Images

This fragment comes from a fresco found in the "House of the Ephebus" in Pompeii. It portrays an erotic scene on the Nile. It portrays two African men and a Greek or Roman woman. The fresco dates to the 1st Century CE and currently resides...

This 1st Century CE fresco is part of a cycle in the "House of the Physician" in Pompeii portrays pygmies living along the Nile. This scene depicts a banquet accompanied by music and sex acts. The fresco currently resides in the National...

This mid 2nd Century CE bust portrays Memnon, the Aethiopian pupil of the Roman statesman Herodes Atticus. It was found in the Villa of Herodes Atticus in Arcadia, Greece but its current home is the Altes Museum in Berlin.

This Roman Imperial-era glass bead necklace of unknown provenance was produced between the 1st and 5th Centuries CE. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Terracotta oil lamp from Cyprus, the first half of the 1st century CE. The discus has an engraved image of a rhinoceros tossing a large cat with its horn. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

This mosaic from the Antakya Archaeological Museum, Hatay Province, Turkey dates to the 2nd Century CE and depicts a black African fisherman.

This mosaic is from the "House of Menander" in Pompeii and depicts two African men fishing. The work dates to the 1st Century CE and is currently in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples in Italy.

This Roman quadrans was minted in the reign of Domitian sometime between 84-90 CE and features a two-horned rhinoceros on the obverse. The coin commemorates the appearance of a two-horned rhinoceros in the Colosseum for the first time, where...

This fragment from the upper right corner of a sarcophagus portrays the head of a male Aethiopian (African) youth and a maenad. The piece dates to around the early 3rd Century CE and is a part of the Roman Sarcophagi Collection at the Metropolitan...

A 19th century CE painting by Benjamin-Constant depicting the triumphant entrance of Mehmed II, Ottoman Sultan, after his successful siege of Constantinople in 1453 CE.