Images

This bell has a suspension ring in the form of a fist. Bells are said to have been a Chinese invention, which reached the Middle East in about 800 BCE. However, Chinese bells are struck on the exterior while the Urartian ones have a clapper...

This is a bronze furniture-fitting (probably of a corner of a throne or bed). A god wearing a fringed robe stands on a recumbent bull. It was originally inlaid and gilded. From Toprakkale, Eastern Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Urartian...

A cover of the Lindisfarne Gospels, produced in the Kingdom of Northumbria 8-10th century CE. (British Library, London)

A map of the Kingdom of Northumbria (c. 604-954 CE) in the northeast of Britain c. 802 CE.

"Flame" pots, such as this, are just one type of a long ceramic tradition that continued for some 13,000 years during the Jomon period in Japan. They were made in the Middle Jomon period (3500-2500 BCE) in the area that is now modern Niigata...

A tablet, discovered in 2015 CE, with a passage from the Gilgamesh epic. CUNES 48-07-173. (Photographs by Prof. David I. Owen, Rosen Collection, Cornell University. Used with permission)

An illustration of a tablet, discovered in 2015 CE, describing a portion of the Gilgamesh epic. CUNES 48-07-173. (Illustration by Prof. Andrew George. Used with permission)

A 14th century CE manuscript illustration showing peasants threshing wheat. (Luttrell Psalter, British Library, London)

A typical cottage of a medieval peasant or serf family. 14th century CE (although the chimney, upper story and windows are later additions). St. Mary's Grove cottage, Tilmanstone, Kent, England. Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments...

This is a griffin-headed demon of white ivory. Both arms are raised (the right is lost), probably to support a throne. From Toprakkale, Eastern Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Urartian, 8th to 7th century BCE. (The British Museum, London).