These enigmatic, rectilinear tubes reveal clarity of thought and took great effort to produce. What can they mean?
Location: British Museum
This mask depicts the king’s mother, whose ruthless political prowess ensured that her son became king.
Benin ivory mask (Edo peoples)
These flags were made for military companies affiliated with the British along the coast of present-day Ghana.
Asafo Flags: Stitches Through Time
Fire, clothing, or the wheel: was this humble hand axe the earliest human technology?
Our earliest technology?
Is the plaster face on this skull modeled after a real person? Is it one of the world’s oldest portraits?
The Jericho Skull
The cave lion was the fiercest animal of the ice age, and this mammoth ivory carving combines human with lion.
Lion Man
Ancient Greeks made them, Ottomans captured them, Venetians blew them up, and the British took them away.
Who owns the Parthenon sculptures?
What do we gain when works come from a well-documented excavation?
The importance of the archaeological findspot: The ...
What was the first bill of human rights? This seal encouraged freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire.
The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia
This cloth—first woven by a wise spider—sends social messages through a system of specific patterns.
Kente cloth
Excavated in 1939, this 7th-century grave once held a hoard of metalwork, all buried within a 27-meter long ship!
Sutton Hoo Ship Burial
Rendered in gold and garnet, the enigmatic animals on this purse lid stand out above white bone.
The Sutton Hoo purse lid
Restored, dismantled, and restored again, this helmet was a pile of rusted iron and tinned bronze when first discovered.
The Sutton Hoo helmet
Cave art at Mogao reflects changing beliefs as well as stylistic influences from India, the West, and the Tang.
The paintings and manuscripts from cave 17 ...
Hidden in a cave and undisturbed for centuries, this important collection of paintings was rediscovered in 1900.
The paintings and manuscripts from cave 17 ...
This Mexica water goddess was believed to have presided over the fourth, or most recent, sun.
Stone kneeling figure of Chalchiuhtlicue
At the center of Ur, a rubbish dump grew over the centuries—it evolved into a cemetery for the elite.
Standard of Ur and other objects from ...
Through interactions with other Mediterranean cultures, ancient Greek potters developed new techniques.
Sophilos: a new direction in Greek pottery
Rebellion was not uncommon at the fringes of the Roman Empire, and the people of Judea were no exception.
Silver shekel of the Second Jewish Revolt
Identifying which god this mask represents has proven a slippery task.