Browse Items (972 total)

British Colonial Issue rupee of George V, King of the United Kingdom, 1918

Cowries throughout Africa are symbols of wealth and well-being and, in some parts of West Africa, were used as a form of currency. In Akan communities cast gold cowrie shells were worn by high-status individuals such as the Asantehene, paramount…

Cowrie money, used in the Kingdom of Bambara, Africa

Inscription content: 開元通寶
Inscription transliteration: Kaiyuan tongbao

This sculpture group depicts the Four Tetrarchs, the four rulers of the Roman Empire as established by Diocletian. The rulers were divided into two groups: the augusti (Diocletian and Maximian) and the caesares (Galerius and Constantius I). There is…

This gold bar is one of fifteen (all dating to the 4th century) that were found in Romania in the late 19th century. The form makes it more easily transportable, and it most likely would have been brought to a mint where it would have been melted…

Missorium of Theodosius I, 388, Roman, silver and silver gilt, diam: 74 cm, weight: 15.35 kg, Madrid, Academia de la Historia.

This silver dish, most likely made in Constantinople, was meant to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Theodosius I’s…

Museum Descprition: “Apolausis, the personification of enjoyment, welcomes visitors to Dumbarton Oaks as she has done since its doors opened to the public in 1941. The floor had been discovered just a few years before in a bath building located…