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An 8th-century Tang dynasty Chinese clay figurine of a Sogdian man wearing a distinctive cap and face veil, possibly a Zoroastrian priest engaging in a ritual at a fire temple, since face veils were used to avoid contaminating the holy fire with breath or saliva.<br/><br/> Alternatively, from the posture, the figurine may represent a Sogdian camel rider on the Silk Road covering his mouth and nose against the sandstorms of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang.
The Jomon period is the time in Prehistoric Japan from about 16,500 years ago to about 2,300 years ago when Japan was inhabited by a hunter-gatherer culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity.<br/><br/> The name Jomon or 'cord-marked' was first applied by the American scholar Edward S. Morse who discovered shards of pottery in 1877. The pottery style characteristic of the first phases of Jomon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay. This pottery, dated to around 16,000 years ago, seems to be the second oldest in the world; the oldest one has now been found in China.
Nimrud is the later Arab name for an ancient Assyrian city located 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the city of Mosul in the Nineveh plains in northern Mesopotamia. It was a major Assyrian city between approximately 1250 BCE and 610 BCE.
The Mogao Caves, or Mogao Grottoes (Chinese: mògāo kū, also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas and Dunhuang Caves) form a system of 492 temples 25 km (15.5 miles) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China.<br/><br/> The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out in 366 CE as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient sculptural sites of China. The caves also have celebrated wall paintings
The Tang Dynasty ( June 18, 618 – June 1, 907) was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire.<br/><br/> A fixed group of figures was generally positioned just outside the burial chamber in Tang tombs. This consisted of two guardians, two earth spirits and two officials, such as this individual. Tomb figures were always colourfully painted. Gilding was applied only to the most expensive examples.
'Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., 17 January 1942 - 3 June 2016) was an American boxer who was the Heavyweight Champion of the World three times between 1964 and 1979.<br/><br/> An early anti Vietnam War activist, Ali refused the draft and memorably commented: 'They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. ... Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail'.
This ancient clay tablet is dated to the 14th-13th century BCE, and on it is inscribed a map of the countryside around the Mesopotamian city of Nippur, located in the middle of the southern Mesopotamia floodplain, near the modern city of Diwaniyah. The inscription on the tablet is in cuneiform.<br/><br/> It may be the oldest city map in the world.
Techniques using woodblock or clay stamps to mass produce scrolls and manuscripts were employed at Dunhuang to satisfy demand from pilgrims and passing travellers.
The Astana Graves are a series of underground tombs located 6km from the ancient city of Gaochang, and 42km from Turpan, in Xinjiang, China. The tombs were used by the inhabitants of Gaochang, both commoners and locals, for about 600 years from 200 CE – 800 CE.<br/><br/> The complex covers 10 square kilometers and contains over 1,000 tombs. Different plots for separate castes and families are marked by gravel dividers. Due to the arid environment many important artifacts have been well preserved at the tombs, including natural mummies.<br/><br/> A typical tomb is entered by a 10 meter sloping staircase. The tombs are not very large, usually only 2 meters high. Some tombs also have murals inside. The deceased were laid on a small raised platform in the back of the tomb, surrounded by possessions and even food. Their faces were covered by cloths, some of which have distinct Persian motifs. A small funeral brick was placed to next to each body, on which was written the person’s name and other biographical information. These bricks have been incredibly useful for historians to date the tombs’ finds.<br/><br/> There are also various Tang Dynasty figurines and silk paintings in the Astana Graves. A new pavilion has been built outside the old graveyard; the centerpiece is a large statue of Fuxi and Nüwa based on the silk banners found on the inner ceilings of the tombs.
The Astana Graves are a series of underground tombs located 6km from the ancient city of Gaochang, and 42km from Turpan, in Xinjiang, China. The tombs were used by the inhabitants of Gaochang, both commoners and locals, for about 600 years from 200 CE – 800 CE.<br/><br/> The complex covers 10 square kilometers and contains over 1,000 tombs. Different plots for separate castes and families are marked by gravel dividers. Due to the arid environment many important artifacts have been well preserved at the tombs, including natural mummies.<br/><br/> A typical tomb is entered by a 10 meter sloping staircase. The tombs are not very large, usually only 2 meters high. Some tombs also have murals inside. The deceased were laid on a small raised platform in the back of the tomb, surrounded by possessions and even food. Their faces were covered by cloths, some of which have distinct Persian motifs. A small funeral brick was placed to next to each body, on which was written the person’s name and other biographical information. These bricks have been incredibly useful for historians to date the tombs’ finds.<br/><br/> There are also various Tang Dynasty figurines and silk paintings in the Astana Graves. A new pavilion has been built outside the old graveyard; the centerpiece is a large statue of Fuxi and Nüwa based on the silk banners found on the inner ceilings of the tombs.
The Astana Graves are a series of underground tombs located 6km from the ancient city of Gaochang, and 42km from Turpan, in Xinjiang, China. The tombs were used by the inhabitants of Gaochang, both commoners and locals, for about 600 years from 200 CE – 800 CE.<br/><br/> The complex covers 10 square kilometers and contains over 1,000 tombs. Different plots for separate castes and families are marked by gravel dividers. Due to the arid environment many important artifacts have been well preserved at the tombs, including natural mummies.<br/><br/> A typical tomb is entered by a 10 meter sloping staircase. The tombs are not very large, usually only 2 meters high. Some tombs also have murals inside. The deceased were laid on a small raised platform in the back of the tomb, surrounded by possessions and even food. Their faces were covered by cloths, some of which have distinct Persian motifs. A small funeral brick was placed to next to each body, on which was written the person’s name and other biographical information. These bricks have been incredibly useful for historians to date the tombs’ finds.<br/><br/> There are also various Tang Dynasty figurines and silk paintings in the Astana Graves. A new pavilion has been built outside the old graveyard; the centerpiece is a large statue of Fuxi and Nüwa based on the silk banners found on the inner ceilings of the tombs.
