F-YEAH HISTORY

Trundholm sun chariot The Trundholm sun chariot (Danish: Solvognen), is a late Nordic Bronze Age artifact discovered in Denmark. It is a representation of the sun chariot, a bronze statue of a horse and a large bronze disk, which are placed on a device with spoked wheels.

The sculpture was discovered with no accompanying objects in 1902 in a peat bog on the Trundholm moor in West Zealand County on the northwest coast of the island of Zealand (Sjælland) in Denmark, in a region known as Odsherred (approximately 55°55′N 11°37′E). It is now in the collection of the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. 

Altar set, late 11th century B.C. This elaborate set of ritual bronzes, consisting of an altar table and thirteen wine vessels, illustrates the splendor of China’s Bronze Age at its peak. The monumental design, intricate surface decoration, and refined casting attest convincingly to artistic sophistication and technological advancement. The set was reportedly found in the early twentieth century at the tomb of a Western Zhou aristocrat in Shaanxi province and subsequently entered the collection of Duan Fang, a prominent government official and renowned antiquarian, whose heirs later sold it to the Metropolitan Museum.

Treasure of Villena The Treasure of Villena (in Spanish Tesoro de Villena) is one of the greatest hoard finds of gold of the European Bronze Age. It comprises 59 objects made of gold, silver, iron and amber with a total weight of almost 10 kilos, 9 of them of 23.5 carat gold. This makes it the most important find of prehistoric gold in the Iberian Peninsula and second in Europe, just behind that from the Royal Graves in Mycenae, Greece. The iron pieces are the oldest found in the Iberian Peninsula and correspond to a stage in which iron was considered to be a precious metal, and so was hoarded. The gold pieces include eleven bowls, three bottles and 28 bracelets.

The Phaistos Disc The Phaistos Disc (also spelled Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the Greek island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC). It is about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols. Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture, remain disputed, making it one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology. This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion.

The disc was discovered in 1908 by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, and features 241 tokens, comprising 45 unique signs, which were apparently made by pressing hieroglyphic "seals" into a disc of soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiraling toward the disc's center.

Bronze head from the thirteenth or twelfth century BCE, excavated in 1986 from Sanxingdui Pit 1 near Chengdu in Sichuan province, China Sanxingdui (Chinese: 三星堆; pinyin: Sānxīngduī; literally "three stars mound") is the name of an archaeological site and the previously unknown Bronze Age culture for which it is the type site. Sanxingdui is now believed to be the site of a major ancient Chinese city in what is now Sichuan, China. The Bronze Age culture which inhabited it was re-discovered in 1987 when archaeologists excavated remarkable artifacts, that radiocarbon dating dated as being from the 12th-11th centuries BCE. The culture that produced these artifacts is now known as the Sanxingdui Culture, and archeologists are identifying it with the ancient kingdom of Shu. The artifacts are displayed in the Sanxingdui Museum located near the city of Guanghan.

A fresco found at the Minoan site of Knossos, indicating a sport or ritual of "bull leaping"; the red-skinned figure is a man and the two light-skinned figures are women The collection of Minoan art is in the museum at Heraklion, near Knossos on the north shore of Crete. Minoan art, with other remains of material culture, especially the sequence of ceramic styles, has been used by archaeologists to define the three phases of Minoan culture (EM, MM, LM) discussed above.

Since wood and textiles have vanished through decomposition, the best preserved, and so most easily learned from, surviving examples of Minoan art are its pottery, the palace architecture with frescos that include landscapes, stone carvings, and intricately carved seal stones.

Golden ox figurine found in the Maykop kurgan (mid-3rd millennium BC.) The Maykop culture (also spelled Maikop), ca. 3700 BC—2500 BC, was a major Bronze Age archaeological culture in the Western Caucasus region of Southern Russia.

It extends along the area from the Taman Peninsula at the Kerch Strait to near the modern border of Dagestan and southwards to the Kura River. The culture takes its name from a royal burial found in Maykop in the Kuban River valley.

Bronze Age weaponry and ornaments

The Magura cave drawings The Magura Cave (Bulgarian: Магурата) (from Arumanian magura, "hill") is located in north-western Bulgaria close to the village of Rabisha, 18 kilometres from the town of Belogradchik in Vidin Province. The total length of the 15 million year old cave is 2.5 km (1.6 mi). The largest inland lake in the country, Rabisha Lake, is located in the vicinity of the cave and the whole region has been declared a natural landmark.

Bones from different prehistoric species like cave bear or cave hyena have been discovered in the Magura Cave.

Cave paintings dating from the late Neolithic, Epipaleolithic and early Bronze Age decorate some of the cave's walls. The drawings may represent religious ceremonies, deities and hunting scenes, and are unique for the Balkan peninsula. One grouping from the late Neolithic has been interpreted as a solar calendar, the earliest such representation yet discovered in Europe. The medium used to create the art was bat guano. More than 750 images have been identified. Access to the area of the paintings is restricted in an effort to preserve them.