Residing at the British Museum, the Cyrus cylinder is a clay cylinder containing an account of the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. Written in Akkadian cuneiform script, it describes his restoration of various temples and statues removed by Nabonidus, the previous king of Babylon, and of his own work at Babylon.
The Cyrus Cylinder serves as a declaration promoting the return of the deported and freedom of worship, aligning with the return of Jewish exiles mentioned in the Bible. It is regarded as a precursor to modern human rights and a testament to the multicultural management by the Achaemenid Empire. The artifact, about the size of a football, was designed to be embedded in the walls of Babylon as a foundation deposit.
With more than 3,500 items, amounting to some 5kg of gold and 1.4kg of silver – plus thousands of garnets – the Staffordshire hoard is the largest cache of Anglo-Saxon metalwork ever found.
Archaeologists think the treasures were trophies, captured over multiple mid-seventh century battles.
It's likely that they were seized by the English midlands kingdom of Mercia from the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia and Wessex.
The items are almost exclusively military. The hoard was made up of fittings from up to 150 swords, gold and garnet elements of high status seax (fighting knifes), a gilded silver helmet, crosses, and a probable bishop’s headdress.
The ornate bishop’s headdress is the world’s earliest surviving example of high status ecclesiastical headgear. One element bears an inscription – a quotation from the Book of Numbers. It reads “Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee”. It's possible that the hoard was war booty captured by the pagan Mercian king, Penda, from armies led by Christians.
The Peacock Throne was a famous jewelled throne that was the seat of the Mughal emperors of India. It was commissioned in the early 17th century by emperor Shah Jahan and was located in the Red Fort of Delhi. The original throne was captured and taken as a war trophy in 1739 by the Persian king Nader Shah, and has been lost ever since.
The Peacock Throne took 7 years to complete. Large amounts of gold, precious stones and pearls were used, creating a masterpiece of Mughal workmanship that was unsurpassed before or since.
A 2000 report estimated the value of the Peacock Throne at $810m
The throne was inaugurated with a triumphant ceremony on 22 March 1635.
Shah Jahan ruled in what is considered the Golden Age of the Mughal Empire, which covered most of the Indian subcontinent. It was ruled from the capital of Shahjahanabad and the imperial citadel Red Fort.
It was only seen by a small minority of courtiers, aristocrats and visiting dignitaries. The throne was even for the Golden Age Mughal standards supremely extravagant and cost twice as much as the construction of the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan's son Aurangzeb ascended the Peacock Throne and is considered the last of the strong Mughal emperors. By his death in 1707 the empire was in inexorable decline. Nadir Shah's invasion of India culminated in the Battle of Karnal on February 13, 1739 and the defeat of Muhammad Shah. Nader Shah of Persia sacked Delhi and stole the Peacock Throne.
Nadir Shah entered Delhi and sacked the city. Persian troops left Delhi at the beginning of May 1739, taking with them the throne as a war trophy with many other treasures.
Among the known precious stones were the Akbar Shah diamond, Great Mogul diamond, Great Table diamond, Koh-i-Noor, Shah diamond, as well as the Samarian spinel and the Timur ruby.
An Imperial Mughal spinel necklace with eleven polished baroque spinels for a total weight of 1,131.59 carats. Three of the spinels are engraved. Two with the name of Emperor Jahangir (1569-1627), one with the three names of Emperor Jahangir, Emperor Shah Jahan and Emperor Alamgir, also known as Aurangzeb.
Portrait of Mumtaz Mahal (Arjumand Banu Begum). She was the favourite wife of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. She died shortly after giving birth to her fourteenth child in 1631. The following year the emperor began work on the mausoleum that would house her body. The result was the world-famous Taj Mahal.
Necklace features five pendant Golconda diamonds with emerald drops. The central stone weighs 28 carats and is the largest table-cut diamond known. The five surrounding stones—weighing 96 carats, collectively—comprise the largest known matching set of table-cut diamonds.
A rare Mughal pale green jadeite snuff bottle. 1800-1900. The translucent stone is of pale icy green tone. 2 in. (5 cm.) high, pink tourmaline stopper and bone spoon.
In AD 121, on the anniversary of Rome's founding, Hadrian inaugurated new games and chariot races at the Circus Maximus. A rare aureus commemorates the event, providing an absolute date of 874 years since the founding of Rome.
