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III

Hall III

We imagined

From the archivist

Long before they wrote, they painted. A hand on a wall, an animal in ochre, a story told to the dark. This hall keeps the first images, and the certainty that someone wanted to be seen.

17 fragments in this hall · Africa 3 · Oceania 3 · Asia 5 · Europe 4 · Americas 2

A steep coastal slope covered in low green fynbos shrubs, with grey limestone outcrops and a dark cave mouth opening in the rock partway up the cliff.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0014

c. 77,000 years ago

The engraved ochre of Blombos Cave

Near Still Bay, Western Cape, South Africa · Africa

A pile of dark red boulders in low sunlight; on the flat face of one, rows of small pale three-pronged marks have been pecked through the dark surface into the lighter stone. To the right, beyond green trees, the chimneys and buildings of an industrial plant stand on the horizon.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0051

c. 50,000 years ago

The engravings of Murujuga

Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago, Pilbara, Western Australia · Oceania

RH-0005

before 46,000 years ago

The painted pig of Leang Tedongnge

Leang Tedongnge, karst of Maros and Pangkep, South Sulawesi, Indonesia · Asia

A slender, light brown flute of bird bone held upright on a thin metal rod against a grey background, its surface fine grained and slightly glossy, with a V shaped notch at the top and small round finger holes along its length, the joins of reassembled fragments faintly visible.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0044

c. 43,000 years ago

The bone flute of Geißenklösterle

Near Blaubeuren, Baden-Württemberg, Germany · Europe

A museum replica of part of the lion panel: the heads and backs of several big cats drawn in black charcoal lines, overlapping one another as if moving from right to left, on a pale limestone wall stained with ochre and yellow.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0037

c. 37,000 years ago

The paintings of Chauvet Cave

Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardèche, France · Europe

A small dark figure of fired clay lying in an open box lined with pale fabric: a woman with heavy breasts and wide hips, a faceless head with slits for eyes, and legs that end in a point, lit against a black background.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0039

c. 29,000 years ago

The fired figure of Dolní Věstonice

Dolní Věstonice, South Moravia, Czech Republic · Europe

Inside a round enclosure of rough stone walls, a tall T-shaped limestone pillar with a heavy rectangular head; on its shaft a predator is carved in high relief, head and forelegs jutting out as if climbing down, above the flat outline of a wild boar.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0025

9600 to 8200 BCE

Göbekli Tepe

Near Şanlıurfa, Türkiye · Asia

A reddish rock wall covered with dozens of overlapping hand stencils: pale outlines of open hands, fingers spread, stand out against sprayed patches of red, orange, white and black pigment.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0006

8700 to 6500 BCE

The Cave of the Hands

Cueva de las Manos, Pinturas River canyon, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina · Americas

A narrow passage with a pointed, corbelled opening cuts through a thick wall of large pale limestone blocks; steps lead up into the darkness inside, grass and yellow flowers grow at its foot, and ruined walls stand on the grassy mound above under a pale sky.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0060

c. 1400 BCE

The Hurrian Hymn no. 6

Ras Shamra, near Latakia, Syria · Asia

A wide earthenware dish, reddish brown, shown upside down in a glass case on a dark cloth: its flat base and a central foot ring are visible, the body is cracked and glued from many pieces, and around the sloping sides runs faint stamped decoration of fine dotted lines in curving bands.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0056

c. 1000 BCE

Lapita pottery

Teouma, Efate, Shefa Province, Vanuatu · Oceania

A broken slab of baked clay, the colour of sand, lying on blue cloth in a museum case and held by small metal clips; its surface is packed with rows of tiny wedge-shaped cuneiform signs in two columns divided by a ruled line, and its left and lower edges are broken away.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0036

c. 650 BCE

The Epic of Gilgamesh (Flood Tablet)

Mosul, Iraq · Asia

A length of yellowed paper scroll written in vertical columns of Chinese characters in black ink, large characters for the text and pairs of smaller columns for the commentary; at the right edge the chapter title and a date line, and a small red seal stamp near the top.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0029

479 to 59 BCE

The Analects of Confucius

Qufu, Shandong, China · Asia

The Rosetta Stone lit against a black background: a dark grey granodiorite slab with a broken, sloping top edge and a band of pinkish stone at its upper left corner, its face covered from edge to edge in rows of small incised writing, in three bands that are hard to tell apart at this distance.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0018

196 BCE

The Rosetta Stone

Rashid, Beheira, Egypt; now in London, United Kingdom · Africa

A page of yellowed parchment covered in two blocks of small, regular Greek minuscule script in brown ink, the main text in a wide column and fainter notes squeezed into the right margin, with the edge of the binding visible on the left.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0040

895 CE

The Clarke Plato

Istanbul, Türkiye · Europe

Six weathered stone figures stand in a row on a long stone platform under a deep blue sky with white clouds: long faces with heavy brows and narrow chins, arms carved along the sides of their bodies; one wears a red stone cylinder on its head, and the ground before them is paved with rounded stones.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0059

1200 to 1650

The moai of Rapa Nui

Ahu Tongariki, Rapa Nui National Park, Valparaíso Region, Chile · Oceania

A life-like cast metal head with a dark green patina, shown against a red and white museum wall: the calm face has full lips, almond eyes and fine parallel lines running down the whole face; it wears a tall beaded crown with a rosette at the front and a plume-like crest rising from the top.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0020

1300 to 1500

The heads of Ifẹ

Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria · Africa

A khipu laid flat behind glass: from a curved main cord hang dozens of long cords in dark brown, tan and cream, some tied with small knots at different heights, a few carrying shorter cords attached to them; a single thin cord trails away in a wide loop around them.Image not loaded · data saverThe image could not be loaded.Image not saved on this deviceRH-0052

1400 to 1800

The khipu

Peru · Americas