Illustrated, interactive explanation of how adire textiles, a Nigerian cultural tradition, are designed, created, and interpreted.

One of the most extraordinary masterpieces of the pre-Columbian Americas is a nearly 2,000-year-old cloth from the South Coast of Peru. View detailed pictures and read the backstory of this textile in this essay.

The All-T'oqapu Tunic is an example of the height of Andean textile fabrication and its centrality to Inka expressions of power. Read about the making of Andean textiles and their iconography.

From textiles to ceramics, metalwork, and architecture, Andean cultures produced art and architecture that responded to their natural environment and reflected their beliefs and social structures. Read more about the Andean culture in...

The Paracas achievements in ceramic and textile arts are among the most outstanding in the ancient Americas. View pictures and read descriptions of Paracas art and culture.

The Inka had developed a complex culture deeply rooted in the traditions that came before them. Their textiles, ceramics, metal- and woodwork, and architecture all reflect the materials, environment, and cultural traditions of the Andes....

This article explains how 'illiterate' individuals encountered literary texts and traditions through textiles, wall paintings, sculptures, and listening to works read aloud in the Middle Ages.

Scientific investigation also lagged, and by the end of the Ming dynasty China was importing weaponry and weapon technologies from Europe, where shipbuilding and navigational skills had become more advanced. The developments that did...

The influence of Asian art on colonial Latin America is particularly evident in viceregal textiles, ceramics, and furniture. Some examples are the resplendent biombos, or folding screens, made in Mexico beginning in the seventeenth...

The Kingdom of Chimu flourished in the Moche River Valley until conquered by the Inca. Their massive adobe architecture is the only reminder of the might of the Chimu kings. View pictures and descriptions of their architecture, jewelry,...

The Shosoin Repository survived both war and fire, leaving virtually all the ancient cultural treasures intact. The thousands of items preserved in the Shosoin repository include manuscripts, musical instruments, textiles, shoes,...

In 1543, three Portuguese travelers aboard a Chinese ship drifted ashore on Tanegashima, a small island near Kyushu. They were the first Europeans to visit Japan. In 1548, Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, arrived from Goa to introduce...

View a picture of and read a description of an elaborate hammock probably made for a male or female chief in Sierra Leone in the early twentieth century.