Images

Map of India with Sri Lanka, illustrating locations of European settlements in the subcontinent between 1501 and 1739.

An early 18th-century print showing Johann Tetzel (l.c. 1465-1519), a Dominican Friar who became famous as one of the most effective indulgence salesmen in the Catholic church.

Artist's impression of an Olmec religious ceremony atop a temple pyramid. Created by Amplitude Studios for the video game Humankind.

A detail of a turquoise mosaic mask representing Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec god of fire, 1400-1521 CE. The mask is of cedar wood with mother-of-pearl eyes, conch shell teeth and once with gold leaf on the eyelids. (The British Museum, London).

An Aztec pendant representing an animal head and covered in turquoise mosaic and with eyes rendered in shell and pyrite. 1400-1521, Mexico. Height 10 cm. (British Museum, London)

An example of the assignat banknote for 400 livres, issued in 1792 during the French Revolution. From the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Image by Godot13.

A c. 1930 photograph showing the use of horses to thresh grain across a threshing floor.

A c. 1900 photograph showing Lebanese agriculturalists engaged in the ancient process of winnowing grain. (Matson Collection, Library of Congress)

A traditional flat threshing floor.

A panoramic view of Potosí, Bolivia, location of the richest silver mine in the Spanish empire during the 16th-18th centuries.