Gold mask, bronze helmets of Macedonian warriors found

In 2019 archaeologists in Greece uncovered rich graves from a cemetery at Ahlada, near the town of Florina in Northern Greece. The finds came from the graves of elite warriors who died in the 6th century B.C. Despite being plundered in antiquity the graves still contained treasures.Artifacts included a gold face mask — made for funerals; four bronze helmets; iron spearheads and fragmented iron swords; a large bronze urn with ornate handles; an iron model of a farm cart; and grieves.

More than 1300 graves have been found.

Ancient Nubia

Between 2400 BCE and 300 CE, a series of kingdoms flourished in what is today the Sudanese Nile Valley. Nubian kings and queens controlled vast empires and trade networks yet are forgotten to history.

“Ancient Nubia Now” featured more than 400 items, many never before exhibited.

Highlights were the jewels of Nubia’s queens, the statue of Senkamanisken from the sacred mountain of Gebel Barkal, the army of funerary figurines from the tomb of King Taharqa, the gold and silver treasure of King Aspelta, and the stele of King Tanyidamani.

Egyptian Book of the Dead

A heart being weighed on the scale of Maat against the feather of truth, by Anubis. The ibis-headed Thoth, scribe of the gods, records the result. If his heart equals exactly the weight of the feather, one is allowed to pass into the afterlife. If not, he is eaten by the waiting Ammit.

The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BC. The original Egyptian name for the text is translated as Book of Coming Forth by Day. The loose collection of texts consist of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife. It was written by many priests over a period of about 1000 years. The Book of the Dead first developed in Thebes towards the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period, around 1700 BCE and were exclusively for the use of the Pharaoh.

The Book of the Dead is made up of individual texts and their illustrations. Some 192 spells are known, though no single manuscript contains them all. They served a range of purposes. Some are intended to give the dead mystical knowledge in the afterlife, or to identify them with the gods. Others are incantations to ensure the different elements of the dead's being were preserved and reunited, and to give the deceased control over the world around him.

Still others protect the deceased from hostile forces, or guide him through the underworld past obstacles. Two spells deal with the judgement of the deceased in the Weighing of the Heart ritual. 

Mummification served to preserve and transform the physical body into sah, an idealized form with divine aspects. The heart was regarded as the aspect of being which included intelligence and memory.

The ka, or life-force, remained in the tomb with the dead body, and required sustenance from offerings of food, water and incense.

The path to the afterlife as laid out in the Book of the Dead was difficult. The deceased was required to pass a series of gates, caverns and mounds guarded by supernatural creatures. These creatures had to be pacified by reciting the appropriate spells. Only after all the obstacles were overcome could the Duat be negotiated, with the deceased judged in the 'Weighing of the Heart' ritual.

3,400-year-old gold diadems from Cyprus

Archaeologists found nine diadems, meant to be tied across the forehead and two mouthpieces placed on the lips of the dead in tombs near the ancient harbor city of Hala Sultan Tekke. Local Cypriot goldsmiths made the ornaments some 3,400 years ago. Diadems were not just for the dead; the heavier ones showed signs of wear, suggesting people wore them in life on special occasions. The find reflects the central role of Hala Sultan Tekke as a trading metropolis in the Mediterranean. The city’s wealth is reflected in rich burials of the elite.

One diadem was found still resting on the forehead of a child who died at the age of four or five. The child had also been buried with a necklace made from 68 gold beads and four gold earrings positioned near the skull. Other objects included a silver pendant depicting an Anatolian deity, a silver ring decorated with a triple spiral and a carved cylinder seal.

Despite the riches they contained, tombs were simply cut into clay soil and discreetly marked. This is how they escaped robbers.

Hala Sultan Tekke flourished from about 1630–1150 B.C. The city smelted copper, produced pottery and traded luxury goods including lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, amber from the Baltic and Indian carnelian.

The sarcophagus of Hercules

The sarcophagus of Hercules was brought from Zurich to Istanbul in 2017 and was put on display in the museum of Antalya, a southern city where the second century artifact originated. Many Roman marble funerary coffins were decorated with scenes from the labours of the hero Hercules. His triumphs over death were a popular theme.

