A world of art.
A way through it.

Engraved ochre from dated cave layers supports deliberate mark-making, but the surviving pattern has no recoverable translation.

Place relation

Found at · Blombos Cave, Middle Stone Age context

Present-day locator

Blombosfontein coast, Western Cape, South Africa

Map status

site coordinate · -34.4144, 21.2225

Location note

The site coordinate does not identify the engraved ochre’s excavation square.

The mammoth-ivory hybrid was recovered in the cave, while its long reconstruction remains part of the object’s modern biography.

Place relation

Found at · Hohlenstein-Stadel cave, Lone Valley

Present-day locator

Lone Valley near Herbrechtingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Map status

site coordinate · 48.5493, 10.1724

Location note

The cave coordinate does not locate the individual fragments within its deposits.

Overlapping hand stencils, animals, and hunting scenes form a long multi-phase sequence rather than one pictured event.

Place relation

Site · Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas

Present-day locator

Pinturas River Canyon, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

Map status

site coordinate · -47.1500, -70.6667

Location note

The coordinate locates the rock-art site, not an individual painted concentration.

Carved pillars and enclosures bind image to communal architecture across a long sequence of construction, use, and rebuilding.

Place relation

Site · Göbekli Tepe, Pre-Pottery Neolithic Upper Mesopotamia

Present-day locator

Germuş Mountains near Şanlıurfa, Türkiye

Map status

site coordinate · 37.2231, 38.9225

Location note

The coordinate locates the archaeological site rather than a single enclosure.

The flame-style cooking vessel joins use and visual excess, but its exact findspot is unrecorded and its displayed base belongs to another vessel.

Place relation

Made at · Jōmon-period Japanese archipelago; exact production and findspot unrecorded

Present-day locator

Japan (museum geography only; no verified object-level origin)

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

No point is plotted because the museum record does not publish a findspot or workshop.

A standing worshiper placed in the Square Temple maintained votive attention beyond the duration of a visitor’s prayer.

Place relation

Used at · Eshnunna, Square Temple

Present-day locator

Tell Asmar archaeological site near Baqubah, Diyala Governorate, Iraq

Map status

locality coordinate · 33.7500, 44.7500

Location note

The structured coordinate is low precision and does not locate the Square Temple doorway.

A named official’s small carved seal made an image and inscription reproducible without preserving a verified workshop or findspot.

Place relation

Made at · Akkadian-period Mesopotamia; workshop and findspot unrecorded

Present-day locator

Mesopotamia (collection geography only; no verified object-level point)

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

No imperial or regional centroid substitutes for an unrecorded object origin.

A dated livestock account written at Puzrish-Dagan binds animals, named responsibility, calculation, and calendar in clay.

Place relation

Made at · Puzrish-Dagan (Drehem), Ur III administrative centre

Present-day locator

Tell Drehem, Al-Qadisiyyah Governorate, Iraq

Map status

site coordinate · 32.0582, 45.2890

Location note

The archaeological-site point does not identify the tablet’s original administrative room.

A colossal lamassu made for the Northwest Palace joined image, inscription, and threshold to choreograph an imperial encounter.

Place relation

Commissioned for · Kalhu, Northwest Palace

Present-day locator

Nimrud archaeological site, Nineveh Governorate, Iraq

Map status

site coordinate · 36.0981, 43.3289

Location note

The site point does not identify the sculpture’s original doorway within the palace.

The glazed lion panel belonged to a repeated Processional Way programme whose colour and scale organised a ceremonial urban route.

Place relation

Commissioned for · Babylon, Processional Way

Present-day locator

Babylon archaeological site near Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq

Map status

site coordinate · 32.5418, 44.4316

Location note

The point anchors Babylon’s archaeological site, not the panel’s exact wall position.

A chapel first made for Neferiretnes was reassigned to Raemkai, where images, text, and offerings sustained a named funerary presence.

