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Featuring life-like obsidian eyes and dating to the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2350 B.C.E.), this 14.5-inch-tall gold falcon head was discovered in the Temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis. A uraeus and diadem support the magnificent double-plumed headdress.

Originally the chief god of the Nile Delta, Horus, the god of the sun, war and protection, became associated with royalty and was credited with uniting ancient Egypt, which caused him to be worshiped throughout the entire region. That bird imagery was found in the Temple of Horus is not surprising, as Horus is often depicted as a falcon or as a falcon-headed man.

This beautiful golden piece is on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

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This early Medieval (c. 600 C.E.) iron helmet decorated in bronze was recovered from a burial mound at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England.

The burial barrow also contained an 88.5-foot-long ship and many costly and extravagant items. The remains from the burial chamber, including this foot-high helmet, closely parallel finds from the Vendel and Valsgärde cemeteries in Sweden, but with some decidedly Christian elements as well. This reflects the religious transformation occurring in England at the time.

When the roof of the Suffolk burial chamber collapsed, the rusty helmet shattered into hundreds of pieces, which led to a difficult and tedious reconstruction project. The remains of the helmet along with a replica of the helmet are on display in the British Museum in London.

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This first-century B.C.E. terracotta from Myrina on the Isle of Lemnos, Greece, is one of several portraying women in ordinary activities, including even something as mundane as using a toilet. Very rarely is a man depicted, and when one appears it is usually in connection with a woman: kissing, cuddling and playing games.

This woman on a donkey is reminiscent of the common artistic portrayal of Mary riding into Bethlehem, a tradition that does not appear in the New Testament, but rather in the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, which dates c. 145 C.E.

This ancient pre-Madonna is in the Louvre in Paris.

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Made of jade, this Maya burial mask was found in the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque in southern Mexico. Death rituals were particularly important in Maya culture—largely because of the destructive nature of their gods. Jade was commonly used in ancient Maya burial practices, as it was thought to provide payment to the other world.

The Temple of the Inscriptions is the largest stepped pyramid in Palenque and served as a funerary monument for the ajaw (ruler) K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, who ruled for close to 70 years in the seventh century A.D. Usually the jade used in funeral rites was a small bead placed into the mouth of the deceased, but in the case of this significant ruler, the entire burial mask was made of jade.

Housed in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, the burial mask is an example of the beauty within the Maya culture.

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Three statues of Nike, the winged Greek goddess of victory, sit atop this askos (vase) from ancient Cumae in Italy (c. 270‒200 B.C.). The goddess served Zeus as his charioteer and guardian of his throne. This is perhaps why the artist has included winged horses on the lower paintings and emerging from the front of the vessel. Nike was popularly depicted in Greco-Roman art.

The extensive decoration on this round vase is characteristic of askoi from the Hellenistic period. The false spout is decorative, not functional. Askoi were usually found in tombs.

Medusa’s head decorates the front of this terracotta askos. She has hair of living snakes and is so ugly that those who looked upon her turned to stone. Yet the image of her head was used to ward off evil. Above her head dances a maenad—a follower of Dionysos, the Greek god of wine.

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Made of fired clay, this 5'7″ Aztec Eagle Warrior sculpture dates between 1440 and 1469 A.D. and weighs more than 600 pounds. It is now housed in the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico City. Aztec infantry soldiers, known as Cuāuhtli or Cuāuhtmeh (“Eagle Warriors”), were one of the top two fighting units—the other being the Jaguar warriors—in the Aztec military. These warriors created the most fear, as they had to distinguish themselves by taking the greatest number of captives, who would serve as sacrifices to the gods. While usually required to be of noble birth, a Nahuatl (commoner) could gain entrance for special ferocity. The reward for this special class of warriors was the ability to drink pulque (fermented sap of agave plants), have concubines and dine at the palace. They were full-time soldiers who would act as a type of police force when not actively engaged in battle.

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This fourth-century B.C. deer statue was found in Filippovka, Russia, in the southern Ural Mountains, in the 1980s. Measuring 20.5 inches high, it is made of wood with silver, gold and bronze covering. It is now in the collection of the Archaeological Museum, Ufa.

The deer is one of 224 items found in a secret compartment of a burial chamber that had been previously looted. The statue is in the Scythian-Siberian Animal style and is part of a larger deer motif that appeared on many of the artifacts. The Scythian-Siberian Animal Style refers not only to the aesthetic attributes and technique, but also to the type of image (mythological or zoomorphic) depicted.

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Six gold pendants dangle from this tree-shaped gold and jade crown from the ancient kingdom of Silla in Korea. The 10.75-inch crown was excavated from a fifth-century A.D. royal tomb containing a king, his queen and lavish goods for the afterlife. Magnificent treasures were preserved in the late fourth- to early sixth-century royal burial mounds in Silla’s capital city, Gyeongju.

The kingdom of Silla spanned almost a millennium (57 B.C.–935 A.D.). Ruled by a single dynasty throughout most of its history, Silla came to control much of the Korean peninsula. Silla entered its Golden Age through trade with China and Eurasia on the Silk Road.

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This mummy portrait depicts a woman from Roman Egypt named Isidora. Her hair, adorned with a gold wreath, is braided in a style fashionable in the early 100s A.D., the period to which this portrait is dated. She wears lavish accessories, including a gold hairpin, earrings composed of pearls and gold bars and three thick necklaces of gold, pearls and emeralds.

The Isidora mummy was wrapped in a reddish shroud, a burial wrapping popular in Roman Egypt in the first and second centuries A.D. Isidora’s portrait was bound into the shroud and framed with pieces of gold leaf.

The Isidora mummy portrait is currently on view at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles.

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This arm reliquary takes the shape of a clothed lower arm with outstretched right hand. It probably contained the remains of an unidentified saint.

Arm reliquaries became popular in the Middle Ages, most likely as liturgical props. They often contain bones other than the saint’s arm. Some contain the remains of multiple saints. The reliquaries could be used by clerics to touch, bless and heal the faithful during liturgical celebrations.

This Arm Reliquary of the Apostles, from the Cleveland Museum of Art, is clothed in a liturgical vestment. It comes from the 12th-century treasury of St. Blaise in Braunschweig, Germany.