When discussing coin finds in Italian graves it is best to study the phenomenon across the entire medieval period, from the sixth to the fifteenth century. Only by comparing poorly documented periods with those for which the written evidence is more plentiful is it possible to appreciate continuities and disjunctures over time. It is also helpful to consider coins in graves in the wider context of the ritual use of coins. Few coins are found in ancient and early medieval graves compared to other artefacts. In the later middle ages, when graves did not normally contain gravegoods, an occasional coin is the only object that may have caused that grave to be recorded.

Prejudices of all types represent a profound failure and blight on our society.  These prejudices manifest themselves in individuals and nations having policies which, overtly or covertly, subtly or blatantly, discriminate on the basis of religion, race, nationality, gender, age  or sexual orientation---religious and racial prejudices being among the most commonly encountered. Even a cursory examination of the history of religious bigotry amply demonstrates the frequent, prevalent and globally widespread nature of these practices.  The consequences on individuals range from the relatively inconsequential, such as slurs and insults, to the devastating, including confiscation of property, expulsion from countries and mass slaughter.  Religious and racial intolerance has also been responsible for a multitude of regional conflicts and global wars in the past as well as in the present,  as evidenced by a mere perusal of current events.  This article traces the repercussions of religious and racial intolerance through the eyes of historical and commemorative medals.

De naam Troje is al tientallen eeuwen een strijdkreet in de Europese cultuur. De befaamde Ilias van Homerus is het oudste literaire werk van Europa. Met dat boek in de hand ontdekte Heinrich Schliemann in 1873 het oudste Troje, weliswaar niet dat van Homerus, maar de formidabele schat die hij uit Turkije smokkelde is zo legendarisch geworden als de heldendaden van Hector en Achilles. In 1945 verdween de schat uit Berlijn, om een halve eeuw later pas op te duiken in Rusland. Het touwtrekken om de schat resulteerde in tentoonstellingen in Rusland en nu in Duitsland.

This publication essentially consists of two parts. The first part is a second edition of Byzantine Coinage, originally published in 1982 as number 4 in the series Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection Publications. The second part of the publication reproduces, in an updated and slightly shorter form, a note contributed in 1993 to the International Numismatic Commission as one of a series of articles in the commission’s Compte-rendus sketching the histories of the great coin cabinets of the world. [PDF, Acrobat Reader required]

There were few phenomena in the history of Byzantium which mobilized more people, wealth, and artistic creativity than did pilgrimage. Within a few generations of the foundation of the Empire by Constantine the Great, the east Mediterranean had come alive with pious travelers. The story of the Early Byzantine pilgrim survives in travelogues and guide books, in historical texts and theological tracts, in scores of popular legends generated by miracleworking saints, and, most palpably, in hundreds of surviving pilgrim “souvenirs” and huge, abandoned shrines at the holy sites. [PDF, Arcobat Reader required]

Masking the Blow - The Scene of Representation in Late Prehistoric Egyptian Art by Whitney Davis.

Roman Mosaics Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood by Hugh Macmillan.

Mosaics of Grecian History by Marcus Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson.

The Dance (by An Antiquary) - Historic Illustrations of Dancing from 3300 B.C. to 1911 A.D.

The Guennol Lioness is a Mesopotamian artwork explained by Hugh Hildesley, Executive Vice President of Sotheby's. It sold on 5 December 2007 for US$ 57,161,000 (incl. buyers premium)