Clay: Did you mean...?

Henry Clay, toward the end of his long congressional career, photo by Julian Vannerson or Montgomery P. Simons, 1848.

Portrait of Henry Clay by John Neagle, 1843. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Henry Clay (1777-1852), the Great Compromiser, takes the Senate floor one final time to present the Compromise of 1850, drawn by P. F. Rothermel, engraved by R. Whitechurch, published circa 1855. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Neolithic clay goddess from Tappah Sarab, Kermanshah, 7000-6100 BCE. Clay figurines of female bodies with exaggerated reproductive organs are among the most common features of prehistoric sculpted art. With famous examples from Venus of...

Neolithic clay altar figurine of a mother goddess from Tumba Madzari, North Macedonia, the second half of the 6th millennium BCE. Archaeological Museum of the Republic of Macedonia, Skopje. Tumba Madzari (lit. hill of the tomb) is a Neolithic...

A commercial letter (clay tablet) enclosed by an envelope (a clay covering). The letter was supposed to be opened by the recipient. 2nd millennium BCE, Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The Sulaimaniya Museum, Iraq).

Early Elamite clay tablet with numerical signs found in Tappeh Yahya, Kerman, dating to c. 3100 to 2900 BCE (Yahya Period IVc). National Museum of Iran, Tehran, inv. no. 4065. Photo by Nima Fakoorzadeh (Baloot Noghrei) Tappeh Yahya in...

This clay tablet narrates a geometric-algebraic theory of how to make a solution for a mathematical problem. The conclusion applies a theory very similar to the Pythagorean theorem. From Tell Tell al-Dhabba'i, Iraq. Old-Babylonian period...

Example of a Linear B clay tablet found at Knossos. It records quantities of oil apparently offered to various deities.

These counterparts of real mastiffs were buried to guard a property from devils and demons. Ritual instructions for making and inscribing them survive on clay tablets. This pack was found beneath a palace doorway at Nineveh. Each is named...