The srcophagus is believed to have been stolen from the ancient city of Perge, 18 kilometers (11 miles) east of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast, sometime in the 1960s. After undergoing restoration in the U.K. several years ago, it was seized by Swiss customs authorities in 2010. The fabled Twelve Labors of Hercules, from the killing of a mythological lion to cleaning the stables, are depicted on the exterior of the sarcophagus. Since 2003, Turkey has been pursuing a legal process for the retrieval of several artifacts. Over 4,000 smuggled historical artifacts were repatriated to Turkey from 2004 to 2016.

The piece was placed next to the "Weary Heracles" statue, which itself was retrieved from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The top half of the statue was missing for decades before being located in the Boston museum, which purchased it in 1982. The bottom part was discovered in Perge in 1980 and was showcased in the Antalya Museum.

Vitis - Roman Centurion

The Vitis was a vine staff that served as a symbol of a Roman centurion’s authority. A short rod of grapevine wood about one meter long, it was both a badge of rank and a practical tool used to maintain discipline, guide formations, and even strike soldiers in battle.

The vitis was a mark of earned leadership. Centurions were promoted from the ranks, and the vitis represented their transition from soldier to officer. Under the Porcian Laws, it was the only legal means of corporal punishment for Roman citizens, reinforcing its legitimacy.

It was also carried by evocati, veteran soldiers recalled to service. It was as a mark of honor, not just authority.

Trajan aureus with image of Augustus

In 2016 an Israeli woman hiking in the Galilee discovered an impossibly rare gold coin - only the second such coin known. The coin, dating to the year 107 CE, bears the image of Augustus on the obverse – 'Augustus Deified'. Trajan was Roman emperor from 98 AD until his death in 117 AD. Israel Antiquities Authority seized the coin, which would be worth $500k+.

In 107 A.D., Trajan withdrew older coins and melted them down, issuing the so-called “restoration” coins as a way to preserve the types that were melted and to link his reign to earlier rulers. The museum-grade 'restitution' coin was intentionally minted in extremely low quantities.

On the reverse are symbols of the Roman legions next to the name of Trajan. The aureus is part of a series of coins minted by Trajan in tribute to the emperors that preceded him. The only other example known is in the British Museum.

Trajan's Column in Rome.

Roman soldiers were paid a high salary of three gold coins, equivalent to 75 silver coins, each month. Due to their high value, soldiers were unable to buy goods in the market as merchants couldn't provide change. Bronze and silver coins of Trajan are common, but his gold coins are rare.

Declared by the Senate optimus princeps (best ruler), Trajan was a successful soldier-emperor who presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history. Under Trajan the empire attained its maximum territorial extent.

Trajan's uniformed army, frieze on Trajan's Column.

This aureus of Trajan minted from 112-113 AD, depicts his famous forum on the reverse. The legend, "FORVM TRAIAN".

Cyrene - Silphium

Cyrene, sometimes anglicized as Kyrene, was an ancient Greek colony and Roman city near present-day Shahhat in northeastern Libya in North Africa. It was part of the Pentapolis, a group of five cities in the region and gave the area its name Cyrenaica.

Founded in the 7th century B.C., Cyrene was one of the principal cities in the Hellenic world.

UNESCO added the site to its World Heritage List in 1992. “A thousand years of history is written into its ruins,” it said. The city was attributed to Apollo and the legendary etymon Cyrene by the Greeks but it was probably colonized by settlers from Thera (modern Santorini) in the late seventh century BC.

It was initially ruled by a dynasty of monarchs called the Battiads, who grew rich from the export of horses and silphium.

The ruins of Cyrene survived Libya’s 2011 revolution and a decade of lawlessness but now face looters.

Silphium (silphion or laser) was an ancient miracle plant, highly prized by Greeks and Romans as a spice, medicine, and highly effective contraceptive. When Rome assumed control of Cyrene, private contractors heavily over-harvested the wild rootstocks to maximize profits.

Silphium is claimed to have become extinct in Roman times during the reign of Nero. Silphium had an extremely small growing range, about 125 by 35 miles (201 by 56 km), in the southern steppe of Cyrenaica. Extremely valuable, overharvesting has long been cited as the primary factor that led to its extinction. It could not be cultivated from seed but instead only asexually through their roots. The plant may have been a Roman hybrid.