Images

A figurine of a woman holding a child. Amber, 5th century BCE, Etruscan. Height: 6.3 cm. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

The entrance ramp to the tomb excavated near Xigaoxue in Henan province which Chinese authorities claim as the tomb of the military dictator Cao Cao (c. 155-220 CE).

Tombstone of a sailor in the Roman fleet at Misenum. 2nd century CE. It records that he died aged 30 and was originally from the Roman province of Asia, roughly today's western Turkey. (Museo dei Campi Flegrei, Naples, Italy, on display at...

Relief from a monument near the Roman naval base at Misenum. At the stern of the ship, the pausarius is keeping the rowers in time with a drum. The larger man facing the rowers is possibly the trierarch, the ship's captain. End of 1st century...

This is a pottery pilgrim flask. Phoenician bi-chrome ware and wheel-made. There is a pair of pieced lugs on either aspect of the sides; these are handles or suspension holes. Phoenician, 850-800 BCE. From Grave 8/33 at Tharros, Sardinia...

This white marble anthropoid (human-shaped) coffin shows a male head wearing a Egyptian style headdress. Phoenician art was influenced by many different traditions. Coffins of this Gaeco-Egyptian style have been found in large numbers at...

This lintel was part of a rock-cut tomb. The text, inscribed in Hebrew, mentions that this tomb belongs to the "royal steward" and that there is no gold or silver inside it, just his bones and those of his maid-servants. Although the lintel...

This is a pottery jug in the form of a squatting baboon-like monkey carrying a net on his back. Phoenician, 6th century BCE. From Grave 5/35 at Tharros, Sardinia, modern-day Italy. (The British Museum, London)

This is baked clay votive plaque of a nude woman in low relief, most likely the goddess Astarte. Her Egyptian style wig was painted black. She puts her hands at her breasts. The hole at the top is for suspension. This is a development of...

This is a head of woman wearing an Egyptian wig. The hole at the top is a hole for suspension. Part of a baked clay votive figure. The Canaanite traditions of terracotta figurine manufacturer were continued by the Phoenicians, both at home...