Images

A detail from a floor mosaic depicting a chariot racer, Tarentum, southern Italy, Late 2nd century CE. (National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy)

A panel from a larger floor mosaic depicting a hunting lion, Tarentum, southern Italy, Late 2nd, early 3rd century CE. (National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy)

The central panel from a larger floor mosaic depicting the abduction of a nymph, Tarentum, southern Italy, Late 2nd, early 3rd century CE. (National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy)

A panel from a larger floor mosaic depicting a hunting leopard or panther, Tarentum, southern Italy, Late 2nd, early 3rd century CE. (National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy)

This clay tablet records several inscriptions found on an old lapis lazuli cylinder seal. The seal had belonged first to the Kassite king Shagarakti-Shuriash (reigned 1245-1233 BCE) in Babylon. It was taken to Assyria; later it was returned...

This literary text gives an advice to a prince on how a king should behave, with the agenda of securing tax exemptions for the cities of Babylon and Nippur. This clay tablet is a copy which was made between 700-650 BCE, of an earlier composition...

This is from the Eye Temple at Tell Brak. The gold and stone elements were fastened to wood. The design appears to reflect a temple facade; the small circles imitate cone mosaic, and the vertical fluting represents half-columns or niches...

This is a bronze head of a winged bull, from a handle of a large cauldron. 8th to 7th centuries BCE, Urartian. From Toprakkale, modern-day Turkey. (The British Museum, London)

Copper alloy head of a lion or cub, which may have acted as a guardian at the entrance to the Temple of Ninhursag at Tell Al-Ubaid, Southern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. Early Dynastic Period, c. 2500 BCE. The British Museum, London.

Gypsum wall panel relief depicting two musicians, playing a harp and a lyre. One is a young man wearing a feather headdress and the other is a woman wearing a fillet of large beads. A tame lion beneath palms and cypresses appears. The whole...