Historium

In a handsome overview of world antiquities (a companion to Animalium), more than 130 artifacts from Africa, America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania are grouped into six “galleries” and recreated in illustrations set against colored plates. Nelson contextualizes the objects with overviews of more than a dozen individual cultures, which include the Mayan and Pueblo peoples of the Americas, the Maori, and ancient civilizations of Korea, Persia, Rome, and more. An Aztec “double-headed serpent mosaic” coils horizontally across one spread, allowing readers to get a sense of the thousands of bits of turquoise arranged on the carved wood form. From Stone Age tools to Egyptian canopic jars and an 11th-century Iranian bowl featuring an early calligraphic form of Arabic, Wilkinson’s striking replications and Nelson’s informative descriptions offer insight into objects both sacred and mundane. Ages 8–12. (Sept.)