Chinese bronze: Did you mean...?

While ancient Chinese warfare was often characterised by large armies in pitched battles, siege warfare and the sacking of cities were also regular features. Huge earth walls with towers and encircling ditches or moats became the normal strategy...

Dress and appearance in Bronze Age Greece (c. 3100 BCE - c. 1100 BCE) played a part in defining gender roles and emphasising idealized beauty that planted the seed for modern-day standards. The Minoans turned the island of Crete into a Mediterranean...

Dragons appear in the mythology of many ancient cultures but nowhere else in the world was the creature quite so revered as in China. There, in marked contrast to other world mythologies, the dragon was almost always seen in a positive light...

Dogs are the oldest domesticated animal in China and were bred as guardians, for transporting goods, for herding, hunting, and as a food source. Archaeological evidence dates the domestication of the dog in China at approximately 15,000 years...

Ancient Japan has made unique contributions to world culture which include the Shinto religion and its architecture, distinctive art objects such as haniwa figurines, the oldest pottery vessels in the world, the largest wooden buildings anywhere...

Chinese culture developed from small communities such as Banpo Village (c. 4500 BCE) through the early Xia Dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BCE) and the great dynastic periods that followed after, creating some of the most striking and memorable works...

Ancient Chinese literature developed following the evolution of script which evolved from divination practices of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE). The pictographs made on oracle bones by diviners became the script known as Jiaguwen (c...

Zheng Yi Sao (aka Ching Shih, Cheng I Sao, Ching Yih Saou or Mrs Cheng, d. 1844) was the chief of a massive pirate confederation which plundered the South China Sea in the early 19th century. She inherited the role from her late husband...

The Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE) was the second dynasty of China, which succeeded the Xia Dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BCE) after the overthrow of the Xia tyrant Jie by the Shang leader, Tang. Since many historians question whether the Xia Dynasty...

Religious practices in ancient China go back over 7,000 years. Long before the philosophical and spiritual teachings of Confucius and Lao-Tzu developed or before the teachings of the Buddha came to China, the people worshipped personifications...