This small ceramic statue represents a lion figure standing on four small simple legs. Two tusks appear from the sides of his mouth, while textile folds cover the bodies of the carriers of this legendary animal. The cloth-like body extends from the back of its ears till the top of its back legs. Decorations are executed with blue color on a beige bed under a green-tinted glaze.

This celadon bottle was made in the Longquan (龍泉) kilns in Zhejiang Province, China, and it was found at the bottom of the sea, from a shipwreck that is estimated to have occurred sometime in the early 14th century near Sinan, located in a cluster of small islands in southwest Korea. More than 30,000 artifacts were recovered from the Sinan shipwreck, which was a single merchant vessel sailing from China to Japan.

Chinese ceramics were widely admired and desired in the medieval world in general and the Islamic world in particular. The Chinese cared to export their ceramics throughout the world through land and sea. Dr. John Carswell describes the export of Chinese ceramics westward in his book “Blue and White Chinese Porcelain” (British Museum Press, 2007).

This small torso found in the Elephantine Island in Aswan originally belonged to a statuette of woman seated on a square seat with her arms placed on her thighs. The seat was extended at the back by a dorsal pillar which would have contained a column of hieroglyph that would have informed us on the name and title of this woman.

This clay tablet was discovered at the site of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra) located along the Syrian coast, 10 km north of Latakia. Ugarit was the capital city of the Empire bearing the same name.

The characters on the coin were written by the famous calligrapher of early Tang Dynasty, OUYANG Xun,they translate to “circulated treasures at the beginning of the dynasty”. These three coins are in gold, gilt bronze and silver, respectively, and were the non-circulated currencies given by the emperor to the noble officials as presents.

Diameter: 2.5cm

Museum collection

The lady is entirely colored with paint. She is wearing a black straw hat, a jacket with tight green sleeves and a round-collar, a half-sleeve short garment, red long skirt and black pointed shoes. The horse is standing with its head lowered down, mouth slightly open, ears pricked, long hair and the tail hanging naturally. The lady is riding the horse, holding the rein, looking forward with a dignified pose and peaceful expression, representing fittingly the ladies on the road in Tang Dynasty.

Museum Collection

The Middle Eastern man with pointed soft hat, thick eyebrows, deep eyes, big nose and a beard is donning a red vest and black trousers with pointed boots. He is holding the reins of the camel with his legs clamped on the camel. The camel with two humps has its head raised and seems to be walking with its mouth open, teeth exposed and mane swinging in the wind. The statue is big in size and is crafted splendidly; It is a rare masterpiece amongst the statues from the Tang Dynasty.

Museum collection

This is a qingbai (bluish white) bottle, produced in the Jingdezhen (景德鎭) kilns located in Jiangxi Province, China. The Jingdezhen kilns first produced porcelains for export during the Tang and Song Dynasties, and by the Yuan Dynasty, they had become the center of ceramic production in China. Qingbai ware are known for their extraordinary translucency, which was achieved using kaolin (a special clay mineral) and fine-grained porcelain stone, which allowed for the creation of vessels with very thin walls.

This sword is a one of a kind of weapon with slightly arced back and a stiff blade. The front end of the blade tilts upwards to make a round edge, the thick handle ends with a human head designed on it. The hollowed head has big ears accessorized with round earrings, vivid expression, leaf-like fringe hair, eyes, nose and a smiling mouth. There’s a small bell inside the head, two elliptical holes on the back side of the head and a small round ring on the neck for fastening or hanging. The handle is decorated with wave patterns, grid patterns and arc patterns.