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Found on a tomb altar, this clay figure may represent a high official of Palenque or its ajaw. It wears a helmet in the likeness of a bird. Powerful figures in Palenque were known to impersonate birds, perhaps to associate themselves with the gods of the sky.

A broken malachite mask found in the tomb of the “Red Queen” is now believed to have belonged to Pakal’s consort.

The steps leading up to the Temple of the Cross can be seen in the foreground. The Grand Palace and its tower rise in the background.

During his reign as ajaw, Pakal built the Great Palace at Palenque. His son, K’inich Kan B’alam, added its most distinctive feature, this four-story tower, in the early 700s.

The Nanhai No. 1, with much of its original cargo in situ, is displayed in a vast tank at the Maritime Silk Road Museum of Guangdong on Hailing Island, China. The ship and its goods are kept partly immersed in sea water and silt to ensure its preservation.

A youthful Dionysus is crowned with grapes in a first-century A.D. marble statue at the Naples Archaeological Museum.

Dionysus is depicted as an older man on a sixth-century B.C. plate from the British Museum.

A mummified Egyptian woman at the Archaeological Museum of Zagreb is thought to be from the fourth to first centuries B.C.