A bust of a Greek man in bronze. One thing that few people realize is that most of the "Greek" statuary we have is actually roman. The Greeks typically created sculptures using a lost-wax casting technique. The resulting piece was made of bronze. The Romans, being the warriors they are, melted down all that valuable bronze to make weapons. The sculptures were replaced with marble copies of the original bronze figures.

British Museum, London, UK.

A plaster cast of the famous Bust of Nefertiti. The real one is in the Altes Museum in Berlin. Even this replica is strikingly beautiful. Manchester Museum of History, Manchester, UK.

A greek statuette of a woman with child. I found this was interesting because of the lack of proportion in the child. Many artists in antiquity could not or did not represent children acurrately due to the different proportions involved. Instead, children and babies were represented as diminutive adults. Even in the renaissance period representations of this sort can be found.

This chunk of basalt is perhaps one of the most iconic artifacts of ancient history. It's so iconic, that it's become a metaphor for "something that allows to interpret".

The Rosetta Stone has three identical blocks of text in three different languages. From top to bottom, hieroglyphics, demotic (a later Ancient Egyptian script), and finally classical greek. Until it's discovery, we couldn't translate much of egyptian script. The Rosetta Stone allowed us to translate the older scripts by keying off of names. We can read names easily enough in greek, but not in the older scripts. Thankfully, hieroglyphics encircle names in a cartouche. It looks like an oval with a line along the narrow side, perpendicular to the length of the oval. By comparing the names in greek and in the hieroglyphics, translation was possible.

Not surprisingly, this was made during the Ptolemaic Dynasty, a curious period when Ancient Egypt was under the leadership of a greek.

The greek goddess Aphrodite in marble. British Museum, London, UK.

An Egyptian statue of a cat in bronze. British Museum, London, UK.

While it's true there were 300 Spartians at the Battle of Thermopolyae, what Frank Miller completely neglected was the 5000 greeks that made the bulk of the opposing forces against the Persians. Upon discovering the overwhelming size of the Persian force, King Leonidas dismissed the majority of the forces saving for 700 Thespian volunteers, and 300 hand-picked Spartians. (Forgot someone, Mr. Miller?)

The 1000 soldiers served as a front line, serving as a road block for Persia allowing the majority of the Greek forces to retreat. By maintaining this front line, Leonidas created the illusion that the full greek force was present. Quite a bit more interesting than the movie.

This bronze helmet was from that battle.  British Museam, London, UK.

A greek soldier in marble. British Museum, London, UK.

Ancient greek pots using the Red Figure technique. My British "guide" suggested that the greeks let all their pots break and that's why their civilization fell. His American wife reminded me not to listen to him. :-D

British Museum, London, UK. 

An ancient epytian column in basalt. The design was meant to resemble reeds along the nile. British Museum, London, UK.