Northern song dynasty: Did you mean...?

The world's oldest love poem is The Love Song for Shu-Sin (written circa 2000 BCE), composed in ancient Mesopotamia for use in part of the sacred rites of fertility. Prior to its discovery in the...

The Seikilos Stele contains the the oldest complete song and dates to c.100 BCE. This video explores how the stele was found and how the song sounds; it is sung at 2:28 As long as you live, shine forth...

In 1935, Renato Micheli composed the song 'Faccetta Nera' (Pretty/little black face) to commemorate the invasion of Ethiopia. The lyrics recount the liberation of a young Ethiopian woman from...

The art of the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE) of ancient China is characterised by a new desire to represent everyday life and the stories from history and mythology familiar to all. The arts were fuelled both by a political...

This painted pottery figure represents a foreign soldier and was made of a slipped and pigmented earthenware. It was found in a tomb. Northern Wei Dynasty, 386-534 CE. From North China. (The British Museum...

Women in ancient China did not enjoy the status, either social or political, afforded to men. Women were subordinate to first their fathers, then their husbands, and finally, in the case of being left a widow, their sons...

This 18th-Dynasty papyrus contains a collection of literary texts. On the recto is a series of love songs, comprising a first cycle (1.1-4.1), a second cycle (4.1-6.2) followed by the Harpist's Song from the mansion...

A c. 1876 oil on canvas with gouache and pastel variations, The Song of the Dog (aka The Café Concert), by Edgar Degas (1834-1917), the French impressionist painter. Degas was keen, as here, to capture the extravagant...

A poster showing the various gifts mentioned in the traditional song 12 Days of Christmas.

Cover of the Dragonfly Song by Wendy Orr