Place relation

Used at · Raemkai tomb chapel, Saqqara necropolis

Present-day locator

Saqqara archaeological zone, Giza Governorate, Egypt

Map status

locality coordinate · 29.8500, 31.2333

Location note

The Saqqara coordinate is locality-scale, not the chapel’s excavated footprint.

The granary model came from a hidden tomb chamber and turns stored grain, labour, and accounting into lasting funerary provision.

Place relation

Found at · Meketre’s tomb (TT280), Southern Asasif

Present-day locator

Southern Asasif in the Theban necropolis, Luxor, Egypt

Map status

locality coordinate · 25.7333, 32.6000

Location note

The structured tomb coordinate is coarse and does not locate the hidden chamber.

A colossal kneeling statue was made for the temple processional route, using established royal signs to enact Hatshepsut’s office.

Place relation

Commissioned for · Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple, Deir el-Bahri, middle terrace

Present-day locator

Deir el-Bahri, Luxor, Egypt

Map status

site coordinate · 25.7381, 32.6069

Location note

The monument point locates the temple, not the statue’s reconstructed original position.

A small talatat block belonged to the early Aten building programme at Karnak, where reform changed image, ritual space, and construction together.

Place relation

Commissioned for · Aten temple complex at Karnak (Gem-pa-Aten context)

Present-day locator

Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor, Egypt

Map status

locality coordinate · 25.7182, 32.6582

Location note

The temple-complex point does not reconstruct the talatat’s original wall position.

Nauny’s papyrus combines named text and image to prepare her for judgment, and its find context is her burial inside TT358.

Place relation

Found at · Nauny’s burial in TT358 (Tomb of Meritamun), Deir el-Bahri

Present-day locator

Deir el-Bahri in the Theban necropolis, Luxor, Egypt

Map status

locality coordinate · 25.7375, 32.6075

Location note

No reliable structured point for TT358 was found; the plotted coordinate is explicitly Deir el-Bahri complex-level.

The marble figure’s Early Cycladic identity is stronger than its undocumented exact findspot, while lost surface treatment complicates modern whiteness.

Place relation

Made at · Early Cycladic II, Cycladic archipelago; exact island and site unrecorded

Present-day locator

Cyclades, Aegean Sea, Greece (regional locator only)

Map status

region coordinate · 37.0000, 25.1667

Location note

The plotted point is a regional Cyclades locator, not an object origin or findspot.

At the North Entrance, ancient remains, twentieth-century restoration, and a modern fresco copy make preservation visibly part of the image.

Place relation

Site · Knossos palace, North Entrance

Present-day locator

Knossos archaeological site, Crete, Greece

Map status

site coordinate · 35.2980, 25.1632

Location note

The site coordinate anchors Knossos, not the precise centre of the restored North Entrance.

The locally distinctive kymbe came from Room 7 of the House of the Ladies, joining marine and terrestrial imagery in one vessel.

Place relation

Found at · House of the Ladies, Room 7, Akrotiri on Thera

Present-day locator

Akrotiri archaeological site, Santorini, Greece

Map status

site coordinate · 36.3514, 25.4036

Location note

The site point does not identify Room 7 within the settlement.

The rhyton was found in the Little Palace at Knossos, but only one steatite side survives and the horns and other half are modern reconstruction.

Place relation

Found at · Little Palace at Knossos

Present-day locator

Knossos archaeological site, Crete, Greece

Map status

exact coordinate · 35.2993, 25.1601

Location note

The building coordinate does not identify the object’s position within the Little Palace.

The Lion Gate joined massive fortification, controlled approach, and relief imagery long before later epic names shaped its reception.

Place relation

Site · Lion Gate, Mycenae citadel

Present-day locator

Mycenae archaeological site, Argolis, Greece

Map status

exact coordinate · 37.7308, 22.7564

Location note

Structured monument coordinate for the gate itself.

An Attic kouros marked an aristocratic grave through a formal standing body, while its exact workshop and grave remain unrecorded.

