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Definition
Illuminated Manuscripts
Illuminated manuscripts were hand-made books, usually on Christian scripture or practice, produced in Western Europe between c. 500-c. 1600. They are so called because of the use of gold and silver which illuminates the text and accompanying...

Definition
Linear A Script
Linear A script was used by the Minoan civilization centred on Crete during the Bronze Age. Used from around 1850 to around 1450 BCE, the script has never been deciphered. Artefacts bearing Linear A script, most commonly clay tablets, have...

Definition
Fayum
The Faiyum (also given as Fayoum, Fayum, and Faiyum Oasis) was a region of ancient Egypt known for its fertility and the abundance of plant and animal life. Located 62 miles (100 kilometers) south of Memphis (modern Cairo), the Faiyum was...

Definition
Science
The term science comes from the Latin word scientia, meaning "knowledge". It can be defined as a systematic attempt to discover, by means of observation and reasoning, particular facts about the world, and to establish laws connecting facts...

Definition
Cave of Letters
Everyone is aware of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but few realise that these were just one find in a region which continues to yield hundreds of finds significant to our understanding of lives in the first centuries CE, the Jewish revolts and the...

Article
The Delian League, Part 2: From Eurymedon to the Thirty Years Peace (465/4-445/4 BCE)
This text is part of an article series on the Delian League. The second phase of the Delian League's operations begins with the Hellenic victory over Mede forces at Eurymedon and ends with the Thirty Years Peace between Athens and Sparta...

Article
The Gifts of Isis: Women's Status in Ancient Egypt
An inscription on an Egyptian papyrus dating from the 2nd century CE relates that the goddess Isis, bestowing gifts on humanity at the beginning of time, gave as much power and honor to women as she did to men. This brief passage reflects...

Article
Caesarea Maritima's Role in the Mediterranean Trade
Caesarea Maritima was located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Built from the ground up in 22-10 BCE by Rome's client king, Herod the Great (r. 37-4 BCE), its location in relation to ship traffic and proximity to historical...

Article
The Plays of Cratinus
Cratinus was a highly successful writer of Attic Old Comedy, but the very fragmentary nature of his surviving plays means that he is not as well remembered as Aristophanes (eleven of whose plays come down to us intact). Despite this, it is...

Image
Book of the Dead Detail
A detail from a Book of the Dead, on papyrus showing hieratic writing of Hornefer, Ptolemaic Period, provenance unknown. (Museo Castello Sforzesco, Milan)