ATLAS / WORLD HISTORY IN PICTURES

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Find your way through history.

Explore 279 entries across places and centuries. Follow an event, compare its context, and examine the evidence.

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Period filters include entries whose date ranges overlap your selection. These date bands are browsing aids, not universal historical eras.

1 entry · Oldest periods first

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300–800 CEIn-depth study
Sixth-century silver footed cup from Sogdia, Central Asia. Museum photograph of a surviving object, not a reconstruction of a caravan scene.
Picture source & rightsThe Metropolitan Museum of Art · 1998.223 · Friends of Asian Art, Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Dillon Gift, 1998 · Public domain / CC0 · Resized to WebP · Licence terms

Asia / Trade

Sogdiana: cities, merchants and the Silk Roads

Sogdian communities helped connect Central Asia with China and the steppe. Their history includes farming, urban life, languages and artistic exchange—not only caravans crossing an empty landscape.

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