Place relation

Made at · Archaic Attica; exact workshop and grave unrecorded

Present-day locator

Attica, Greece (regional locator only)

Map status

region coordinate · 38.0000, 23.8000

Location note

The plotted Attica point is regional and must not be read as the statue’s workshop or grave.

An official Panathenaic prize vessel carried valuable oil and a regulated civic image beyond the festival that commissioned it.

Place relation

Commissioned for · Athens, Panathenaic festival commission

Present-day locator

Athens, Greece

Map status

locality coordinate · 37.9842, 23.7281

Location note

The city point anchors the festival commission, not an identified pottery workshop.

The great Doric temple at Poseidonia was completed around 460 BCE, while its familiar Neptune and Hera names do not settle its dedication.

Place relation

Site · Great Doric temple, Poseidonia; dedication uncertain

Present-day locator

Paestum archaeological park, Campania, Italy

Map status

site coordinate · 40.4200, 15.0056

Location note

The structured item’s modern label uses a Hera attribution; the coordinate is used without treating that dedication as certain.

The theatre belonged to the Asklepios sanctuary, where performance formed part of festivals within a wider healing and pilgrimage system.

Place relation

Site · Theatre within the Sanctuary of Asklepios, Epidaurus

Present-day locator

Epidaurus archaeological site, Argolis, Greece

Map status

site coordinate · 37.5961, 23.0792

Location note

Structured monument coordinate for the theatre.

The surviving marble is a Roman-period copy whose body, material, and setting cannot be collapsed into the lost Hellenistic model.

Place relation

Made at · Roman imperial copy after a second-century BCE Greek model; workshop and first setting unrecorded

Present-day locator

No verified production or findspot; collection culture is not a coordinate

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

No point is plotted because the museum record publishes no workshop or findspot.

Ancient fittings from an elite ceremonial vehicle survive on a modern support; the map marks the discovery locality, not the exact tomb.

Place relation

Found at · Archaic Etruscan world of central Italy

Present-day locator

Near Monteleone di Spoleto, Umbria, Italy

Map status

locality coordinate · 42.6516, 12.9518

Location note

The Met records a tomb near Monteleone; this is the locality coordinate, not a tomb pin.

An unnamed sitter uses an aged, politically charged portrait language; the original setting and findspot remain unpublished.

Place relation

Found at · Late Republican or Early Augustan Roman world; original context unknown

Present-day locator

Unknown; the collection record gives no findspot or original setting

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

No coordinate may be inferred from the broad Roman culture label or the present museum location.

A painted bedroom opens into imaginary architecture while its modern reconstruction and the estate labour outside the image remain visible limits.

Place relation

Site · Late Republican Campanian villa landscape

Present-day locator

Villa of P. Fannius Synistor, Boscoreale, Campania, Italy

Map status

site coordinate · 40.7684, 14.4733

Location note

The coordinate identifies the excavated villa site, not the cubiculum wall panels in their present museum installation.

A fixed forum monument spirals an official conquest narrative around a column dedicated in 113 CE.

Place relation

Site · Trajanic Rome and its imperial forum

Present-day locator

Forum of Trajan, Rome, Italy

Map status

exact coordinate · 41.8958, 12.4842

Local limestone, Palmyrene dress and Aramaic naming frame mourning within Roman rule; the exact family tomb is unknown.

Place relation

Found at · Roman-ruled Palmyra and its local funerary culture

Present-day locator

Palmyra archaeological site, Homs Governorate, Syria

Map status

site coordinate · 34.5504, 38.2698

Location note

Palmyra is secure at site level, but the collection record does not identify the relief’s precise family tomb.

A small seal joins animal, signs and administration; both the “incense burner” reading and the exact findspot remain uncertain.

Place relation

Found at · Mature Harappan urban networks of the Indus civilisation

Present-day locator

Unknown; the collection record gives only “Indus Valley”

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

“Indus Valley” is a broad study region, not an excavated site; Dholavira or another city must not be invented as the findspot.

