Colourful paint pigments preserved in their original pots, from Pompeii in Italy [2048x1013]

Detail of a Maya Knot, carved into a stone statue from Chichén-Itzá. Early postclassic 1000-1250 A.D. [3927x3023].

A steam-powered elevator in the house of Guard Captain S. Muyaki in St. Petersburg, Russia. Circa 1902-1903 [1080x1568]

Predynastic Egyptian Hippopotamus Figurine, Naqada I (4000 to 3500 BCE) [800×530]

Made of bronze, Roman lamp (lucerna) in the shape of a griffin. The object is dated to the 4th century CE and was found in Serbia. [960x692]

Stone palette. China, Shang dynasty, 14th-11th c. BCE. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, nr. 626 [950 x 660]

Early Naqada II Egyptian necklace with lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan by Mesopotamian traders, circa 3500 BCE [800×1200]

Predynastic bird-shaped vessel, Naqada II Egypt (3500 to 3200 BCE) [667×500]

The Rossano Gospels, held at the cathedral of Rossano in Italy, is a 6th-century illuminated Gospel Book written following the reconquest of the Italian peninsula by the Byzantine Empire. It contains the texts of Matthew and Mark written in fine silver and gold uncials on purple vellum [899x1339]

A green velvet dog-collar owned by the Swedish King Karl XI (1655 - 1697), made in the early 1670's, currently situated at Livrustkammaren in Stockholm - [3325 x 3324]

The Valley of the Mills (Valle dei Mulini) in Sorrento, Italy. These 13th-century flour mills, built from stone, used to have access to the sea, but construction of the Piazza Tasso in 1866 cut it off. They were abandoned in the 1940s, and greenery quickly overtook the whole valley [1920x2559]