Early Humanities

From Smarthistory. This course explores major works of ancient Greek art and architecture, proceeding from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period. We learn how to analyze these works and consider what they reveal about the contexts in which they were made and used.

From Digital Maps of the Ancient World. Thriving between the 14th and 16th centuries in central Mexico, Aztec art transcends mere aesthetics. It functions as a symbolic language, a portal into the cultural and religious life of this powerful Mesoamerican civilization. Deities and rituals dominated Aztec artistic expression. Gods like Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, and Huitzilopochtli, the sun god, found themselves depicted in sculptures, murals, and codices, the hand-painted manuscripts that served as historical records, ritual guides, and maps.

Discover the entire Bayeux Tapestry scene by scene and follow online the 70 meter-long embroidered canvas which tells the story of the conquest of England in 1066. This project has been led by the City of Bayeux and the DRAC Normandie (Ministry of Culture) with the assistance of the “Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie” who photographed the embroidery. The high resolution images were then reconstituted by the University of Caen and the CNRS. This panorama is the reference image of the S.D.I.S tool (Spatialized Documentary Information System), produced to assist scientific research on the work, and to give access to a rich documentation to the public in the future museum.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois is the largest pre-Columbian site north of Mexico. At its peak, around 1100, this metropolis stretched over 4,000 acres, encompassed about 120 earthen mounds, and hosted a population of nearly 20,000 individuals – larger than London at that time. The State of Illinois now protects roughly 2,200 acres of the central portion of the Site. Including 72 of the nearly 80 remaining mounds, as some mounds are situated in unprotected portions of the Site. The Site was named a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1965, and designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1982, for its significance in the pre-Contact history of North America.

View more than 2,000 of their digitised manuscripts and archival documents. Highlights include the Lindisfarne Gospels (circa 700), the Sherborne Missal (circa 1399-1407), and Christine de Pizan's "Le livre des faits d'armes et de chevalerie" (1434). Their PDF list of more than 2,000 digitised manuscripts and archival documents provides direct links so you can explore the items online in detail.

The Icelandic Saga Database is an online resource dedicated to publishing the Sagas of the Icelanders — a large body of medieval Icelandic literature. The sagas are prose histories describing events that took place amongst the Norse and Celtic inhabitants of Iceland during the period of the Icelandic Commonwealth in the 10th and 11th centuries CE. Use the index to find all of the sagas, and scroll down to see the listings of those that have been translated into English.

From Smarthistory. This Islamic art history series looks at art across time and across continents, with a focus on works of art that tell stories of cross-cultural exchange. It traces art history from the early period through the medieval period and into the later period.

Visit the Upper Paleolithic cave paintings (dating back roughly 17,000 to 20,000 years) without leaving home, courtesy of Musée d’Archéologie nationale. The discovery of the monumental Lascaux cave in 1940 brought with it a new era in our knowledge of both prehistoric art and human origins. Today, the cave continues to feed our collective imagination and to profoundly move new generations of visitors from around the world.

From Smarthistory. Once described as a “dark age” between the ancient and modern periods, the “Middle Ages” (c. 3rd–14th centuries C.E.) is now understood as a dynamic era of emerging religious identities, cross-cultural encounters, and creative production of soaring architectural forms and sumptuous works of art.

This resource contains information and photographs about art from a wide variety of cultures, including stone sculptural art in Costa Rica, arts of the Himalayan region, sculptural, architectural, and textile traditions of the Toba Batak in northern Sumatra, and Jewish art in late Antiquity and early Byzantium.

Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park in West Tennessee covers more than 1,200 acres and contains at least 15 Native American mounds. In addition to Sauls Mound the group includes Ozier Mound, the Twin Mounds and Mound 31. Archaeological evidence suggests the mounds were both burial and ceremonial in purpose. Pinson Mounds is a national historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

From the Museum of Native American History in Arkansas. It is important to know that the migration of ancient peoples did not stop at the current modern-day boundaries of North America. Ancient peoples continued their travels down through Mexico, Central America, and into South America. Over thousands of years, various advanced civilizations were established with temples, pyramids, and cities. Ancient cultures located south of the present-day United States border are referred to as Pre-Columbian cultures. These people lived in the time before the arrival of Columbus. The three most notable Pre-Columbian civilizations were those of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca. Many of the Pre-Columbian cultures eventually ended with European contact, dying out from warfare as well as disease, but all three of these cultures left behind some of the most ornate and highly decorative artifacts ever made.

From Smarthistory. This syllabus begins by exploring prehistoric art across the globe before narrowing to focus on the Mediterranean region, where various European, West Asian, and North African cultures rose, fell, commingled, and transformed one another. Christianity emerges as the majority religion, though Judaism and Islam are a vital part of the history of this region.

Trust for African Rock Art (TARA) is an international, Nairobi-based organisation committed to recording the rich rock art heritage of the African continent, to making this information widely accessible and, to the extent possible, safeguarding those sites most threatened by humans and nature. To achieve its mission, TARA works closely with communities where rock art is found as well as with national and international heritage bodies including the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. You can explore rock art in Africa by using their map.

From Digital Maps of the Ancient World. Sumerian art is renowned for its intricate detail and lavish ornamentation, often incorporating a diverse array of materials sourced from distant lands. Semi-precious stones like lapis lazuli, marble, and diorite, along with precious metals such as hammered gold, were skillfully integrated into the design of their artifacts, adding to their opulence and prestige.

In 1939, Edith Pretty, a landowner at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, asked archaeologist Basil Brown to investigate the largest of several Anglo-Saxon burial mounds on her property. Inside, he made one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries of all time. Beneath the mound was the imprint of a 27m-long (86ft) ship. At its center was a ruined burial chamber packed with treasures: Byzantine silverware, sumptuous gold jewelery, a lavish feasting set, and, most famously, an ornate iron helmet. Dating to the early AD 600s, this outstanding burial clearly commemorated a leading figure of East Anglia, the local Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It may even have belonged to a king. Edith Pretty donated the finds to the British Museum in 1939, and they now form a stunning centrepiece to this gallery.

From Google Arts & Culture and in collaboration with UNESCO Almaty regional office and the national museums of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Explore a virtual gallery of cultural treasures and view artefacts from these countries.

From Google Arts & Culture. Built around 970-980 CE, during the reign of King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson, the Viking-Age Ring Fortresses of Aggersborg, Fyrkat, Nonnebakken, Trelleborg and Borgring are located across the Jutland peninsula and on the islands of Funen and Zealand in present-day Denmark.

From Google Arts & Culture. The Great Wall is the largest man-made project in the world. The complete route is over 20,000 km, stretching from the east seaside to the west desert in northern China, winding up and down across mountains and plateaus like a dragon. Take a virtal walk on the Great Wall of China, explore sections of the Wall, and discover more about its history and architecture.