A relic mound accumulated Mauryan beginnings, later enlargements and gateway sculpture; this route stop is explicitly multi-phase.

Place relation

Site · Mauryan and post-Mauryan Buddhist pilgrimage and monastic landscape

Present-day locator

Stupa 1, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India

Map status

site coordinate · 23.4792, 77.7397

Location note

The coordinate locates Stupa 1; it does not collapse the monument’s successive ancient and modern phases into one moment.

A fragmentary sacred head remains between Buddha and Jain Tirthankara identifications; Mathura is an attribution, not an excavated workshop.

Place relation

Made at · Mathura’s multi-religious sculptural environment in the Kushan period

Present-day locator

Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India

Map status

locality coordinate · 27.4924, 77.6737

Location note

The coordinate is a locality proxy for the Met’s Mathura attribution, not a known workshop or findspot.

The Cave 5 relief binds deity, rock-cut route and Gupta court landscape without making every surrounding figure equally certain.

Place relation

Site · Gupta court and Vaishnava sacred landscape at Udayagiri

Present-day locator

Cave 5, Udayagiri Caves near Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India

Map status

site coordinate · 23.5387, 77.7721

Location note

The structured coordinate locates the cave complex; Cave 5 remains the authored on-site locator.

The Cave 1 painting builds bodhisattva presence through prepared plaster, dim space and a viewer’s approach.

Place relation

Site · Vakataka-period Buddhist monastic landscape at Ajanta

Present-day locator

Cave 1, Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, India

Map status

site coordinate · 20.5534, 75.7005

Location note

The coordinate locates the Ajanta cave complex; Cave 1 is the authored locator within it.

Inscribed bone makes divination durable, but this fragment has no published findspot, translation or object-specific date beyond a Shang-period attribution.

Place relation

Found at · Shang royal-divination world; this fragment’s archaeological context is unknown

Present-day locator

Unknown; the collection record gives no findspot

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

Yinxu must not be assigned merely because the better-documented late Shang oracle-bone corpus was excavated there.

An animal-shaped bronze coordinated casting, pouring and ancestral ritual; Anyang remains only a possible museum attribution.

Place relation

Made at · Late Shang bronze ritual world; Anyang attribution possible

Present-day locator

Yinxu near Anyang, Henan, China, used only as a possible locality proxy

Map status

locality coordinate · 36.1225, 114.3186

Location note

The Met says “possibly Anyang”; this coordinate is not an excavated findspot or confirmed workshop.

The same twelve-character inscription inside vessel and lid turns a gift into lineage memory; the excavated findspot is unknown.

Place relation

Found at · Western Zhou gift and lineage ritual world; original context unknown

Present-day locator

Unknown; the collection record gives no excavated findspot

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

Neither a modern national centroid nor a Western Zhou capital can stand in for the missing findspot.

Thousands of differentiated clay figures make standardisation and imperial hierarchy visible within a still-incompletely excavated mausoleum.

Place relation

Site · Qin imperial mausoleum complex

Present-day locator

Pit 1, Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, Lintong District, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China

Map status

site coordinate · 34.3850, 109.2731

Location note

The structured coordinate identifies the terracotta-army site; it is not a survey-grade pin for every point within Pit 1.

A glazed earthenware tower equipped a tomb with an estate-like world; its excavated tomb and region are unrecorded.

Place relation

Found at · Eastern Han funerary mingqi tradition; original tomb unknown

Present-day locator

Unknown; the collection record gives no tomb or regional findspot

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

A dynasty or modern country label is not a findspot, so the record remains unplotted.

A basalt throne was recarved as an individual monumental face; the site’s major florescence bounds an object dated only before about 900 BCE.

Place relation

Found at · San Lorenzo’s major Gulf Coast florescence

Present-day locator

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán archaeological site, Veracruz, Mexico

Map status

site coordinate · 17.7333, -94.8000

Location note

The coordinate identifies the three-part archaeological-site area, not the 1945 discovery trench.

