Images

Pictured here is a dinar of Tughril Bey (r. 1040-1063 CE). It measures 2.2 cm in diameter and weighs 2.8 grams. It was minted between 1052-1053 CE in Nishapur, in present-day Iran. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

William Gowland visited Korea in 1884 CE and was struck by the similarities between early Korean and Japanese tombs. The wealthy and powerful in both lands shared a taste for luxury and precious objects. Stoneware. From Korea. 250-600 CE...

This jar has small beads around the neck and is decorated with red pigment and cord impressions. As regional rulers became more powerful in the Yayoi period, they demanded higher quality ceramics. Warfare also became more common, and in Western...

About 60 similar examples were have been unearthed in Japan, from Southern Hokkaido and Northern Tohoku region. They were made between 2500 to 500 BCE. They may have been used in rituals but the details are unknown. Stone. From Japan. 2500-500...

These ancient ceramics are decorated with cord markings. They gave the Jomon period, (13,00-500 BCE) its name; Jomon means "cord-marked". A stick was wrapped with braided cord and then rolled over the surface of the vessels to decorate them...

This is the top half of what was originally a complete figure. The warrior's face is partly painted red, he wears his hair in plaits (one is missing), and the protective gauntlet on his forearms may be part of an armour suit. From the 400s...

These are part of a set of nine agate belt plaques with decoration of musicians. From modern-day China, Tang Dynasty, 618-906 CE. (The British Museum, London).

The rings are held together by links without joints in them, and the whole was carved from a small jade pebble. A similar but more elaborate belt ornament has been excavated from the 5th-century tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, found at Suizhou...

This stele is carved with representations of events in the Lotus Sutra, one of the most important texts in early Chinese Buddhism. The Lotus Sutra is reconstructed as a magnificent drama, during which the historical Buddha Shakyamuni is revealed...

This stucco plaque shows the head of Bodhisattva surrounded by a beaded border. From Ming-oi, near Shorchuk, in modern-day China. 6th to 7th century CE. (The British Museum, London).