Early: Did you mean...?

The Early Three Kingdoms Period in ancient China, from 184 CE to 190 CE for the purposes of this article, was one of the most turbulent in China's history. With an ailing Han government unable to control its empire, brutal localised wars...

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...

Early cartouche of the god Aten, calcite alabaster. New Kingdom of Egypt, 18th Dynasty, 1351-1334 BCE. At the upper part of this votive plaque of the God Aten, there are two "early" cartouches of Aten. On the right, it reads "The living...

This table is made of clay and was found in Southern Iraq (3100-3000 BCE). Early writing was used as a way to keep track of the administration and it was only in later years its uses evolved. Early writing in Mesopotamia was made by pressing...

An early-modern bookwheel, used to display several open books at once. (Jagiellonian University Museum Krakow, Poland)

Ancient Egyptian depiction of an early instance of cow domestication.

Early Indian coins were made by cutting sheets of silver into pieces and marking each piece with one or more symbols using small punches. As there are no portraits or inscriptions, the coins are now known by numbers. This coin, for example...

Limestone "early" cartouches of the god Aten. The one on the right reads "The living Re-Horakhty, Rejoicing in the horizon" while that on the left reads "In his name as Shu, who is in the Aten". From small houses, N 49.06, at Amarna, Egypt...

Early Cycladic 'violin' figurines in marble, 3200-2800 BCE. The figurines represent a squatting female figure but their exact significance is not known. Most probably they represent a female fertility deity. (National Archaeological Museum...

These clay bell beakers come from the Early Bronze Age necropolis of Ciempozuelos (Cuesta de la Reina, Madrid), Spain and they were found during excavations conducted in the late 19th century CE. (Ciempozuelos was the first Bell-Beaker necropolis...