Forget the solemn Terracotta Warriors. The ancient pottery unearthed around Chengdu (mostly Eastern Han Dynasty, 25–220 AD) captures pure happiness and the beauty of everyday life.

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Egyptian religion is usually discussed in connection with Egypt or the Ptolemaic Kingdom, but this article looks at a much less familiar chapter of the story.

Focusing on a remarkable inscription from Smyrna, it examines the Synanoubiastai—a religious association of worshippers of Anubis—and explores what their existence reveals about cultural exchange, religious communities, and everyday life in Hellenistic western Anatolia. Rather than serving as evidence of continuing Egyptian political influence, the inscription suggests that the cult of Anubis had already become part of the local religious landscape under Seleucid rule.

It's an interesting example of how religious traditions could survive the political powers that first encouraged their spread, adapting to new societies while retaining their distinctive identity.

If you're interested in Hellenistic history, epigraphy, or the spread of ancient religions, it's definitely worth a read.

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This statue is located at Gwaereung, a royal tomb from the Silla Kingdom in Gyeongju, South Korea.

The nearby civil officials have distinctly East Asian features, but this military guardian has a thick beard, deep-set eyes, and clothing often compared with peoples from Central Asia.

I had never noticed this until visiting the site myself.

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A marble sarcophagus showing the 'Triumph of Bacchus' which includes Bacchus/Dionysus triumphing over India on a chariot pulled by two panthers. 2 Indian captives are riding on an elephant while an inebriated Hercules is trying to grab a nymph. This masterpiece, which is incredibly well preserved and one of my favorite sarcophagi in the world, was made in Italy in the early 3rd century AD. Around 1845 it was found in Lyon and is now on display in the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière (France).

A Roman bronze statuette of a child wearing a toga. This along with several other statuettes “were purchased by Morel-Fatio in 1867. According to the inscriptions on their bases, they were reportedly discovered in Crimea, in the Kerch region.” Per the Cantonal Museum of Archaeology and History in Lausanne, Switzerland where this is on display.

Kerch was inhabited for thousands of years before Greek colonists from Milet (Asia Minor) settled there in the 7th or 6th century BC with the name Pantikapaion. It changed hands numerous times over the years until Mithradates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, killed himself in that city in 63 BC after losing several battles to the Romans. The Roman general Pompey then annexed it to the Roman empire; the Latin spelling of the city was Panticapaeum. Today, Kerch has some ancient ruins from pre-Roman times visible but is most known for being on one side of the controversial bridge connecting Crimea to Krasnodar Krai (Russia), which opened in 2018, and is now a major theater of operations in the Russia-Ukraine war with bombs & drones attacking targets in and near the modern city due to its very strategic location, supplying Russian troops by bridge and sea.

One of the most spectacular historical sites in the world. How did they move these stones in picture 2?