Images

Fish-shaped amulet from the Warka, Iraq, Late Uruk Period, 3300-3000 BCE The British Museum, London.

An illustration of a child pulling a tub of coal from the mine face to the surface. Child labour was common in mines in Britain and not restricted until the 1842 Mines Act.

A Davy lamp, a safety lamp designed by Humphrey Davy (1778-1820) in 1815 for coal miners. The lamp's flame could not escape the mesh and so did not set alight dangerous gases in mine shafts. In addition, a gauge could tell a miner if such...

An 1809 engraving by Thomas Rowlandson from an original drawing by Woodward showing the public's reaction to the first coal gas street lighting in Pall Mall, London in 1807. The new lights were invented by Frederick Albert Winsor (1763-1830...

Epodes III by Horace (65-8 BCE), from a 4th quarter of the C12 manuscript of his complete works, Harley MS 3534 f.39v. British Libary, London.

John Harrison’s first marine timepiece, called H1 and created between 1730 and 1735, was designed to allow navigators to keep Greenwich time and so accurately calculate their longitude position. (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

Tablet of the poem Inanna and Ebih, also known as Inanna's Battle with the Mountain and Goddess of the Fearsome Powers, attributed to the poet/priestess Enheduanna (l. 2285-2250 BCE), exhibited in the Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago.

Schliemann's Trench at Hisarlik, the site of ancient Troy, near Tevfikiye, modern-day Turkey. The 40-metre (131 ft) wide, 17-metre (55 ft) deep trench was laid out N-S across the middle of the mound or tell at TroyHeinrich Schliemann from...

Oil painting by Johann Georg Trautmann (1713–1769) called Blick auf das brennende Troja.

A c. 1767 portrait by Thomas King of the English clockmaker John Harrison (1693-1776) who invented the marine chronometer to accurately measure longitude. The chronometer he is holding is the H3, one of a series of five watches he made. (Science...