During Japan’s Kofun, or “old tombs” period,” enormous mounded tombs were constructed for the elite

This is a quick explanation of what the abbreviations BC/AD and BCE/CE mean and what we mean by terms like century and circa.

Get to know ancient Maya art by looking closely at a stone monument showing a powerful Maya queen dripping in jade ornaments.

Explore the ancient art inside the Cueva de los Manos, a prehistoric cave in Patagonia!

Travel back in time to the Seljuq Empire with this charming ceramic bowl showing a caravan of camels

Discovered in a Spanish burial site, these 6th-century fibulae reveal a lot about early Christianity and migrations after the downfall of the Roman Empire.

Learn to read the painting, “Lady with a Unicorn” (c. 1505), created by the Italian renaissance artist known as Raphael.

This striking object, dating between the 13th and 16th centuries, was crafted by a skilled Armenian artist and weighs over 750 lbs.

Explore Japanese shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu’s golden retirement retreat, the Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavilion, in Kyoto, Japan.

Step inside Frida Kahlo’s iconic La Casa Azul, also known as the Blue House, to learn about her life, art, and home.

What can a prehistoric jade cong crafted in Neolithic China tell us about the cosmos? A cong is a tube-shaped object that has a square outer perimeter and a circular, hollow inner perimeter.

Dive into the fascinating world of skeletons and skulls, or "calaveras," created by the renowned Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Travel 1,000 years into the past to look at a gorgeous flower-shaped mirror from the Korean Goryeo (Koryo) dynasty (918–1392 CE).

Axolotls are forever young! These salamanders look youthful for their entire lives. These adorable smiling amphibians are found naturally in only one place on earth today—Xochimilco in Mexico, close to Mexico City.

Did you know that the Aztecs created floating gardens called chinampas because they lived on an island in the middle of a lake?

Ochre is an earth pigment and it is one of the most commonly found pigments around the world! Red ochre is also the world’s first red paint and it is used in a lot of prehistoric art, including Paleolithic cave paintings.

Han Gan is one of the greatest horse painters in the history of Chinese art. He captured Night-Shining White’s incredibly spirited character in this famous scroll painting.

Imagine colorful shields, dazzling fans, shimmering headdresses, and other precious objects made of brilliantly colored feathers that were more valuable than gold!

Delve into the enigmatic world of the Nazca Lines. Located in the heart of the Peruvian desert, they are among history's greatest mysteries!

Dive into the captivating world of ancient Central Mexico with a vibrant figurine showing a fish! This fish figurine comes from the ancient site of Tlatilco, found in one of more than 340 burials.

Get to know a little about bones in art and ancient Zapotec culture as we delve into the fascinating world of Monte Albán in Oaxaca, Mexico! This video introduces us to a remarkable artifact—an intricately crafted vertebral column, or backbone, made by the Zapotec people in ancient Mexico over 2,000 years ago.

In the 1970s, archaeologists in China made one of the most impressive archaeological discoveries in world history from the tomb of a marquis (the Marquis Yi of Zeng) who lived and died in south China in the 5th century BCE. It is a set of 65 perfectly tuned bronze bells that can play any song that can be played on a piano.

Is it possible that this jade disk, made during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, symbolizes heaven? Why did ancient peoples in China, like people of the Liangzhu culture (c. 3000–2000 BCE) make them?

How should we understand an abstract painting like Olga Albizu’s 900-50-80 from 1978? If we look closely at Albizu's painting, we notice fascinating color choices and application of the paint itself.

Is that a hyena, a rocking horse, and monster claws? If we look closely at Leonora Carrington's painting, we notice curious and surreal details.

Join Noah and Cortney as they explore one of the most fascinating tomb sites in the history of Chinese archaeology, the tomb of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi.

Did you know that around 4,000 years ago the ancient Chinese invented their own unique metallurgical technique to cast bronze objects?

Join Eleana and Lauren as they explore the iconic "Great Wave off Kanagawa" (sometimes called The Great Wave or Under the Wave off Kanagawa) by Katsushika Hokusai.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was the most famous woman in colonial Mexico! Discover the fascinating story behind the renowned portrait painted by Miguel Cabrera in the 18th century.

Did you know one of the earliest silk paintings in Chinese history came from an ancient tomb that was so well preserved that the woman’s body looked like it had been mummified?

Golden and silver llamas made by Inka artists more than 500 years ago in South America are tiny and shiny. They are easy to miss in a museum!

The massive Aztec Sun Stone (also called the Calendar Stone) reveals the Aztecs' understanding of the universe.

One of the most amazing archaeological discoveries of the 20th century was the tomb of Pakal, the most famous ancient Maya king known today.

