These enigmatic, rectilinear tubes reveal clarity of thought and took great effort to produce. What can they mean?
Essay refreshed September 2021
All evidence points to Africa as the origin of our species … is Africa also the birthplace of art?
Apollo 11 Cave Stones
What do the moon landing and rock art have in common?
Origins of rock art in Africa
From monarchy, to republic, then empire—at its height, Rome controlled territory from Scotland to the Middle East.
Introduction to ancient Rome
These datable potsherds offer clues to travel and trade in the central Pacific, or “sea of islands.”
Terracotta fragments, Lapita people
Who is this mysterious running horned woman, painted in a secluded, difficult to access part of Tassili?
Running Horned Woman, Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria
This intriguing artifact has a 3,500-year history. The latest chapter? A political debate over cultural heritage.
Ambum Stone
Over a hundred lintel relief sculptures depicting scenes from royal life survive from Yaxchilán.
Yaxchilán—Lintels 24 and 25 from Structure 23 ...
Though some debated that this was made by humans, scholars are now confident some of its markings were hand-carved.
Camelid sacrum in the shape of a ...
This stone marker depicts an abstracted human. How should we interpret one of the Arabia’s earliest artifacts?
Anthropomorphic stele
Intentionally buried as part of an elaborate ritual, this ornate object tells us so much, but also too little.
Standard of Ur and other objects from ...
Mysteries surround the cave paintings at Lascaux, but it’s clear our use of images has a long history.
Hall of Bulls, Lascaux
Playful figurines, including plump pigs and canine companions, represent scenes of daily life and nature.
Tlatilco Figurines
Seductive—or maternal? Smiling—or just smug? Sure, we all know this woman, but we’ve yet to figure her out.
Leonardo, Mona Lisa
Who’s that in the plumed hat? From emperors to kings, the painter Bichitr mastered court portraiture.
Bichitr, Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to ...
The “cross-carpet” pages of this early 8th-century manuscript weave together birds, knots, spirals—and the Cross.
The Lindisfarne Gospels
Recognized worldwide, Stonehenge seems an impossible task: how, and why, did prehistoric people build it?
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