Masterpiece Story: Gemma Augustea by Dioskourides
The Gemma Augustea is the second largest cameo surviving from antiquity, and one of the most artistically valuable pieces of ancient Roman art. It is...
James W Singer 17 May 2026
Ancient Art
Masterpiece Story: Mithras Slaying the Bull
Mithras Slaying the Bull is a compilation of the entire religious and symbolic images of Mithraism. It reflects promised immortality and personal...
James W Singer 17 May 2026
The Secret Rooms of Pompeii That Tourists Weren’t Supposed to See
Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum is a shocking phenomenon often omitted from textbooks about ancient history. These famous Roman cities...
Zuzanna Stańska 14 May 2026
The Pharaoh Who Looks Like a Woman—The Mystery of Akhenaten’s Body
If you thought that ancient Egypt had always been only about a large pantheon of gods, solid and emotionless sculptures, and masculine pharaohs, have...
Magda Michalska 13 May 2026
Akhenaten: Artistic Development in the Amarna Period
Amenhotep IV, widely recognized as the notorious Akhenaten, was the enigmatic “heretic” pharaoh who ruled during the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Maya M. Tola 13 May 2026
All That Glitters: Gold Jewelry in Ancient Egypt
Personal ornaments were favored by ancient Egyptians from the Predynastic to the late Roman periods, and most of them wore some type of jewelry. The...
Maya M. Tola 13 May 2026
Blue Faience Hippopotamuses: The Cutest Animals of Ancient Egypt
Blue faience hippopotamus was a popular statuette in ancient Egyptian art. It was considered to have positive traits associated with fertility and...
Zuzanna Stańska 13 May 2026
The Bust of Nefertiti: Ancient Masterpiece or Genius Hoax?
On December 6, 1912, a team of excavators led by Ludwig Borchardt, unearthed a wonderful work of art in Egypt. They found the bust of the Egyptian...
Montaine Dumont 13 May 2026
All That Glitters: The Gold Jewelry of the Etruscans
The elusive Etruscans left behind a rich legacy of gold craftsmanship that was among the most advanced in the ancient Mediterranean world. While the...
Maya M. Tola 9 April 2026
Woman with Stylus: What a Portrait Can Tell Us About Women in Ancient Rome
Woman with Stylus is an ancient Roman fresco unearthed in Pompeii nearly two millennia after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. Various details...
Natalia Iacobelli 9 April 2026
Lifelike Faces of the Dead: Fayum Portraits from Roman Egypt
Though they are often referred to as “Fayum portraits”—taking their title from the location of a region in Egypt where Pharaoh Amenemhat...
Anthony de Feo 9 April 2026
Living Memories: The Funerary Stelae of Ancient Cyprus
The majority of sculpture that survives from ancient Cyprus are funerary stelae, elaborate grave markers to commemorate the dead. Possessing an...
Marga Patterson 9 April 2026
