Images

Map showing the reconstructed route Norse Vikings sailed in the Vinland sagas on their way to Vinland (Newfoundland, Canada), where they founded a settlement at the site of L'Anse aux Meadows. The sagas describe the Vikings first coming across...

Statue of the Norse Viking Leif Erikson (estimated c. 970-1020 CE) outside Hallgrimskirka in Reykjavik, Iceland. Leif was the son of Erik the Red, founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland, and is himself often credited with being...

Archaeological site of L'Anse aux Meadows, a Viking settlement in Newfoundland, North America, which was built and occupied around 1000 CE. It could house up to 70-90 people who would use the site while on expeditions lasting a few years...

A 17th century CE painting by Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen of the capture of the Chain Tower during the siege of Damietta during the Fifth Crusade (1217-1221 CE). (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands)

A 13th century CE manuscript illustration depicting the attack on Damietta in Egypt in 1218-19 CE during the Fifth Crusade (1217-1221 CE). (From the Chronica Majorca by Matthew Paris, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge)

Gold coin of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, minted in Sicily between 1211-1250 CE. Weighs 5.2 grammes and measures 20 mm (British Museum, London)

Painted jug. Pottery. From Cyprus, Geometric Period, 1050-750 BCE. (Museum of Archaeology, Istanbul, Turkey).

Painted jug, barrel-shaped. Pottery. From Cyprus, Geometric Period, 1050-750 BCE. (Museum of Archaeology, Istanbul, Turkey).

This ritual object, a pottery censer, was made in the shape of a prism, with superimposed sphinx and lion reliefs on both sides. The small square openings on the front and the back were for the smoke of the fumigated plants to come out. The...

Pottery jug with a broken handle. From Gezer, in modern-day Israel. Early Iron Age in Palestine/Syria, 1200-900 BCE. (Museum of Archaeology, Istanbul, Turkey).