Images

An engraved amethyst ring of Roman Emperor Constantius II, c. 360 CE (British Museum, London)

A kylix depicting the god Apollo pouring a libation and holding an early version of the lyre (chelys) which was made from the shell of a tortoise. The bird may represent the crow which announced the marriage of the nymph Aigle-Korone...

A statue of Terpsichore, the Greek Muse of Dance. A 2nd century CE copy from a Greek original (The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg).

An 1886 CE print by Toyohara Chikanobu of Susanoo, the Shinto storm god. Here he is about to rescue the beautiful Kushinada Hime from the serpent monster Yamato-no-Orochi. (San Diego Museum of Art).

A 12th century CE cover of the Sion Gospels from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) are a collection of scrolls found in the desert east of Jerusalem on the shore of the Dead Sea. They represent the largest manuscript collections of texts from the Second Temple Period found in the area...

Bust of the Greek philosopher Democritus (ca. 460 - ca. 370 BCE).

A print by Utagawa Toyokuni III showing the sun goddess Amaterasu, the most important deity of the Japanese Shinto religion. Here she emerges from self-exile in a cave. The figure on the right is most probably the god Ame-no-tajikara-wo...

Photo of the Bükk Hills (Hungary) in autumn.

Lion attacking gazelles in a mosaic from the floor of the bath hall in the palace complex of Khirbat Al Mafjar. The palace was built by Walid Ibn Yazid in 734 CE and is located near Jericho in the Jordan Valley. It is...