Images

Built in 618 CE, the Saint Hripsime Church is one of the oldest churches in what is present-day Etchmiadzin, Armenia. In 2000, the church became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Hripsime Church is characterized by a domed tetraconch (enclosed...

A storage jar with the three-colour glaze typical of ceramics made during China's Tang dynasty. 8th century CE. (British Museum, London)

A detail of Chinese artist Ma Yuan's "On a Mountain Path in Spring". 1190-1225 CE. Ink and colour on silk. (National Museum, Taipei, Taiwan).

A bronze vessel (zun) with the form of a double-ram. Shang Dynasty, 1200-1050 BCE, China. (British Museum, London)

A statue of the Roman Emperor "Constantine the Great" who reigned from approximately 306 to 337 CE.

Zorats Karer in present-day Armenia is a prehistoric site, teeming with burials and standing stones (or "menhirs"). In total, there are 223 stones on the site.

A 2nd-century CE papyrus of Callimachus' Aetia. B.P. Grenfell & A.S. Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri: Part XI. (London: The Egypt Exploration Society, 1915), plate IV

Two figures carved from the rock face at the Longmen Caves, Fengxian temple near Luoyang, China. Dating to 675 CE the 17.4 metre high figures represent a Buddhist Heavenly King and demon guardian figure.

One of the most famous of all Chinese landscape paintings, 'The Emperor Ming Huang Travelling in Shu'. Painted silk, a later copy of a Tang dynasty original of the 8th century CE. (Palace Museum, Taipei)

A 7th century CE court scene showing Emperor Taizong (r. 626-649 CE) receiving a Tibetan ambassador. By the famed Tang dynasty court painter Yan Liben (c. 600-673 CE).