The world is much more interesting, and the people of the past are much closer to us than it sometimes seems. Here are a few ancient artifacts that make our ancestors closer and more understandable to us, even if they lived hundreds and thousands of years ago.
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Uterus made of fabric - A training manual created by Angelique Du Coudray, a French midwife commissioned by King Louis XV to reduce infant mortality
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Roads stoned with white stones in Ancient Rome - These stones reflected moonlight to help people walk along the streets after dark
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14th century door with a cathole in Exeter Cathedral, UK - Considered the oldest of its kind
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Mosaic detail of a mouse eating a walnut from the 2nd century BC - Now displayed in the Vatican Museums
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Roman army knife from 201-300 AD - Includes a spoon, knife, fork, spike, spatula, and toothpick as part of Roman legionaries’ equipment
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1,800-year-old ceramic horse from the Han Dynasty in China - Currently housed in the Sanxingdui Museum
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Sculpture "The Fall of the Rebel Angels" from 1740 by Agostino Fasolato - Depicts 60 fallen angels and made from a single piece of marble
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Dauphin's armor worn by the future King of France Henry II - Made by Francesco Negroli in Milan in the 1540s and displayed at the Army Museum in Paris
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Charming Ancient Egyptian Otter Figurine
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Roman bronze colander from Pompeii in the 1st century BC
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Stone mask made of green serpentine from 2,000 years ago - Found near the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico
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Clothes of the 2,000-year-old Huldremose woman found in a peat bog in Denmark in 1879
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Abuna Yem'ata Guh Church in Ethiopia from the 5th century
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Bison sculptures from a cave in Ariège, France that are 14,000 years old
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Roman brick from Cherchel, Algeria with a perfect imprint of a human hand from 2,000 years ago
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Megalithic site in Spain older than the pyramids
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Cave paintings from Val Camonica in Brescia, Italy
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Middle East clay vessel with two legs from Northern Iran, dated 1000-800 BC
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Thonis Heraklion, an ancient Egyptian port that slowly sank into the sea from 100 BC to 800 AD
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Black mug from Southern Italy, dating back 2,400 years
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Gilded silver and rock crystal vessel made in Nuremberg, Germany circa 1580
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Toys from Ancient Greece, around 2,300 years old
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Marble lace scarf decorating a statue by Louis-Philippe Mouchy from 1781
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Viking blacksmith tools and weapons found in a grave in Norway from around 800 AD
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Silk wedding dress of Helena Slicher circa 1759 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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3,700-year-old clay tablet showing applied geometry
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Church of the Holy Trinity in Hrastovlje, Slovenia from the 12th century
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Ivory and ebony chess pieces shaped like insects from Italy in 1790
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Vase with an octopus from Palaikastro, Greece 1500 BC
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Golden ring from Roman Egypt in the 1st century AD