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Beyond Borders

A finely cast blue faience ushabti from the Egyptian Late Period (664–332 BCE), inscribed with Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead to serve the deceased in the fields of Osiris. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A cast brass plaque from the royal court of the Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria, depicting a senior warrior flanked by attendants in full ceremonial regalia. Produced by Benin palace guilds using the lost-wax technique, 16th–17th century.

A magnificent earthenware horse with three-colour (sancai) lead glaze from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), representing the Silk Road culture of cosmopolitan Tang China. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A fine Ottoman Iznik stonepaste dish painted with two birds among flowering plants in polychrome underglaze, ca. 16th–17th century — one of the most celebrated ceramic traditions in world art history.

A carved stone bust of the multi-armed Buddhist deity Hevajra from the Khmer Empire, Angkor period, late 12th to early 13th century CE — from the civilisation that built Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world.

A large pressure-flaked obsidian blade from the Mexica (Aztec) tradition, Central Mexico, 13th–16th century CE — among the most technically demanding stone tools ever produced, with an edge sharper than modern surgical steel.

A finely cast blue faience ushabti from the Egyptian Late Period (664–332 BCE), inscribed with Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead to serve the deceased in the fields of Osiris. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A cast brass plaque from the royal court of the Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria, depicting a senior warrior flanked by attendants in full ceremonial regalia. Produced by Benin palace guilds using the lost-wax technique, 16th–17th century.

A large Ethiopian bronze processional cross (qäqwami mäsqäl) from the Amhara or Tigrinya tradition, 15th–16th century, used in the liturgy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church — among the most distinctive sacred objects of African Christianity.

A magnificent earthenware horse with three-colour (sancai) lead glaze from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), representing the Silk Road culture of cosmopolitan Tang China. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A richly pigmented Mughal miniature painting on paper depicting royal lovers in a garden landscape, ink, colours and gold on paper. Mughal period, India, 17th century — from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access collection.

A Japanese Edo period sword guard (tsuba) in copper-gold shakudō alloy with enamelled cloisonné (shippō) decoration, ca. 1615–1868 — the finest expression of Japanese metalwork artistry in miniature.

A carved chert cylinder seal from the Akkadian Empire (ca. 2250–2150 BCE) bearing a hunting scene — the world's earliest form of personal identification, rolled across wet clay to authenticate documents and seal containers in ancient Mesopotamia.

A moulded polychrome tile in the cuerda seca (dry cord) technique, gilded, dated 824 AH / 1421 CE — from a Timurid or early Safavid architectural context in Iran. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.