Share
Portfolio
Decet Romanum Pontificem is the papal bull that excommunicated the German theologian Martin Luther. It was issued in 1521 by Pope Leo X to effect the excommunication threatened in his earlier papal bull, Exsurge Domine, for Luther had failed to recant. Vatican Apostolic Archives
ARTIFACT / Photography
The epitaph of Licinia Eucharis, an ancient Roman stage actress who died at the age of 14. She is one of the few ancient actresses known to have achieved fame and respect in her profession during the Roman Republic. The 1st century BCE epitaph on her tomb was written by her father
ARTIFACT / Photography
The ruins of the Jerwan aqueduct in Iraq, constructed of more than 2 million dressed stones and using stone arches and waterproof cement. The aqueduct is part of the larger Atrush Canal built by the Assyrian king Sennacherib between 703-690 BCE to water Ninevah's extensive gardens
ARTIFACT / Photography
Anna Maria von Stockhausen's corpse, cross-strapped in order to keep her from coming back undead. Anna was accused of Satanism by a priest, and sentenced to death in 1775 but spared by the executioner who refused to kill an innocent woman. She was then imprisoned until her death in 1781
ARTIFACT / Photography
This 724-year-old letter written in a form of Latin shorthand, is from the King of France to his agents at the papal court in Rome, in which he instructs them to support the Scottish knight Sir William Wallace in "those things which he has to transact". National Archives in Kew, England
ARTIFACT / Photography
An 18th century BCE Old Babylonian letter written by the student Iddin-Sin to his mother Zinu, in which he complaints about the poor quality of clothes his mother sent him compared to those of his peers, noting that even the adopted son of one of his father's servants had better clothing
ARTIFACT / Photography
The Aska figurine, dated to the 10th century, is considered the only known, explicit representation of a pregnant woman from the Viking Age. The silver figurine shows a pregnant woman, arms embracing her protruding belly, and wearing what appears to be a helmet with a noseguard.
ARTIFACT / Photography
Letter from Christopher Columbus to Luis de Santángel, Treasurer of Aragon who funded much of his voyage, in which he provides a brief account of the lands and peoples that he met, and urges the Catholic monarchs to sponsor a 2nd larger expedition, promising to bring back immense riches
ARTIFACT / Photography
Codex Testeriano Bodmer, a 16th-century Mexican catechism created by Christian missionaries. The book was made to evangelize the indigenous population by using pictographic script, a writing system they were familiar with.Housed at the Fondation Martin Bodmer in Cologny, Switzerland.
ARTIFACT / Photography
Yakhchāl was invented around 400 BC in Iran, using ancient tech to store ice in the heart of the desert. These domed mud-brick structures employed evaporative cooling and underground storage so efficiently that the modern Persian word for refrigerator remains Yakhchāl, meaning “ice pit.”
ARTIFACT / Photography