Ceramic figurine of a young woman. She wears a long, simple dress known as a chiton with a blue himation or cloak. Such figurines were common around Greece and the broader Mediterranean. They offer a rare glimpse in the daily life of women in the ancient...
This ceramic object is a pyxis, a small cylindrical container with a fitted lid often used by ancient people to store small items such as jewelry or cosmetics. This example depicts two women and an eros (cupid); one woman looks at herself in a mirror while the eros...
Coinage offered an effective means of circulating political messages to a broad population. This silver tetradrachm was minted in Egypt under Ptolemy I Soter. The obverse shows a portrait of Alexander the Great with an elephant-scalp cap, horns of Ammon, and aegis;...
This gold stater is a popular type that was produced during the reign of Philip II of Macedon (359–336 BCE), father of Alexander the Great, to celebrate his victories in the Olympic Games. The obverse of the coin features the god Apollo wearing a laurel wreath crown,...
The rearing cobra, also known as the uraeus, was a central symbol of kingship and rule in Ptolemaic Egypt. Cobra figures were dedicated as votives to the goddess Wadjet; they were also incorporated into architecture and furniture as well as royal headpieces. This...
The Etruscan votive statuette of a woman illustrates the Etruscan taste for the archaic style, which lingered in some parts of Etruria (mainly in the north and northeast) long after it had gone out of fashion in central and southern areas.The large head and face,...
Octavian, grandnephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, was hailed as the bringer of peace and prosperity to the Roman world after a long period of civil and military strife. In 27 BCE, the Roman Senate conferred on him the honorary title of Augustus. Soon after, a...
Polydeukion was one of the favorite pupils of the well-known Athenian sophist and philanthropist Herodes Atticus, who lived in Greece in the 2nd century CE. In the year 147 or 148, the young man met an untimely death, and Herodes commissioned many portraits in his...
