Images

Made in Constantinople in the 11th century CE, this casket is made of ivory and bone, and has gilded copper mounts. Depicted are dancers waging mock battles and taming a panther. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Sandstone stele showing the Candace (or queen) Amanishakheto of Meroe (r. c. 10 BCE–1 CE), from the Kingdom of Kush in what is now Sudan. She is here depicted between the goddess Amesemi and the god Apedemak. Dating from the 1st century BCE...

Knowth near Slane, County Meath, Ireland

This limestone statuette depicts a servant grinding grain on what appears to be a quern. Figurines and statuettes were placed insides tombs as early as the 1st Dynasty (3100-2890 BCE). The majority of them are doing bakery, brewery, butchery...

Overview of the thrones and the heads of the gods on the eastern terrace of Mount Nemrut. From left to right: King Antiochus I, Commagene-Fortuna, Zeus-Oromasdes, Apollo-Mithras and Hercules. Mount Nemrut (Turkish: Nemrut Dağı) is one of...

The Temple of Zeus in the Phrygian city of Aizanoi (modern-day Turkey) is one of the best-preserved Roman temples. Its construction started in 92 CE and continued during the reign of Hadrian in the 2nd century CE. The temple is pseudodipteral...

These are vegetal remains and were food offerings from tombs. New Kingdom, 1550-1070 BCE. From Egypt, precise provenance of excavation is unknown. (The British Museum, London).

Assyrian alabaster panel showing Babylonian prisoners in a camp, from the North Palace at Nineveh, Northern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, Neo-Assyrian Empire, reign of Ashurbanipal II, 668-630 BCE. To the left, an Assyrian soldier stands...

This mummy label was made of green glazed composition. There is a large suspension loop at the upper margin. A Greek inscription can be seen. Graeco-Roman Period, 332 BCE to 380 CE. From Egypt, precise provenance of excavation is unknown...

This amulet, in the form of a scarab beetle with a human face, was intended to ensure that the deceased passed safely through the judgment which would establish whether or not he was deserving eternal life. It is inscribed with an early version...