Islamic North Africa: Kairouan mosque (ca. 800 AD) The Eastern Roman reconquest of North Africa in the 530s AD ended the Vandal kingdom there. But trade declined until the Islamic invasions of North [...]
African daily life: Mary and Jesus, from Ethiopia (ca. 1500 AD) (Now in the J. Paul Getty Museum) Inequality in African society Ancient African society didn't have the huge differences [...]
Grindstone from Syria, about 1500 BC (Louvre Museum) Where did they live? Most married women in West Asia lived with their husband's family, so young married women took orders from [...]
West Asian girls: An enslaved woman stands behind a free Elamite woman who is spinning (600s BC) Women were oppressed In West Asia, even more than in most other state societies all [...]
Skeleton of a salt miner from Sassanid Iran Who worked in ancient mines? Mining was a dangerous job. So most people in the ancient world didn't want to do it. [...]
West Asian people: Ur-Nanshe, the king's chief musician in Mari, 2400s BC Oppression of women What we notice most about the way people lived in West Asia is the widespread [...]
Enderun Library, Topkapi Palace (Istanbul, 1719) Rabia rules the Ottoman Empire By 1703 AD, people were unhappy enough with Feyzullah Efendi that the Sultan killed him. Wait, who's Feyzullah Efendi? [...]
Tenochtitlan under attack (painted in the 1600s) Ships and sailing improve Beginning about 1450 AD, Europeans took advantage of new advances in sail technolog. They invaded and took over most of the [...]
The Aztec god of seeds, Xipe Totec (ca 1500 AD) Who were the Aztec gods? Aztec people were polytheistic - they had many gods. That's the same as like the people of China, India, or Africa at [...]
Guarani people performing a dance in the 1800s The Tupi move south When the first Tupi people expanded their territory from Central America to reach the coast of Brazil about 900 BC, some [...]
