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Sanxingdui head with gold foil mask: they were a civilization in China contemporary, but culturally different from Shang, the bronze age Chinese. They're known for their very distinctive and "un-Chinese" art style.

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Sanxingdui head with gold foil mask: they were a civilization in China contemporary, but culturally different from Shang, the bronze age Chinese. They're known for their very distinctive and "un-Chinese" art style.

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A one-foot-wide bronze mask and bronze vessel containing cowrie shells dating to about 1100 B.C.E from excavations at Sanxingdui in China's Sichuan Province. Courtesy Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology

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A one-foot-wide bronze mask and bronze vessel containing cowrie shells dating to about 1100 B.C.E from excavations at Sanxingdui in China's Sichuan Province. Courtesy Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology

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Mycenaean Bull-Head Rhyton. Combining silver as primary body and gold decoration, it attests masterful metallurgical expertise. Dated to c. 1525 BC, it was found in Shaft Grave IV within Grave Circle A at Mycenae, the royal cemetery of Bronze Age Greece's most powerful civilization...

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Mycenaean Bull-Head Rhyton. Combining silver as primary body and gold decoration, it attests masterful metallurgical expertise. Dated to c. 1525 BC, it was found in Shaft Grave IV within Grave Circle A at Mycenae, the royal cemetery of Bronze Age Greece's most powerful civilization...

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Swords of the Aegean, the intersection of Anatolian and Mycenaean cultures. These blades are a distinct category of weapons that originated in the Aegean region, particularly during the late Bronze Age dating from 1600 to 1200 BC.

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Swords of the Aegean, the intersection of Anatolian and Mycenaean cultures. These blades are a distinct category of weapons that originated in the Aegean region, particularly during the late Bronze Age dating from 1600 to 1200 BC.

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Marble female figurine, Early Cycladic , Greece, 2800-2300 B.C. The best known type of Cycladic art is the marble figurine, a full-length female with arms folded across the front. Their function remains uncertain, but most were found in graves, indicating a funerary role...

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Marble female figurine, Early Cycladic , Greece, 2800-2300 B.C. The best known type of Cycladic art is the marble figurine, a full-length female with arms folded across the front. Their function remains uncertain, but most were found in graves, indicating a funerary role...

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Double-Faced Bronze Deity Head. The only known example from the Shang Dynasty. This human-beast idol was once crowned with feathers and used as a ritual scepter to commune with the divine. China, c. 1200 BCE

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Double-Faced Bronze Deity Head. The only known example from the Shang Dynasty. This human-beast idol was once crowned with feathers and used as a ritual scepter to commune with the divine. China, c. 1200 BCE

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Spouted vessel in the form of an elephant with masks , dragons, and snakes . China, late Shang dynasty, late Anyang period, ca. 1100 BC. Bronze. National Museum of Asian Art collection

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Spouted vessel in the form of an elephant with masks , dragons, and snakes . China, late Shang dynasty, late Anyang period, ca. 1100 BC. Bronze. National Museum of Asian Art collection

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Covered Censer in the Form of a Lion Dog, bronze with gilding, Chinese, 14th century

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Covered Censer in the Form of a Lion Dog, bronze with gilding, Chinese, 14th century

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In the late 6th century CE, Greece was frequently attacked by Slavs and Avars. So a group of people and children took refuge in the Andritsa cave, taking with them lamps, vases, coins and a bronze cross, but for reasons unknown they were trapped inside and their refuge became their grave

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In the late 6th century CE, Greece was frequently attacked by Slavs and Avars. So a group of people and children took refuge in the Andritsa cave, taking with them lamps, vases, coins and a bronze cross, but for reasons unknown they were trapped inside and their refuge became their grave

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In central Romania, in the town of Turda, archaeologists have discovered an unusual artifact, a bronze Roman box with a form resembling the facade of a Roman temple.

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In central Romania, in the town of Turda, archaeologists have discovered an unusual artifact, a bronze Roman box with a form resembling the facade of a Roman temple.

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Veiled girl from the "Adorants Fresco" a wall painting with three women recovered from a house at Akrotiri, a Theran Bronze Age city buried in ash by the eruption of the volcano that was the island of Thera itself. Cycladian-Minoan civilization, 16th century BC. Santorini, Greece...

