Images

The Altuna rune stone, showing the fishing trip of Thor when he fights the Midgard Serpent, Jörmungandr, Altuna, Uppland, Sweden.

This map illustrates the maritime routes of Spain’s Treasure Fleets and the network of Caribbean ports and pirate havens around 1670. It captures the tension between imperial commerce and maritime raiding, showing both the logistical arteries...

Hopae identification tablets carried by all males over 16 during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897). National Museum of Korea, Seoul.

A late-19th century cigarette card showing the English pirate Captain Charles Vane (d. 1721) and the notorious episode when he fired at the ship of the Governor of the Bahamas. Produced by Allen & Ginter. Lithographer: George S. Harris &...

An illustration of the English pirate Charles Vane, active in the Caribbean and off the east coast of North America in the Golden Age of Piracy. Vane was tried and hanged in Jamaica in 1720. (From an early edition of A General History of...

Portrait of King Taejong of Joseon (r. 1400-1418), aka Yi Bang-won, the third king of the Joseon Dynasty in Korea, by an unknown artist. National Museum of Korea, Seoul.

Portrait of Jeong Mong-ju, one of King Taejo of Joseon's (r. 1392-1398) advisors, by Yi Han-cheol, 1880. Jeong Mong-ju was killed in the First Strife of Princes by Taejo's son, Bang-won (later King Taejong, r. 1400-1418).

A map illustrating the evolution of the cultures on the northern Indian subcontinent with the arrival of the Aryan nomads during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age known as the Vedic age (c. 1500 – c. 500 BCE), when the Vedic literature...

A flintlock pistol, c. 1700-1730. English lock and stock. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Sign of Noah's Covenant with God, mosaic from St Paul's Cathedral in London.