Images

A range of stone vessels from Minoan Crete, 15th century BCE. (Archaeological Museum of Herakllion, Crete).

The Minoan stone vessel known as the 'Harvester Vase', from Hagia Triada on Crete, 1500-1450 BCE. The vase is carved from serpentine and was originally covered in gold leaf. The scenes in relief depict a sowing festival and the vase was probably...

A Minoan vase carved from rock-crystal, from Zakros on Crete, c. 1450 BCE. The collar includes gilded ivory discs and the handle is made from rock-crystal beads strung on bronze wire. The vessel was probably used to pour liquids in religious...

The founder of the Merovingian Frankish kingdom was Clovis. He followed an aggressive policy of conquest to build up the kingdom over much of modern France, but his death in 511 saw his realm chopped up into several smaller kingdoms. It...

With the accession of Clovis, son of Childeric I of the Salian Franks, the Germanic occupiers of north-eastern Gaul had found a king who would change their fortunes out of all recognition. Rather than follow his father's policy of allying...

A panorama of the archaeological site of Delos, one of the most important religious sanctuaries in the Greek world and a major trading centre in the 1st and 2nd century CE Roman world.

Marble figurines from Naxos in the Cyclades. The significance of the statues is not known for certain only that they were once painted and are generally found in a burial context across the Cyclades group. These examples date to between 2800...

The remains of the foundations, crepidoma and doorway leading from the prodromos to the cella of the 6th century BCE temple of Apollo on Naxos in the Cyclades. The doorway is 6m high and 3.5 m wide. The temple itself, as indicated by its...

A decorated human skull thought to represent the Mesoamerican god Tezcatlipoca. Mosaic of turquoise and lignite cover the skull with red thorny oyster shell used around the nasal cavity. Polished pyrite surrounded by white conch shell provide...

A section of the 1st century CE cupids frieze from the triclinium or dining room from the House of the Vetti in Pompeii. The frieze depicts cupids selling flowers and perfumes and as workers who sell flowers, make wine and work gold.