Images

Copper alloy head of a lion or cub, which may have acted as a guardian at the entrance to the Temple of Ninhursag at Tell Al-Ubaid, Southern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. Early Dynastic Period, c. 2500 BCE. The British Museum, London...

Gypsum wall panel relief depicting two musicians, playing a harp and a lyre. One is a young man wearing a feather headdress and the other is a woman wearing a fillet of large beads. A tame lion beneath palms and cypresses appears. The whole...

The lower half of this carved and polished granite statue has survived. It probably represents a seated figure of Gudea, ruler of Lagash. Lagash II period, circa 2150 BCE. From Seleucia ad Tigrim (5 miles south-west of Seleucia), Mesopotamia...

This head is part of a copper alloy bull in the round. This is the best preserved bull of four similar bulls found and it is the only one which kept its head. Early Dynastic Period, circa 2500 BCE. From the Temple of Ninhursag at Tell Al-Ubaid...

This gypsum wall panel relief depicts horses and grooms leaving Sennacherib's palace. Neo-Assyrian Period, reign of Sennacherib, 700-692 BCE. From Room L1 (north), the South-West Palace at Nineveh (Kouyunjik), Northern Mesopotamia, modern-day...

This is one of a long procession of tribute bearers seen arriving from modern-day Syria or Turkey, on the western fringes of the Assyrian Empire. Neo-Assyrian Period, reign of Sargon II, 710-705 BCE. From Room X of the Royal Palace at Khorsabad...

A black-figure kylix (drinking cup) depicting Hercules being driven in a chariot by Hermes. Athena is to the right. Tarentum, southern Italy, 550-520 BCE. (National Archaeological Museum, Taranto, Italy)

A black-figure kylix (drinking cup) with Greek hoplite warriors. Tarentum, 550-520 BCE. (National Archaeological Museum, Taranto, Italy)

A panel from a larger floor mosaic depicting a hunting tiger, Tarentum, southern Italy, Late 2nd, early 3rd century CE. (National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy)

A crested bronze helmet, Rutigliano (Bari), southern Italy. 430-400 BCE. (National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy)