Yamato Period: Did you mean...?

Clay head from Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. Old Babylonian period, 2003-1959 BCE. The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq.

A terracotta roof tile with lotus design. Japan, Asuka Period, 538-710 CE. From the ruins of Minamishigahaiji, Otsu-shi, Shiga. (Tokyo National Museum)

This piece of pottery with Demotic Egyptian text records an oath taken by Petasatet to declare his innocence in the case of cloth theft. This oath was taken before a priest of the Temple of Hathor on Dec. 6, 127 BCE. Temples played an important...

A gilded cast bronze cinerary urn from the Nara Period (710-794 CE). From Kamori, Katsuragi-shi, Nara, Japan. Important Cultural Property (Tokyo National Museum)

This shaft-hole axe dates back to the early dynastic period,2800-2350 BCE, Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The Sulaimaniya Museum, Iraq).

This stone ritual object comes from Japan and dates to the Jomon period, between 3000-400 BCE. (Tokyo National Museum)

An eight-lobed cast bronze mirror with flowers and luan (a mythical bird) decoration. From Mount Tsuwado, Mukuno, Yamaga-machi, Kitsuki-shi, Oita, Japan. Nara Period, 8th century CE. Tokyo National Museum)

This is a door-shaped limestone stele of a priestess of the goddess Hathor. First Intermediate Period, 2134-2040 BCE. From Egypt. (Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul, Turkey).

This terracotta vase dates from the Predynastic period in ancient Egyptian history, c. 4500-3100 BCE. (Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Stanford, California)

A bronze dotaku bell, Yayoi Period, 4th-2nd century BCE, Japan. (Tokyo National Museum)