The Astana Graves are a series of underground tombs located 6km from the ancient city of Gaochang, and 42km from Turpan, in Xinjiang, China. The tombs were used by the inhabitants of Gaochang, both commoners and locals, for about 600 years from 200 CE – 800 CE.<br/><br/> The complex covers 10 square kilometers and contains over 1,000 tombs. Different plots for separate castes and families are marked by gravel dividers. Due to the arid environment many important artifacts have been well preserved at the tombs, including natural mummies.<br/><br/> A typical tomb is entered by a 10 meter sloping staircase. The tombs are not very large, usually only 2 meters high. Some tombs also have murals inside. The deceased were laid on a small raised platform in the back of the tomb, surrounded by possessions and even food. Their faces were covered by cloths, some of which have distinct Persian motifs. A small funeral brick was placed to next to each body, on which was written the person’s name and other biographical information. These bricks have been incredibly useful for historians to date the tombs’ finds.<br/><br/> There are also various Tang Dynasty figurines and silk paintings in the Astana Graves. A new pavilion has been built outside the old graveyard; the centerpiece is a large statue of Fuxi and Nüwa based on the silk banners found on the inner ceilings of the tombs.
The Astana Graves are a series of underground tombs located 6km from the ancient city of Gaochang, and 42km from Turpan, in Xinjiang, China. The tombs were used by the inhabitants of Gaochang, both commoners and locals, for about 600 years from 200 CE – 800 CE.<br/><br/> The complex covers 10 square kilometers and contains over 1,000 tombs. Different plots for separate castes and families are marked by gravel dividers. Due to the arid environment many important artifacts have been well preserved at the tombs, including natural mummies.<br/><br/> A typical tomb is entered by a 10 meter sloping staircase. The tombs are not very large, usually only 2 meters high. Some tombs also have murals inside. The deceased were laid on a small raised platform in the back of the tomb, surrounded by possessions and even food. Their faces were covered by cloths, some of which have distinct Persian motifs. A small funeral brick was placed to next to each body, on which was written the person’s name and other biographical information. These bricks have been incredibly useful for historians to date the tombs’ finds.<br/><br/> There are also various Tang Dynasty figurines and silk paintings in the Astana Graves. A new pavilion has been built outside the old graveyard; the centerpiece is a large statue of Fuxi and Nüwa based on the silk banners found on the inner ceilings of the tombs.
The Astana Graves are a series of underground tombs located 6km from the ancient city of Gaochang, and 42km from Turpan, in Xinjiang, China. The tombs were used by the inhabitants of Gaochang, both commoners and locals, for about 600 years from 200 CE – 800 CE.<br/><br/> The complex covers 10 square kilometers and contains over 1,000 tombs. Different plots for separate castes and families are marked by gravel dividers. Due to the arid environment many important artifacts have been well preserved at the tombs, including natural mummies.<br/><br/> A typical tomb is entered by a 10 meter sloping staircase. The tombs are not very large, usually only 2 meters high. Some tombs also have murals inside. The deceased were laid on a small raised platform in the back of the tomb, surrounded by possessions and even food. Their faces were covered by cloths, some of which have distinct Persian motifs. A small funeral brick was placed to next to each body, on which was written the person’s name and other biographical information. These bricks have been incredibly useful for historians to date the tombs’ finds.<br/><br/> There are also various Tang Dynasty figurines and silk paintings in the Astana Graves. A new pavilion has been built outside the old graveyard; the centerpiece is a large statue of Fuxi and Nüwa based on the silk banners found on the inner ceilings of the tombs.
The Astana Graves are a series of underground tombs located 6km from the ancient city of Gaochang, and 42km from Turpan, in Xinjiang, China. The tombs were used by the inhabitants of Gaochang, both commoners and locals, for about 600 years from 200 CE – 800 CE.<br/><br/> The complex covers 10 square kilometers and contains over 1,000 tombs. Different plots for separate castes and families are marked by gravel dividers. Due to the arid environment many important artifacts have been well preserved at the tombs, including natural mummies.<br/><br/> A typical tomb is entered by a 10 meter sloping staircase. The tombs are not very large, usually only 2 meters high. Some tombs also have murals inside. The deceased were laid on a small raised platform in the back of the tomb, surrounded by possessions and even food. Their faces were covered by cloths, some of which have distinct Persian motifs. A small funeral brick was placed to next to each body, on which was written the person’s name and other biographical information. These bricks have been incredibly useful for historians to date the tombs’ finds.<br/><br/> There are also various Tang Dynasty figurines and silk paintings in the Astana Graves. A new pavilion has been built outside the old graveyard; the centerpiece is a large statue of Fuxi and Nüwa based on the silk banners found on the inner ceilings of the tombs.
Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the three millennia the script spanned, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 unique characters in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 unique characters in Late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform).<br/><br/> The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and by the 2nd century AD, the script had become extinct.<br/><br/> Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ('wedge shaped', from the Latin cuneus, meaning 'wedge').
A cuneiform temple hymn from the 19th Century BCE; the hymn is addressed to the Lugal Iddin-Dagan of Larsa.<br/><br/> Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the three millennia the script spanned, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 unique characters in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 unique characters in Late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform).<br/><br/> The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and by the 2nd century AD, the script had become extinct.<br/><br/> Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ('wedge shaped', from the Latin cuneus, meaning 'wedge').