AND search: If you enter more than one search term in the search box, your search will retrieve results that contain all those terms. For example, enter ‘Iraq Iran', to find all object records containing both ‘Iraq' and ‘Iran'.
OR search: If you want to search for either one term or another, enter your search terms separated by ‘or'. For example, enter ‘Japan or China' to find all object records containing either Japan or China.
Partial wordsearch
Enter your term followed by an asterisk (*). For example, entering ‘Islam*' would return results for all records containing words beginning with ‘Islam', such as ‘Islam', ‘Islamic', and ‘Islamabad'.
Searching is always case insensitive
For example, searching for ‘India' is the same as searching for ‘india'.
Searching for a specific word or phrase
Enter your term within double quotation marks (""). For example, to search for the term Abbasid period, enter "Abbasid period".
Excluding a termfrom your search
Enter the term you want to search for, then a minus or subtraction sign, followed by the term you wish to exclude from your search. For example, if you want to search for records with the term ‘stoneware' but exclude records with the term ‘green', enter ‘stoneware -green'.
Searching in non-Latin alphabets
It is possible to search using non-Latin alphabets.
We do not currently translate all information into other languages.
We dotry to record information in non-Latin alphabets where it is:
This is a visual browsing tool that maps objects in your results by date of creation onto a timeline.
The circular markers indicate where objects are on the timeline.
Each marker represents at least one object within a span of 100 years around that point.
The size of the markers indicates the relative number of objects at that point on the timeline.
Shaded markers indicate which objects on the timeline are visible on the current page of results.
Hover over a marker to find out which objects are represented at that point in time.
Objects on the timeline are categorised by type using the sections down the left-hand side - Sculpture, Paintings, Ceramics, Textiles and Other. You can click on these sections to focus on that type of object.
To focus on a particular period of time, click and drag the red arrows to the bottom left and right of the timeline. Once you have selected your chosen time period in this way, click ‘Apply changes’. You can remove this selection at any time by clicking ‘remove filter’.
To expand, collapse or hide the timeline, click these symbols found at the top right of the timeline.