Images

Apulian red-figure volute krater with scenes of the Underworld, c. 340-330 BCE. Hades sits enthroned in the palace beside a standing Persephone, who holds a four-headed Eleusinian torch. The god wields a bird-tipped staff. (Staatliche Antikensammlungen...

Attic white-ground Lekythos depicting Charon, the ferryman of Hades, pushing his boat across the Acheron, c. 450 BCE. (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)

Etruscan Rython in the form of Charon, the ferryman of Hades, 4th century BCE. (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)

This two-headed bust was made of plaster and bitumen and was found in modern-day Ain Ghazal in the outskirt of Amman city, Jordan in the year 1985 CE. Pre-pottery Neolithic period, circa 6500 BCE. Jordan Archaeological Museum, Amman, Jordan...

The Egyptian deity Serapis, with a modius on the head, is depicted as Pluto. Next to him stands the three-headed dog Cerberus, guardian of Hades and the Greek underworld. From the Roman Villa of Chiragan, France. (Musée des Antiques de Toulouse...

7th century BCE pectoral (brooch on the chest) from the Tartessian Culture. Archaeological Museum of Seville.

An Inca textile bag with typical tassle decoration. (Lombards Museum)

A detail from an Inca textile showing a geometric cross design. (Museo de America, Madrid)

An Inca royal tunic with the typical geometrical designs and colours favoured by Inca weavers. (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collections, Washington D.C.)

An exquisitely carved plaque of a supine bull. Note the black burn mark. Probably, this was part of a group which once supported an ivory tray. Neo-Assyrian period, 9th-7th centuries BCE. From Nimrud, Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The Sulaimaniya Museum...