Ancient Near East: Did you mean...?

The nude figure is a universal visual theme, deeply rooted in the history of art, and it is seemingly ubiquitous in the art of the ancient civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean. The Antikenmuseum, in Basel, Switzerland, recently...

This video is a slideshow of pictures of various artifacts and artworks that detail the visage of ancient Near Eastern women, most of which are royalty. Locations include: Mesopotamia (Sumer and Akkad), Arabia, Phoenicia (Lebanon) and Elam...

Nara, located around 30 km south of modern Kyoto, was the capital of ancient Japan between 710 and 784 CE. It gave its name to the Nara Period (710-794 CE), although the name during the 8th century CE was Heijokyo. Modelled on the Chinese...

The ancient Celtic pantheon consisted of over 400 gods and goddesses who represented everything from rivers to warfare. With perhaps the exception of Lugh, the Celtic gods were not universally worshipped across Iron Age Europe but were very...

Did you know the English East India Company’s tea trade was fueled by the opium trade? The English East India Company (EIC) – also known as the British East India Company – was an immensely successful trading company founded in 1600...

A c. 1759 painting by Charles Brooking East Indiamen in a Gale showing ships of the East India Company. (Royal Museums Greenwich)

The sculpture of the ancient Celts between 700 BCE and 400 CE is nothing if not varied as artists across Europe developed their own ideas and borrowed what interested them from neighbouring cultures. Early Celtic stone and wood sculptures...

A c. 1665 illustration of the British East India Company's fort at Bombay (now Mumbai). (National Archives of the Netherlands, The Hague)

A photograph showing a parade of African Askari troops commanded by German officers in German East Africa. Taken some time during the First World War (1914-18). German Federal Archives

A photograph showing Dar es-Salaam when it was the capital of German East Africa. Taken some time just before or during the First World War (1914-18). German Federal Archives