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Veiled girl from the "Adorants Fresco" a wall painting with three women recovered from a house at Akrotiri, a Theran Bronze Age city buried in ash by the eruption of the volcano that was the island of Thera itself. Cycladian-Minoan civilization, 16th century BC. Santorini, Greece...

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Bronze spearhead with gold and turquoise inlays from Zhou dynasty China, 5th century BC

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Bronze spearhead with gold and turquoise inlays from Zhou dynasty China, 5th century BC

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The Farnese Hercules, Rome, c. 216 AD. A marble copy or version of a well known Greek bronze original by Lysippos from the 4th century BC. The original survived over 1500 years until it was melted down by Crusaders in 1205 during the Sack of Constantinople...

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The Farnese Hercules, Rome, c. 216 AD. A marble copy or version of a well known Greek bronze original by Lysippos from the 4th century BC. The original survived over 1500 years until it was melted down by Crusaders in 1205 during the Sack of Constantinople...

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The village of Urchfont, in the heart of Wiltshire, England, and an extraordinary hoard dating from the Bronze Age, circa 1650-900 BC, sheds light on advanced metalworking techniques. Among the finds were copper alloy tools, including an exceptionally rare silver-coloured anvil.

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The village of Urchfont, in the heart of Wiltshire, England, and an extraordinary hoard dating from the Bronze Age, circa 1650-900 BC, sheds light on advanced metalworking techniques. Among the finds were copper alloy tools, including an exceptionally rare silver-coloured anvil.

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Cast bronze Chinese knife money from the Warring States period . This unique form of currency was primarily used in the states of Qi, Yan, and Zhao. Ancient Currency Gallery, Handan City Museum, Hebei China

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Cast bronze Chinese knife money from the Warring States period . This unique form of currency was primarily used in the states of Qi, Yan, and Zhao. Ancient Currency Gallery, Handan City Museum, Hebei China

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This Japanese samurai helmet, from the Azuchi-Momoyama period , is covered with boar bristles and adorned with gilded stag antlers. The heart-shaped decorative element above the visor is an inome, a stylized representation of a boar's eye, used to ward off evil

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This Japanese samurai helmet, from the Azuchi-Momoyama period , is covered with boar bristles and adorned with gilded stag antlers. The heart-shaped decorative element above the visor is an inome, a stylized representation of a boar's eye, used to ward off evil

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Sarmatian gold discovered during archaeological excavations in the Kherson region, Ukraine. An extraordinary earring featuring a massive lion head and a uniquely shaped pendant .

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Sarmatian gold discovered during archaeological excavations in the Kherson region, Ukraine. An extraordinary earring featuring a massive lion head and a uniquely shaped pendant .

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Intricacies of the Pisa Cathedral, the gilded coffered ceiling, the arches, the frescoes. Construction began in 1064 and set the model for the distinctive Pisan Romanesque style of architecture. The mosaics and the pointed arches show a strong Byzantine and Mediterranean influence...

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Intricacies of the Pisa Cathedral, the gilded coffered ceiling, the arches, the frescoes. Construction began in 1064 and set the model for the distinctive Pisan Romanesque style of architecture. The mosaics and the pointed arches show a strong Byzantine and Mediterranean influence...

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A bronze helmet with animal mask pattern, and a bronze broadsword with cicada pattern, both unearthed in 1989 from the Dayangzhou Chengjia site. 1200 BCE, Wucheng culture, now housed at the Jiangxi Provincial Museum in China

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A bronze helmet with animal mask pattern, and a bronze broadsword with cicada pattern, both unearthed in 1989 from the Dayangzhou Chengjia site. 1200 BCE, Wucheng culture, now housed at the Jiangxi Provincial Museum in China

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Aquamanile in the form of a goose. Deccan region, India, late 17th-18th c. Bronze with engraved and incised decoration. Yale University Art Gallery collection

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Aquamanile in the form of a goose. Deccan region, India, late 17th-18th c. Bronze with engraved and incised decoration. Yale University Art Gallery collection

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