Images

Fragment of a Babylonian clay tablet, with 16 lines of inscription describing rites in Babylon relating to the Akitu festival. Fragment of the right half, copy of a text containing regulations for making offerings. From the Library of Ashurbanipal...

A map illustrating the state of affairs in the lands of the Roman Empire following the violent death of Emperor Severus Alexander in 235 CE during a period known as the Crisis of the Third Century, as multiple pretenders staked a claim to...

Tim Pauketat, author of Gods of Thunder: How Climate Change, Travel, and Spirituality Reshaped Precolonial America.

An imagined portrait of the Merovingian king Dagobert I (r. 623-639). oil on canvas by Émile Signol, part of the "Portraits of the Kings of France" series commissioned in 1837 by King Louis-Philippe (r. 1830-1848), 1842. Palace of...

King Dagobert I (r. 623-639) on his deathbed, illustration from the Chronique des empereurs, 15th century. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris.

Two depictions of crucial events in the reign of the Merovingian King Dagobert I (r. 623-639): to the left, Dagobert observes the construction of the abbey of Saint Denis Basilica in Paris; on the right, the Frankish army campaigns against...

Depiction of King Dagobert I (r. 623-639) on a contemporary coin. National Library of France, Paris.

Baked clay statue of the Mesopotamian god Enlil, from the Scribal Quarter at Nippur, Iraq, 1800-1600 BCE. Iraq Museum, Baghdad.

Wall of hominin skulls on display in the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. They were all found in Africa. Left to right, from the top: Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Homo habilis or Homo...

An illustration of the tunnelling shield designed by Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849). The shield was used during the construction of the Thames Tunnel, completed in 1843. The shield allowed workers to excavate but be protected from cave-ins...