What can a 13th century Chinese ink painting of six persimmons teach us about enlightenment?

Interested in the history of Japanese art or Japanese religion? Travel back in time to explore the Phoenix Hall at Byōdō-in Temple in Uji, Japan and Pure Land Buddhism. Learn about the origins of this magnificent temple and how it symbolizes the teachings of Buddhism.

Journey to ancient Egypt to explore the connection between ancient Egyptians and their cats! 🐈

How did ancient Chinese kings predict the future with turtle shells? 🐢 Why did a Shang dynasty king use turtle shells and to resolve his terrible toothache? 🦷

The Lion Capital at Sarnath was erected in the 3rd century BCE by Ashoka, third ruler of the Maurya dynasty.

Byeon Sangbyeok was famous for his paintings of cats in Korea.

This plaque fragment shows the lion god, Apedemak.

Discovered in a cave in Germany, the Lion Man is one of the oldest known statues ever discovered!

Discover the fascinating history behind the powerful Aztec jaguar sculpture in Mexico City!

Discover the fascinating world of medieval manuscripts with cats and rats in this bitesize video about the Chi Rho page in the Irish manuscript known as the Book of Kells

This charming painting by 20th-century artist Xu Beihong is a lovely self-portrait with his wife Jiang Biwei and their fluffy white cat.

This cat is ready to pounce! This intimidating feline vessel was made by the Cupisnique culture on the north coast of Peru, sometime between 1200-800 BCE.

Why is the main street in the ancient city of Teotihuacan called the Avenue of the Dead? And what does it have to do with the Aztecs?

Get to know more about this lovely feline on a spout-and-bridge bottle. Made by Paracas artists around 800–400 BCE, it most likely shows a Pampas cat or an Andean mountain cat.

This powerful feline sculpture from Costa Rica is a metate, or grinding stone. Learn how it was a seat of power in Nicoya!

Chonky cats of the world unite! Look at this husky leopard that rests between the circular base and seat of a wooden stool made in the 20th century in Cameroon. It's covered in spots to let us know it's a leopard.

French Impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard’s White Cat, from 1894 perfectly captures the impression of a cat and also connects to Japanese prints!

Discover a small portion of the fascinating history of cats in ancient Egypt, where they were worshipped as gods.

Travel back in time to 19th-century China for a quick minute to take a closer look at a charming ink painting by Chinese artist Xū Gǔ.

Have you ever seen an artwork that you really, really, REALLY want to touch? For me, it’s this amazing painting of a cat named Bugs by Beth Van Hoesen.

The original grumpy cat? Maybe not, but it’s one of the most recognizable cat images of all time.

Did you know that Japanese prints were traditionally made using a series of woodblocks that applied individual colors layer by layer?

A cave filled with lions! Chauvet Cave in southern France is a gallery of painted lions made during the Paleolithic Age, or New Stone Age.

What if we’ve been reading the most famous print in the world all wrong? Under the Wave off Kanagawa, popularly known as “The Great Wave," by Katsushika Hokusai is one of the most recognizable and famous Japanese woodblock print images in the world today, but is the focus of this print really the great wave?

Learn how Japanese Buddhist heavenly being sculptures (called tenbu or 天部) are assembled! This hand-carved model, part of the Kyoto National Museum’s hands-on learning initiative, features inlaid crystal eyes, inserted from within.

Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci, the famous Italian Renaissance artist, possibly studied lions in person in Florence?

Italian renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci created many things, but have you ever seen his drawings of cats from his notebook?

How long did it take artisans to carve this jade pendant in the shape of a sinuous dragon in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco? And are those raptors’ heads incorporated into the design?

One of the best Japanese prints from the 19th century, Kuniyoshi’s cat witch relates to Japan’s fascination with supernatural cats in the Edo period.

Heart-shaped books, like this one from France in the 1400s, were common during the Middle Ages. Hearts were important metaphors for religious love within Christianity and eventually love in a non-religious sense. They also had ties to memory, the soul, and more!

On the Mexican flag, the eagle on a cactus comes from an Aztec myth. The snake was added to the story later.

Happy Lunar New Year! 2024 is the the year of the wood dragon. The dragon is the fifth animal in the Chinese zodiac. Do you know what zodiac year you were born in? Wishing you all good health in the New Year! 🐲

Ever wonder how to remember all those Chinese dynasties? Here's a useful tool!

How did the Aztecs get their name? In one minute, learn the history of the naming of the Aztecs—really the Mexica!—and how the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt is involved!

A cat with a skeleton head? Check out José Guadalupe Posada's Cat Skeleton (Calavera de Gato) for Day of the Dead, made in the early 20th century.