Images

Some Greek cities used images for their names, so "readers" did not have to be literate. Zancle, a city founded by Greek colonists in Sicily, incorporated the sickle-shaped harbor (sickle=zanklon). Silver third stater coin, circa 500 BCE...

Early Iron Age Celtic people copied Greek coins, often faithfully reproducing their designs and inscriptions. This suggests that Thracian die-engravers were illiterate, as legible Greek letters were gradually replaced by abstract patterns...

In ancient Egypt, many transactions were made in metal, measured using weights like this. Once coinage was introduced, a Greek system was combined with the Egyptian one. This quartzite weight was inscribed with the name of the Egyptian king...

This clay nail is inscribed with details of the wealth of Sin-Kashid, king of Uruk in Babylon. Excavated by Sir William Loftus at Uruk (Warka), Southern Mesopotamia, modern-say Iraq. Circa 1900 BCE. (The British Museum, London).

This is a bowl for mixing wine and water. Greek, made in Athens around 450-440 BCE. Said to be Aegina, Greece. (The British Museum, London).

Greek wine was chilled by letting it stand in a psykter, which was in turn placed in a wine-mixing bowl filled with cold water or snow. Greek, made in Athens around 510 BCE. Attributed to the Dikaios Painter. From the Pourtales Collection...

As the stupa (Buddhist monument) had been enlarged and rebuilt over the centuries, worshippers added new deposits. When he opened the stupa, General Ventura recognized that the deeper objects were the oldest ones. The last dedication, "deposit...

When General Jean-Baptiste Ventura opened the Buddhist monument (stupa) at Manikyala in 1830 CE, he found a coin depicting Tigin, a king of Kabul. The presence of the coin shows that the stupa was still being used in 700 CE. The coin was...

Many Greek coins showed images of local products. Cyrene was famous for the export of the now-extinct silphium plant. Silver tetradrachm coin. From Cyrene, modern-day Libya. 435-375 BCE. (The British Museum, London).

Early Iron Age Celtic people copied Greek coins, often faithfully reproducing their designs and inscriptions. This suggests that Thracian die-engravers were illiterate, as legible Greek letters were gradually replaced by abstract patterns...