Location: British Museum

Visitors view the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum (photo: Dr. Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) — […]

Looted and revered: The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone, 196 B.C.E., Ptolemaic Period, 112.3 x 75.7 x 28.4 cm, Egypt © Trustees of the British Museum. Part of grey and pink granodiorite stela bearing priestly decree concerning Ptolemy V in three blocks of text: Hieroglyphic (14 lines), Demotic (32 lines) and Greek (53 lines). — What does the Rosetta Stone say? Why is it written in three scripts and two languages?

Decoding the Rosetta Stone

Jade Cong — These enigmatic, rectilinear tubes reveal clarity of thought and took great effort to produce. What can they mean?

Jade Cong

Benin ivory mask, HENI talks — This mask depicts the king’s mother, whose ruthless political prowess ensured that her son became king.

Benin ivory mask (Edo peoples)

Asafo flags - HENI talks — These flags were made for military companies affiliated with the British along the coast of present-day Ghana.

Asafo Flags: Stitches Through Time

Handaxe, Paleolithic — Fire, clothing, or the wheel: was this humble hand axe the earliest human technology?

Our earliest technology?

Jericho Skull — Is the plaster face on this skull modeled after a real person? Is it one of the world’s oldest portraits?

The Jericho Skull

Lion Man — 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

Belt Buckle, Sutton Hoo, early 7th century, gold, 13.2 x 5.6 cm © Trustees of the British Museum — 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

The Sutton Hoo purse lid- detail — Rendered in gold and garnet, the enigmatic animals on this purse lid stand out above white bone.

The Sutton Hoo purse lid

The Sutton Hoo helmet, early 7th century, iron and tinned copper alloy helmet, consisting of many pieces of iron, now built into a reconstruction, 31.8 x 21.5 cm (as restored) © Trustees of the British Museum — Restored, dismantled, and restored again, this helmet was a pile of rusted iron and tinned bronze when first discovered.

The Sutton Hoo helmet

Mogao caves, Part 2 — 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 ...

Mogao caves, Part 1 — 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

War (detail), The Standard of Ur, 2600-2400 B.C.E., shell, red limestone, lapis lazuli, and bitumen (original wood no longer exists), 21.59 x 49.53 x 12 cm, Ur © Trustees of the British Museum — 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