Images

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...

A view of the interior workings of the H5 marine chronometer designed and built by the English clockmaker John Harrison (1693-1776). This was the last in the series of chronometers Harrison made for mariners to better measure longitude. Silver...

The workings of the H5 marine chronometer designed and built by the English clockmaker John Harrison (1693-1776). This was the last in the series of chronometers Harrison made for mariners to better measure longitude. Silver with a white...

The H5 marine chronometer, designed and built by the English clockmaker John Harrison (1693-1776). This was the last in the series of chronometers Harrison made for mariners to better measure longitude and so define their position at sea...

The gruesome execution of Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia on the orders of King Chlothar II, in 613. Illustration by Alphonse de Neuville on page 123 in the 1883 book The History of France from the Earliest Times to the Year 1789 by François...

The legendary Frankish king Pharamond being raised up on a bulwark or shield by his soldiers; this custom was later used by the Merovingian Dynasty during their coronations, to symbolize their election to power by the consent of the Franks...