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Etruscan art was a form of figurative art produced by the Etruscan civilization in central Italy between the 9th and 2nd centuries BCE. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (particularly life-size on sarcophagi or temples) and cast bronze, wall-painting and metalworking (especially engraved bronze mirrors and situlae).<br/><br/> The swastika remains widely used in Indian religions, specifically in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, primarily as a tantric symbol to evoke shakti or the sacred symbol of auspiciousness. The word 'swastika' comes from the Sanskrit, literally meaning 'to be good'.<br/><br/> Despite the use of the name swastika for the Nazi hakenkreuz or 'hook cross', the South Asian swastika has nothing to do with National Socialism or Fascism.
Đông Sơn was a prehistoric Bronze Age culture in Vietnam centered on the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam. At this time the first Vietnamese kingdoms of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc appeared. Its influence flourished in other neighbouring parts of Southeast Asia from about 500 BCE to 100 CE.
Mahmud Ghazan (1271–1304) was the seventh ruler of the Mongol Empire's Ilkhanate division in modern-day Iran from 1295 to 1304. He was the son of Arghun and Quthluq Khatun, continuing a line of rulers who were direct descendants of Genghis Khan. Considered the most prominent of the Ilkhans, he is best known for making a political conversion to Islam in 1295 when he took the throne, marking a turning point for the dominant religion of Mongols in Central Asia. His principal wife was Kokochin (Kokechin), a Mongol princess sent by Kublai Khan, and escorted from the Mongol capital to the Ilkhanate by Marco Polo.
Letter from Oljaitu to Philippe le Bel, 1305. The text reads in part: 'Oljeitu Sultan our word. To the Iridfarans (King of France) Sultan. How could it be forgotten that from ancient times all you sultans of the Frank citizens have dealt peacefully with our good great-grandfather (Hulegu Khan), good grandfather (Abaga Khan), good father (Arghun Khan) and good brother (Ghazan Khan), esteeming us near although you are far, pronouncing your various words and sending your ambassadors and gifts of health-wishing... Our nation has been interlocked (peacefully connected) from the land of the Nankhiyas (plural for 'Chinese') where the sun rises to the Talu Ocean (Mediterranean Sea) and our roads have been tied together'.
Prince Shōtoku (Shōtoku Taishi, 574–622), also known as Prince Umayado, was a regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan. He was a member of the ruling Soga clan. Shōtoku was appointed as regent (Sesshō) in 593 by Empress Suiko.<br/><br/> Shōtoku, inspired by Buddha's teachings, succeeded in establishing a centralized government during his reign. In 603, he established the 12 official ranks at court. He is credited with promulgating a Seventeen-article constitution. The Prince was an ardent Buddhist and composed commentaries on the Lotus Sutra, the Vimalakirti Sutra, and the Sutra of Queen Srimala. He commissioned the Shitennō-ji Temple in Settsu province (present-day Osaka). Shōtoku's name has been linked with Hōryū-ji, a temple in Yamato province. Documentation at Hōryū-ji claims that Suiko and Shōtoku founded the temple in the year 607. Archaeological excavations in 1939 have confirmed that Prince Shōtoku's palace, the Ikaruga-no-miya, stood in the eastern part of the current temple complex, where the Tō-in sits today.<br/><br/> China's Sui Emperor, Yangdi, dispatched a message in 605 that stated: 'The sovereign of Sui respectfully inquires about the sovereign of Wa'. Shōtoku responded by sponsoring a mission led by Ono no Imoko in 607. The Prince's own message contains the earliest written instance in which the Japanese archipelago is named 'Nihon', literally, sun-origin (country). The salutation stated: 'From the sovereign of the land of the rising sun (nihon/hi izuru) to the sovereign of the land of the setting sun'. He is said to be buried at Shinaga, in the former Kawachi province (today Osaka prefecture).<br/><br/> Wooden statue in Musee Guimet, Paris, picture by PHGCOM.
The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, also known as ‘Oxus civilization’, is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia, dated to c. 2200 – 1700 BCE, located in present day Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centered on the upper Amu Darya (Oxus), in area covering ancient Bactria.<br/><br/> Its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi (1976). Bactria was the Greek name for the area of Bactra (modern Balkh), in what is now northern Afghanistan, and Margiana was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, the capital of which was Merv, in today's Turkmenistan.<br/><br/> According to some authorities, Bactria was the homeland of Indo-European tribes who moved south-west into Iran and into North-Western India around 2500–2000 BCE. Later, it became the north province of the Persian Empire in Central Asia. It was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country is surrounded by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zoroaster (Zarathushtra) was said to have been born and gained his first adherents.
Balash (in the Greek authors, Balas; the later form of the name Vologases), the eighteenth Sassanid King of Persia (484–488), was the brother and successor of Peroz I of Persia (457–484).<br/><br/> Balash was made King of Persia following the death of his brother Peroz who had died in a battle against the Hephthalites (White Huns) who invaded Persia from the east. Immediately after ascending the throne, he sought peace with the Hephthalites which cost the Persians a heavy tribute.
Hormizd I was the third Sassanid King of Persia from 270/72 to 273.<br/><br/> He was the son of Shapur I (240–270/72), under whom he was governor of Khorasan, and appears in his wars against Rome (Historia Augusta, Trig. Tyr. 2, where Nöldeke has corrected the name Odomastes into Oromastes, i.e. Hormizd).<br/><br/> In the Persian tradition of the history of Ardashir I (226–240 [died 241/42]), preserved in a Pahlavi text (Nöldeke, Geschichte des Artachsir I. Papakan), Hormizd I is made the son of a daughter of Mithrak, a Persian dynast, whose family Ardashir had extirpated because the Magi had predicted that the restorer of the empire of Persia would come from his blood.<br/><br/> According to legend, this daughter alone was saved by a peasant; Shapur I saw her and made her his wife, and afterwards her son Hormizd I was recognized and acknowledged by Ardashir. In this legend, which has also been partially preserved in Tabari, the great conquests of Shapur I are transferred to Hormizd I. In reality he reigned only one year and ten days.
Funerary bust of Aqmat, daughter of Hagagu, descendant of Zebida, descendant of Ma'an, with Palmyrenian inscription. Stone, late 2nd century CE. From Palmyra, Syria.