A monumental feline turns painted architecture and viewer movement into one urban experience; its mural-specific date remains approximate.

Place relation

Site · Classic-period Teotihuacan metropolis and painted city

Present-day locator

Northern Avenue of the Dead, Teotihuacan, State of Mexico, Mexico

Map status

site coordinate · 19.6925, -98.8439

Location note

The coordinate locates the archaeological city, not the mural’s precise platform on the northern Avenue of the Dead.

Sixteen rulers encircle stone to legitimise Yax Pasaj through the founder; the inscriptional dedication fixes the monument in 776 CE.

Place relation

Commissioned for · Copán Maya kingdom under Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat

Present-day locator

Original setting before Structure 16, Copán Acropolis, Copán Ruinas, Honduras

Map status

exact coordinate · 14.8385, -89.1469

Location note

The original is now protected in the Copán Sculpture Museum; the coordinate represents its ancient acropolis setting.

A folded deerskin history maps names, rites and dynasties; its route pin is only a regional production proxy, never a workshop claim.

Place relation

Made at · Ñuu Dzavui manuscript and dynastic tradition

Present-day locator

La Mixteca cultural region across parts of present-day Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero, Mexico

Map status

region coordinate · 17.8000, -97.7667

Location note

The British Museum gives La Mixteca as production place; this representative regional coordinate has roughly 200 km uncertainty and is not a workshop.

A monumental Mexica time-and-power relief was excavated in 1790; its proposed date, patron, orientation and use remain disputed.

Place relation

Found at · Mexica Mexico-Tenochtitlan in the Late Postclassic period

Present-day locator

Plaza Mayor/Zócalo, Mexico City, Mexico

Map status

site coordinate · 19.4328, -99.1333

Location note

The Zócalo coordinate represents the 1790 Plaza Mayor discovery context, not a measured excavation trench or proven original installation.

An in-situ granite figure joins body, gallery architecture and pilgrimage; its first-millennium date is deliberately broad.

Place relation

Site · Chavín de Huántar ceremonial and pilgrimage centre

Present-day locator

Lanzón Gallery, Chavín de Huántar archaeological site, Ancash, Peru

Map status

exact coordinate · -9.5937, -77.1783

Location note

The sculpture remains in situ; the coordinate identifies its gallery location within the monument.

Embroidered backbent figures animate a mantle border, but the excavated bundle, named wearer and exact findspot are unknown.

Place relation

Found at · Paracas textile tradition of the South Coast; burial context unknown

Present-day locator

Unknown; the collection record gives Peru but no excavated bundle or site

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

The Paracas Peninsula or Wari Kayan cannot be assigned to this fragment without an object-specific excavation record.

A line-type hummingbird is terrain rather than a portable image; its exact date is unknown within a broad Nasca-period envelope.

Place relation

Site · Nasca-period geoglyph landscape

Present-day locator

Hummingbird figure, Nasca Pampa, Ica, Peru

Map status

exact coordinate · -14.6921, -75.1489

A mould-made vessel materialises an individual-looking face for ritual use; its original valley, settlement and tomb are unrecorded.

Place relation

Found at · Moche North Coast ceramic tradition; original valley and tomb unknown

Present-day locator

Unknown; the collection record gives only Peru’s North Coast

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

The broad North Coast attribution cannot support a valley centroid or tomb marker.

Checkerboard cumbi cloth links body, state reward and controlled weaving; possible modern countries cannot locate its workshop or wearer.

Place relation

Found at · Tawantinsuyu state textile system; workshop and use-place unknown

Present-day locator

Unknown; the collection record lists Argentina, Bolivia, Chile or Peru

Map status

Location not mapped — no reviewed coordinate is published

Location note

Four present-day countries are a catalogue geography, not evidence for one ancient workshop, storehouse, battlefield or wearer.