Dating to 1450-1375 BC, this gold Minoan signet ring shows an acrobat leaping over a bull.
The paved floor suggests a palace setting. Said to come from Archanes, Crete, it is now displayed at the Ashmolean Museum.
This simple clay pyxis from Lebena, Crete, dates to 3300–2200 BC. Long before the rise of the Minoan palaces, vessels like this were already part of daily life on the island.
An Etruscan face from Chiusi, preserved in the Museo Civico “La Città Sotterranea.”
More than an object, it is a fragment of a world that shaped central Italy long before Rome became an empire.
Even in Rome, the goddess Isis had devoted followers. This 2nd-century AD altar combines Egyptian and Greco-Roman religious imagery. The serpent is inscribed Iside Sacr. ("Sacred to Isis"), while Anubis appears in his syncretic form as Anubis-Hermes. Musei Capitolini, Rome
Atargatis, the great Syrian goddess, carved in stone during the Roman period, ca. AD 100–300.
Crowned between lions and holding a snake-entwined staff, she reflects the enduring power of local Syrian cults under Roman rule.
Aleppo Museum, Syria.