Room B, the North-West Palace at Nimrud, modern-day Iraq. (The British Museum, London)

This fragmented alabaster bas-relief depicts an Assyrian Apkallu, a protective spirit or genie. The striking features are that he is bare-headed (he does not wear a horned helmet or diadem) and his four wings, all of them, appear en face...

This is a festive and richly illuminated codex-type manuscript made of Persian and Italian watermarked paper. Written (or copied) in the Georgia Nuskhuri script by Zosime from Vale at Samtskhe Atabegs court scriptorium around 1514 CE, this...

While this class of bowl typically bears bird motifs on the outside, this example, dating to the mid-sixth century BCE, features the stylistic representation of plants and geometric motifs instead. The inside simply features simple banding...

Uprising of 1 Prairial Year III (20 May 1795) against the policies of the Thermidorian Reaction during the later stages of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Here, the insurrectionists wave the severed head of Jean-Bertrand Féraud in the...

The Morning of 10 Thermidor Year II depicts a wounded Maximilien Robespierre on the last morning of his life, jaw shattered, lying on the centered table. He and his allies would be executed later that day. Oil on canvas by Lucien-Étienne...

Terracotta tablet listing the year formulae of King Shulgi of Ur. From Southern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, Ur III period, 2094-2047 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.

This map shows the boundaries of all major civilizations in East Asia at the beginning of the first millennium, with italics indicating nomadic bands and other tribal societies.

This map depicts the boundaries of all major civilizations in East Asia at the beginning of the Three Kingdoms Period of China, with italics indicating nomadic bands and other tribal societies. Following the collapse of Han Dynasty in 220...

This fragment of a clay tablet mentions certain formulas of naming years depending on major historical events. From Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. Early dynastic period, 2800-2300 BCE. The Sulaimaniya Museum, Iraq.