Top Results for 3RD Century Bce

The Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath is a polished sandstone column erected by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE. It is famously topped by a capital featuring four Asiatic lions standing back to back. This Lion Capital of Ashoka was adopted as the National Emblem of India, and its wheel desi...

The Zenon Papyri are a large archive of documents from Ptolemaic Egypt, written mainly in Greek and dating chiefly to the third century BCE. They concern Zenon of Kaunos, an administrator who worked for Apollonius, the finance minister of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, and managed affairs connected with a...

The Etruscan Liber Linteus is a linen scroll containing lengthy inscriptions written in the Etruscan language. Dating to the 3rd century BCE, it represents the longest surviving example of this ancient script. The text’s discovery as wrappings on an Egyptian mummy offers unique insight into Etruscan...

Sanchi is a Buddhist religious complex located on a hilltop in Madhya Pradesh, India, best known for its Great Stupa. Commissioned by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, the Great Stupa is one of the oldest surviving stone structures in India. The hemispherical brick dome was later ex...

Anuradhapura is an ancient city in Sri Lanka that served as the island's first established capital from the 4th century BCE until the 11th century CE. It was a major political and religious center, recognized as the cradle of Theravada Buddhism in the country. The site contains massive brick stupas,...

Merv is a major archaeological complex at an oasis in present-day Turkmenistan, near the historic routes linking Central Asia, Iran, and the wider Silk Road. Successive settlements occupied the area from the Bronze Age through the medieval period, creating several adjacent walled cities rather than...

The Decree of Canopus is a priestly decree issued in Ptolemaic Egypt in 238 BCE during the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes and Queen Berenice II. Surviving stelae present the text in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic Egyptian, and ancient Greek, anticipating the multilingual format of the Rosetta Stone....

The Cippus Perusinus is a stone monument from Etruscan Italy, preserved in Perugia and inscribed with one of the longest surviving Etruscan texts. The inscription is written in approximately forty-six lines and records a legal settlement involving land boundaries and associated rights between privat...

The Tabula Cortonensis is an inscribed bronze tablet written in the Etruscan language and associated with Cortona in Tuscany, Italy. Dating to the Hellenistic period, it records a legal or commercial transaction involving named individuals and property-related arrangements, making it an important so...

Musawwarat es-Sufra is a large ancient religious and ceremonial complex in present-day Sudan, built during the Meroitic period of the Kingdom of Kush. Its monuments include the Great Enclosure, temples, processional spaces, reliefs, inscriptions, and evidence of water-management works. The complex w...

Ai Khanoum was a Hellenistic city in ancient Bactria, located near the confluence of the Oxus and Kokcha rivers in what is now northeastern Afghanistan. Founded during the period of Greek rule in Central Asia, probably in the third century BCE, it contained buildings that combined Greek architectura...

Nisa is an archaeological site in southern Turkmenistan associated with the early Arsacid, or Parthian, state. The site consists of Old Nisa, a fortified royal centre, and New Nisa, a settlement that developed nearby. Excavations have revealed defensive walls, monumental buildings, temples, storage...