Images

These two handaxes were made from flint by Homo erectus around 130,000 BCE. They were both found in Switzerland: The ochre one was found in Pratteln, Canton Basel-Land, while the white one was found in Schlieren, Canton Zurich. On display...

Pottery vessels from the Wari Civilization. Peru, 7th to 10th century CE. Fired clay. Exhibited at Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland.

Detail of the Nun of Monza by Giuseppe Molteni (1800-1887 CE). (Civic Museum of Pavia, Italy)

An engraving by W. Marshall of the Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179 CE)

The cloister of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, England, an Augustinian nunnery founded in 1232 CE by Ela, Countess of Salisbury.

"The palaces of Nimrud Restored", as imagined by the city's first excavator, A.H. Layard. A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh, London 1853, pl. 1 detail, after a sketch by James Fergusson.

These stone projectile points date from c. 900-1540 CE and were made by members of the Mississippian culture, which flourished in what is now the United States from c. 900-1500 CE. This set of artifacts were curiously uncovered by the U.S...

Fresco depicting two Lares (protective deities, sons of the god Mercury) pouring wine from a drinking horn (rhyton) into a bucket (situla). They stand on either side of a scene of sacrifice. The head of the family makes offerings, a musician...

Ah Puch, the Mayan god of death, is often represented as having an owl's head since owls were considered symbols of death to the ancient Maya. This figurine dates to c. 600-800 CE, which coincides with the Classic Period in Mayan history...

This type of unusual pottery was made by the Nazca civilization that inhabited what is now present-day Peru. This piece features skeletal figures, and it was made c. 200 BCE-600 CE. (The Department of Anthropology and Museum of Fine Arts...