Sharing food and drink has been at the heart of many celebrations across the world, including formal events and religious rituals. It also plays a major role in many of our most common daily activities with our families and friends. What people eat is part of what they are and aspire to be, but it is not just the actual foods and drinks that are important – the wide range of objects and vessels we use to prepare and consume are also integral to being human.

After the ming dynasty seized control of China from the Mongols in 1368, they tried to reinstate bronze coins. There was not sufficient metal for this, however, so paper money, made of mulberry bark, was produced from 1375. Paper money continued to be issued throughout the Ming period, but inflation quickly eroded its value. The effect of inflation was so devastating that paper money was regarded with suspicion for many years. It was not until the 1850s that a Chinese emperor dared to issue paper money again.

Many issues of early Islamic coinage bore pictures, sometimes even of the caliph himself. Islam bans pictorial representations of humans or animals to discourage idolatry and Muslim clerics grew uneasy about the use of images on coins. In AD 696-7 the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (reigned AD 685-706) reformed the Islamic coinage. All images on coins were replaced with inscriptions. Along with the new design came a new weight standard. The original Byzantine standard of 4.55g was adjusted to 4.25g, a weight also known as the mithqal.

This egyptian papyrus is not a theoretical treatise, but a list of practical mathematical problems encountered an administrative and building works. The text contains 84 problems concerned with numerical operations, practical problem-solving, and geometrical shapes. These include methods of determining the slope of a pyramid, and the multiplication and division of fractions.

This is the most famous cuneiform tablet from Mesopotamia. It is the eleventh tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the adventures of a legendary ruler of Uruk. The tablet tells how Gilgamesh met Utnapishtim who, like Noah in the Bible, had been forewarned of a great flood. He built a boat, loaded it with everything he could find and survived the flood while mankind was destroyed. He landed on a mountain called Nimush and released a dove and a swallow but they returned, having failed to find dry land. He later released a raven that did not return, showing that the waters must have receded.

The chronology of the rulers of Egypt is based on many sources: a list compiled by the historian Manetho in the third century вс, dated inscriptions and documents on papyrus, references to identifiable astronomical events, and lists of kings inscribed on papyrus and stone.

This clay cylinder is inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform with an account by Cyrus, king of Persia (559-530 вс) of his conquest of Babylon in 539 вс and capture of Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king.

Coloured ceramic vessels such as this 'vase' were a symbol of status and power for the Maya of Mesoamerica. They were used by the elite and are found as offerings in rich burials. The vessels are often decorated with text and images illustrating historical and mythological events, making them an important source of information about Maya society in the Classic period (200 BC-AD 900). The scenes depict scribes, merchants, rulers and other members of society.

Seals are characteristic of a phase of the Indus civilization when the first towns were developing in the region (around 2500-1900 вс). They come in a variety of forms, the most typical being a square stamp-seal with a perforated knob on the back and a carved design on the front. The most common design is the unicorn, but there are also script-only designs, geometric designs, a few narrative scenes and a wide variety of other animals.

Тhis is part of one of a small number of Mexican codices (screenfold manuscript books) known to have survived the Spanish Conquest of 1521. Hundreds or even thousands of such books were made, but most were destroyed by Spanish missionaries who considered them to be manifestations of evil.