The coin depicts the Genius of the Circus Maximus holding a chariot wheel while reclining around the three-pointed metae (the turning posts that mark either end of the spina) of the Circus Maximus, accompanied by the accompanying legend:
ANN. DCCCLXXIIII NAT. VRB. P. CIR. CON.
ann(is) dccclxxiiii nat(ali) urb(is) P(rimum) cir(censes) con(stituti)
Year 874 Since the Birth of the City; First Circus Games Established
The crucible of Roman chariot racing was the Circo Massimo, or Circus Maximus. Chariot racing was fast, dangerous and bloody. According to the historian Livy, the inaugural events and wooden seating were instituted by Tarquinius Priscus in the sixth century BC.
Julius Caesar gave the Circus Maximus its iconic shape in the first century BC by greatly extending the racing track and seating capacity.
At its largest, the Circus Maximus reached a length of 621 metres and 190 metres in width. It had three tiers of seating, with the lowest, nearest the action, reserved for the elite. The Circus Maximus could accommodate over 150,000 spectators. Races began when the sponsor dropped his napkin and ended seven laps later. A race consisted of 13 turns of the spina, totalling seven laps of the Circus Maximus, run counterclockwise.
Those who didn't get maimed or killed and finished in the top three won prizes. Crashes were called naufragia ("shipwreck"). Drivers who became entangled in a crash risked being trampled or dragged along the track by their horses. Most commonly raced were four-horse chariots, known as quadrigae. Drivers (aurigae) wrapped the reins around their waists to steer with weight shifts, holding a knife (falx) to cut themselves free if needed. The two middle horses provided the primary pulling power, while the outer horses were steered. Life expectancy of aurigae was short.
Located in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills, the arena had numerous additions over the centuries as well as major rebuilds. The Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus called it “one of the most beautiful” structures in Rome.
Caracalla. AD 198-217. AV Aureus (20mm, 6.90 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck AD 213. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / P M TR P XVI, COS IIII P P in exergue, view of the Circus Maximus, with spina, metae, and obelisk in center. RIC IV 211B = BMCRE p. 439, † corr. (rev. legend); Calicó 2710 (same rev. die as illustration); Biaggi –. Near EF. Extremely rare with 4 known and an important architectural type. Est $75,000. Sold for $140,000.
In late 2012 Bulgarian archaeologists found golden treasures in an ancient Thracian tomb near a Unesco world heritage site about 250 miles north-east of the capital Sofia.
Items included gold bracelets with snake heads, a tiara with animal motifs and a horse-head piece along with a hoard of other ancient golden artefacts. The items date to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century BC. They were found in the biggest of 150 ancient tombs of the Getae, a Thracian tribe.
Among the objects found were a golden laurel and ring, rhytons - silver drinking vessels shaped like horns, Greek pottery and military items including weapons and armour. The tomb in Zlatinitsa is extremely rare in that it has remained unopened since the 4th century BC. Virtually all Thracians tombs were looted in antiquity.
The tomb was that of a high status leader. Used weapons and the arrow wounds in the bones of his horse indicate that he was a warrior. He was buried in the biggest burial mound in the region.
Its not the mythical city of gold that draws treasure seekers to the rugged Llanganates mountain range in Ecuador, some say there's a vast Inca hoard of gold hidden from Spanish conquistadors there.
The Inca Empire in South America in the early 15th century was weak and quickly giving way to European invaders. Atahualpa was an Inca king who, after warring with his half-brother, Huáscar, for control of the empire, was captured at his palace in Cajamarca in modern-day Peru by Spanish commander Francisco Pizarro.
Pizarro agreed to release Atahualpa in return for a roomful of gold, but the Spaniard later reneged on the deal.
Atahualpa was garroted on August 29, 1533, and then burned at the stake before the last and largest part of the ransom had been delivered. The legend holds that the Inca general Rumiñahui was on his way to Cajamarca with the ransom when he learned of Atahualpa's fate. The story goes he buried the gold in a secret mountain cave. It is a tale between fact and fiction. Atahualpa's gold existed because it's recorded in the Spanish chronicle, and it's recorded that a large convoy of gold was on its way from Ecuador. After that the best stories revolve around the Llanganates.
The Llanganates Mountains are a remote and rugged area known for difficult terrain, including swamps, dense vegetation, and high altitudes. Some stories suggest that Rumiñahui may have thrown some of the gold into a lagoon to further conceal it.
Over the centuries countless explorers have sought Atahualpa's gold, but the mountains of the Llanganates have refused to surrender it.
Unlike in Peru, where attention goes to Inca sites such as Machu Picchu, Ecuador's archaeological ruins attract few tourists.
