Dido, Queen of Carthage

Scythian Akinakes from the Lyta Mohyla Kurgan (7th century BC)

Discovered in the Melgunov (Lyta Mohyla) Kurgan, one of the earliest known royal Scythian burial mounds, dating to the second half of the 7th century BC. Excavated in 1763 and entered the Hermitage collection in 1859.

Type: Akinakes (Scythian short sword)

Overall size: 11 × 26 cm

Origin: Dnieper region, near Yelyzavetgrad (present-day Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine)

Material: gold, iron

Mosaic covered alcove.

Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. 5th century

Ravenna

Egyptian claw anklet of Sithathoryunet (daughter of a pharaoh (probably Senusret II))

Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, ca. 1887 - 1813 BCE

Gold earrings with emeralds and pearls, Roman, 1st-3rd century AD

(Detail) Trajan's column, plaster cast, by Monsieur Oudry, about 1864, Paris, France

The Lycurgus Cup, probably made in Rome, 300s CE

This remarkable cup is the only complete example of a very special type of glass, known as dichroic, which changes colour when held up to the light

Gold brooch, Langobardic, circa 600 AD

Pink granite naos from the funerary temple at Hawara, Egypt (near the entrance to the Faiyum) of the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Nimaatre Amenemhat III (r. ca. 1831-1786 BCE). The deceased, deified Amenemhat is shown on the left, holding the ankh-symbol of life and extending it across his body toward a figure presumed to be his son and successor Maakherure Amenemhat IV (r. ca. 1786-1777 BCE).

Amenemhat III enjoyed a long and generally prosperous reign that included many building works, intensive mining activity, and maintenance of the elaborate Middle Kingdom irrigation system in the Faiyum -- indeed, he was later worshiped in that region as a deity, Lamares. However, some Egyptologists believe that Amenemhat's reign sowed the seeds of decline for the Middle Kingdom through overextraction of mineral resources. It was also during his reign that the people known as the Hyksos, originating in western Asia, became a significant presence in the Nile Delta; during the Second Intermediate Period after the Middle Kingdom's collapse, the Hyksos would produce their own line of rulers in Lower Egypt.

Despite the optimistic imagery of succession in this sculpture, Amenemhat IV's own reign was comparatively brief. He was succeeded by the last pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty, his sister-wife Sobekneferu, one of the few women in ancient Egypt to have ruled in her own right.

Silver bull's head furniture decoration with lapis lazuli and shell eyes, city of Ur, Sumer, circa 2450 BC

Group of ancient Greek perfume bottles

610 - 550 BCE

Egyptian token with an obelisk and a temple from Nikopolis

Early 1st century CE

Etruscan stamnos with the head of a Satyr

400 - 350 BCE

Dionysos riding on a panther.

Two Egyptian rings of Hatnefer, depicting a scorpion and cowrie shells

New Kingdom, 18th dynasty, ca. 1492–1473 BCE