Grave goods: Did you mean...?

The concept of the afterlife changed in different eras of Egypt's very long history, but for the most part, it was imagined as a paradise where one lived eternally. To the Egyptians, their country was the most perfect place which had been...

Ancient Egyptian burial practices were observed as early as the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000 to c. 3150 BCE) and continued through the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BCE), serving to not only provide the living with closure in saying goodbye...

The English East India Company (EIC) was founded in 1600, and it came to control both trade and territories in India, as well as a trade monopoly with China. Goods the EIC traded included spices, cotton cloth, tea, and opium, all in such...

This collection of rich Alemanni grave goods dates from c. 550 CE, and it was found on Bäckerstrasse in what is present-day Zurich, Switzerland. Of particular note are the bird-shaped brooches made of gold with almadine (gemstone) inlay...

Burial of the dead is the act of placing the corpse of a deceased person in a tomb constructed for that purpose or in a grave dug into the earth. Archaeological excavations have revealed Neanderthal graves dating back 130,000 years, marking...

Although women in the Viking Age (c. 790-1100 CE) lived in a male-dominated society, far from being powerless, they ran farms and households, were responsible for textile production, moved away from Scandinavia to help settle Viking territories...

Trade and commerce in the medieval world developed to such an extent that even relatively small communities had access to weekly markets and, perhaps a day's travel away, larger but less frequent fairs, where the full range of consumer goods...

Ghosts in ancient Mesopotamia were understood as a reality of life just as they were in other civilizations of antiquity. Although the cultures of the various Mesopotamian civilizations differed between c. 5000 BCE-651 CE, the belief in ghosts...

The concept of a curse laid on a tomb or gravesite is best known from ancient Egypt but the practice was quite common in other civilizations of antiquity. The tomb or grave was the eternal home of the physical remains of the deceased to which...

French soldiers inspect goods in Leipzig in 1806, near the start of Napoleon's Continental System. By Gottfried Heinrich Geißler, 1824.