Middle East: Did you mean...?

A 1778 allegorical painting commissioned by the East India Company showing the riches of the East being presented to Britannia. Painted by Spyridon Romas. The goods shown include tea, porcelain, and jewels. (British Library, London)

Reasons why such low estimates for life expectancy during the MIddle Ages are often tossed around. From infant mortality skewing the stats, to the risks of childbirth and disease.

Courtly Love is a literary genre of poetry that began in the south of France in the 12th century during the period known as the High Middle Ages. In this new genre of poetry, motifs were established that are still commonly used today in the...

Around c. 1700 BCE, the Ancient Near East was a politically fragmented but highly interconnected region, shaped by shifting alliances, commercial networks, and emerging territorial states. This period corresponds to the Old Assyrian era and...

A map illustrating the rise and expansion of the Median Empire in the wake of the Bronze Age Collapse and the disintegration of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (c. 609 BCE). While the Neo-Babylonian Empire engulfed the Fertile Crescent from the Levantine...

An 1808 coloured print showing the docks of the East India Company, known as the East India Docks, at Blackwall in London. (British Museum, London).

The front and reverse of a Dutch East India Company duit - an old Dutch copper coin.

A plate from the Edo period (1615-1868) in Arita, Saga Prefecture in Japan, 1670-1740. "VOC" is the monogram for the Dutch East India Company, whose name in Dutch is Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie. Inspired by contemporary and previous...

A map illustrating the transformation of the East India Company from a hopeful merchant venture in 1600 with isolated trade outposts governed by isolated and mostly independent town councils into a major ruler of large territories in India...

Map of the ancient Near East during the Amarna Period, showing the great powers of the period: Egypt (green), Hatti (yellow), the Kassite kingdom of Babylon (purple), Assyria (grey), and Mittani (red). Lighter areas show direct control, darker...