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The videos below can be seen on Smarthistory because The British Museum generously makes their videos available for distribution.

puppet grid — Shadow puppets are popular in Java today, although the tradition dates back to the 11th century

Shadow puppet, Java

by The British Museum

During the Ming dynasty the state issued coins and paper money.

Ming banknote

by The British Museum

Claims to hereditary nobility were based on racing ancestral lineage and proclaiming military prowess through dress and ornament. Gold pendant depicting a ruler, Mixtec, lost wax-casting, gold, 9 x 4.6 cm, from Tehuantepec, Mexico (© Trustees of the British Museum) — This pendant represents a nobleman wearing a necklace, earrings and a lip plug from which hangs a mask with three suspended bells

Gold pendant depicting a ruler, Mixtec

by The British Museum

Ancestor figure, Zapotec, c. 200 B.C.E.–800 C.E., pottery, from Oaxaca, Mexico, 35 x 27 cm (© Trustees of the British Museum) — Offering vessels like this one have been found in the tombs of high-ranking Zapotec lords and noblewomen in the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico.

Ancestor figure, Zapotec

by The British Museum

Cholula was known for its beautiful polychrome ceramics that included a wide range of symbols such as calendrical dates, hearts, hands, and knives

Pottery vessel, Mixteca-Puebla style

by The British Museum

teponaztli grid — Mexica wooden slit drums (teponaztli) were generally decorated with designs in relief or carved to represent human figures or animals.

Wooden slit-drum (teponaztli)

by The British Museum

grid colima — Dogs are the most commonly portrayed animal in the art of Colima

Pottery dog, Colima culture

by The British Museum

Wooden ceremonial shield with mosaic inlay, Mexica/Mixtec, 15th-16th century, from Mexico, 31.6 cm in diameter (© Trustees of the British Museum) — Ancient Mexico is renowned for the production of vivid greenstone mosaics

Turquoise mosaics, an introduction

by The British Museum

Stone serpent, Mexica, 1325–1521, from Mexico, 21.5 x 26 x 37 cm (© Trustees of the British Museum) — The serpent played a very important role in Mexica religion and many finely carved stone sculptures have survived.

Serpents in Mexica culture

by The British Museum

Stone figure of Xiuhcoatl, Mexica, 1325–1521, from Mexico, 77 x 60 cm (© The Trustees of the British Museum) — This magnificent sculpture of a Xiuhcoatl (fire serpent) has a blend of both realistic and mythical creatures.

Xiuhcoatl (fire serpent)

by The British Museum

xihtecuhtli grid — The cult of the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli goes back many centuries before Mexica times and extended throughout Mesoamerica.

Seated figure of Xiuhtecuhtli

by The British Museum

xochipilli grid — Xochipilli was the Mexica god of music and dance

Xochipilli

by The British Museum

Group of pottery model temples, Mexica (Aztec), 1325–1521, from Mexico, 14.7 x 10.5 cm (© The Trustees of the British Museum) — Small pottery temple models add valuable details to our knowledge of Mexica religious architecture

Pottery model temples

by The British Museum

Beautiful glass was popular from ancient Egypt into the Coptic period

Glass dish, Coptic

by The British Museum

coptic egypt grid — In the course of the fourth and fifth centuries C.E., Christians transformed the architectural landscape of pharaonic Egypt by building monumental churches, martyrs’ shrines, and monasteries

Byzantine Egypt and the Coptic period, an ...

by The British Museum

silk coptic grid — By the seventh and eighth centuries in Egypt, patterns on the highest-quality silk panels had become extremely sophisticated and complex

Coptic silk panel

by The British Museum

grid Piye 416314001 — King Piye was the first major ruler in Egypt of the Kushite Dynasty (referred to as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty)

King Piye and the Kushite control of ...

by The British Museum

grid Piye 416314001 — In 716 B.C.E. Kushite king Piye died and was buried in an Egyptian style pyramid tomb at El-Kurru

King Piye and the Kushite control of ...

by The British Museum

Meroitic stela From Hamadab, Sudan Kushite period, about 24BC, Height: 236.5 cm — Sudan is home to the oldest sub-Saharan African kingdom, the kingdom of Kush.

Ancient Nubia and the Kingdom of Kush, ...

by The British Museum

meriotic grid — Throughout the Meroitic period Egyptian elements introduced into Kushite royal burial practices under the early Napatan kings were retained and reinterpreted

Meroitic period of the Kingdom of Kush

by The British Museum

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