A short list of artifacts dating back to Ancient Egypt with descriptions and images. Additionally, find links for activities, a timeline, and details of mummies to enhance study of the early civilization.

This article from The British Museum provides a short history of the Mexica (Aztec) peoples and their empire.

The Maya civilization (300-900 C.E.) was one of the most sophisticated in the pre-Columbian Americas. It extended from southeastern Mexico across modern-day Guatemala, Belize and the western parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya...

The British Museum provides the history behind its Benin Ivory Mask from the 15th Century.

The British Museum discusses the history surrounding its art pieces from Ancient Egypt.

The British Museum shares the background of its ancient pieces from Egypt, Aksum, ancient Ghana, Mali, Songhoy, Ile Ife, and the Benin kingdom. Also provided is information about its later pieces from the Asante Confederation, the...

This silver coin shows how, in an act of defiance against Roman rule, the Jewish population in the province of Judaea over-struck portraits of the Emperor Hadrian with their own symbols. Jerusalem had been destroyed by Roman forces in 70...

Hadrian (reigned 117-138 C.E.), once a tribune in three different legions of the Roman army and commander of a legion in one of Trajan's wars, was often shown in military uniform. He was clearly keen to project the image of an ever-ready...

This naturalistic portrait of the emperor Vespasian (reigned 69-79 C.E.) clearly shows the lined complexion of this battle-hardened emperor, and also the curious 'strained expression' which the Roman writer Suetonius said he had at all...

From a Republic to an Empire. In legend Rome was founded in 753 B.C.E. by Romulus, its first king. In 509 B.C.E. Rome became a republic ruled by the Senate (wealthy landowners and elders) and the Roman people. During the 450 years of the...

The bust shows an old man, clean-shaven and with closely-cropped hair, indicated with rows of simple shallow gouges on the head. The details of his face are closely observed, especially his rather small eyes and the jowls and cheeks,...

The Roman emperor Hadrian is shown here in the himation (a Greek mantle). This unique and well known statue is made up of fragments found in 1861 in the ruins of a temple in the city of Cyrene, in northern Africa.

Hans Holbein the Younger was born in Augsburg, Bavaria; He trained with his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, who operated a successful workshop. In 1515, he moved to Basel, where he worked for a circle of intellectuals and their printers....

Albrecht Durer was born in Nuremberg; he was apprenticed to the painter Michel Wolgemut. He traveled widely from 1492 to 1494, visiting Schongauer's workshop in Colmar, the leading German painter and engraver at the time. From 1494-5 he...

This reliquary was made to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns, the wreath of thorns placed on the head of Jesus Christ at his crucifixion. The thorn is displayed behind a crystal window and is identified by a Latin inscription: Ista...

Born near the town of Vinci in 1452, Leonardo trained in the Florentine workshop of Andrea Verrocchio (1435-88). His first masterpiece was the unfinished Adoration of the Magi (1481, Uffizi, Florence). In 1481-2 he traveled to Milan to...

The Last Judgement was a common theme in church art, but Michelangelo's interpretation was entirely novel. His vision of the Apocalypse is a swirling maelstrom, filled with thick-set and muscular naked figures. Traditional symmetry and...

The Battle of Cascina was a famous fourteenth-century victory over Pisa. Michelangelo's Bathers depicted the Florentine army hurriedly preparing for battle after a dip in the river. Michelangelo's drawing caused a sensation because of...

Michelangelo's drawings offer a unique insight into how the artist worked and thought. They are beautiful artworks in their own right but also provide a crucial link between his work as a sculptor, painter and architect. Michelangelo was...

Born in Urbino in 1483, Raphael trained with his father and then the Umbrian artist, Perugino. From 1504/5 he worked in Florence where he was much influenced by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, learning from their depictions of the...

One of the five pillars of Islam central to Muslim belief, Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim must make at least once in their lifetime if they are able; it is the most spiritual event that a Muslim experiences, observing...

The term Islamic is used here to define the art and material culture of those lands where the dominant religion is Islam, the religion revealed to the prophet Muhammad in seventh century Arabia. The Islamic lands have encompassed at...

There are two pilgrimages to Mecca. Hajj--known as the Greater Pilgrimage and 'Umra-the lesser pilgrimage. Hajj can only be undertaken between the 8th and the 13th of Dhu al-Hijja - the twelfth month of the Muslim calendar. At all other...

Because buttons and zippers hadn't been invented, clothes in Anglo-Saxon England were fastened with pins or brooches. This fine silver-gilt and niello brooch is perhaps the most beautiful of all surviving great square-headed brooches....