Joris van spilbergen: Did you mean...?

The cuneiform inscription of Xerxes (486-465 BCE) on the rock cliffs of Van, a city on the shores of Lake Van, eastern Turkey. Written in the three official languages of the Achaemenid Empire: Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, it proclaims...

James K. Polk (1795-1849) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the eleventh president of the United States. A protégé of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), he was the dark-horse candidate of the Democratic Party in the US Presidential...

A 1633 painting of Charles I of England (r. 1625-1649) by Anthony van Dyck. (Royal Collection, Windsor Castle)

A c. 1685 oil-on-canvas portrait of Anne, Queen of Great Britain (r. 1702-1714) when she was Princess of Denmark. Painting by Jan van der Vaart and Willem Wissing. The princess is here 18 years of age and is enveloped in luxurious textiles...

A c. 1637 portrait of Prince Rupert, Count Palatine (1619-1682) by Anthony van Dyck. Rupert earned early fame as a cavalry commander for Charles I of England (r. 1625-1649) during the English Civil Wars (1642-51). (National Gallery London)

Stephen Van Rensselaer III (1764-1839), founder of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Lt. Governor of New York, and commander of the US army at the Battle of Queenston Heights. Oil on canvas portrait by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1795. National...

Clove, nutmeg, and mace are native to only a handful of tiny islands in the middle of the vast Indonesian archipelago – cloves on five Maluku Islands (the Moluccas) about 1250 km (778 mi) west of New Guinea, and nutmeg on the ten Banda Islands...

Mark Van Stone explains how Maya hieroglyphs are constructed, by writing a modern name in phonetic glyphs. Dr. Van Stone is an expert decipherer and calligrapher; author of "2012 - Science and Prophecy of the Ancient Maya" and co-author of...

Hatshepsut (r. 1479-1458 BCE) was the first female ruler of ancient Egypt to reign as a male with the full authority of pharaoh. Her name means "Foremost of Noble Women" or "She is First Among Noble Women". She began her reign as regent to...

The Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE) is considered ancient Egypt's Classical Age during which it produced some of its greatest works of art and literature. Scholars remain divided on which dynasties constitute the Middle Kingdom as some argue...