ancientpeoples:

Bronze “Chalcidian” type helmet

450-400 BC

Classical Greek

(Source: The British Museum)

archaeologicalnews:

Twenty-six thousand years ago in the Czech Republic, one of our ice-age ancestors selected a hunk of mammoth ivory and carved this enigmatic portrait of a woman - the oldest ever found. By looking at artefacts like this as works of art, rather than archaeological finds, a new exhibition at the…

ancientpeoples:

Gold Finger Rings

Roman

1st/2nd Century AD

Gold finger-ring; in the form of a serpent coiled in a spiral; in one of the eyes is a small emerald.

Dimensions
Diameter: 2.4 centimetres
Weight: 4.53 grammes

Source: British Museum

berndwuersching:

“Cow-and-calf vessel” (detail)
From tomb 671, Hallstatt Archaeological Site, Austria
Bronze, 29.4 cm across

omgthatartifact:

Quiver

Nubian, 2nd-4th century AD

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

vanimore:

The Mold gold cape

Mold, Flintshire, North Wales, Bronze Age, about 1900-1600 BC

Workmen quarrying for stone in an ancient burial mound in 1833 found this unique ceremonial gold cape, which remains unparalleled to this day. The mound lay in a field named Bryn yr Ellyllon (the Fairies’ or Goblins’ Hill).

At the centre of the mound was a stone-lined grave with the crushed gold cape around the fragmentary remains of a skeleton. Strips of bronze and numbers of amber beads were recovered, but only one of the beads reached the British Museum.

The cape would have been unsuitable for everyday wear because it would have severely restricted upper arm movement. Instead it would have served ceremonial roles, and may have denoted religious authority.

The cape is one of the finest examples of prehistoric sheet-gold working and is quite unique in form and design. It was laboriously beaten out of a single ingot of gold, then embellished with intense decoration of ribs and bosses to mimic multiple strings of beads amid folds of cloth.

Perforations along the upper and lower edges indicate that it was once attached to a lining, perhaps of leather, which has decayed. The bronze strips may have served to strengthen the adornment further.

It’s also too small for an adult man, or most adult women, so if it was worn, it was very possibly by a child.

ancientart:

The Chinese Terracotta Army, 210 BC, believed to be created by Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang. The 8,000 life sized solders were buried with the emperor with the purpose of protecting him in his afterlife.

white-bitchwolf:

Photos from Swedens National Historical Museum.

rhea137:

Observation of Haley’s Comet, recorded in Cuneiform on a clay tablet between 22-28 September 164 BCE, Babylon, Iraq. British Museum, London. BM 41462

No. Really.

“This is a wall engraving from Abri Castanet, a shallow cave in southern France’s Vezere valley. It’s the oldest known cave etching, probably dating back around 37,000 years—and the researchers claim it depicts female genitalia.”

Archaeologists and cavers are two groups of dirty-minded so-and-sos, so when old stuff is in caves it tends to be thought to be rude. But then again, if we think like that, maybe people 37,000 years ago did too.

thegildedrage:

A polished stone mask of Zapotec origin in the image of a bat.

Bat? Cat? ….Vampire?