Browse Primary Sources
Locate primary sources, including images, objects, media, and texts. Annotations by scholars contextualize sources.
Engraving of a Rechentisch (Counting Board)
This image of an engraving depicts a man using a rechentisch, or counting board, the earliest known counting device and a precursor the abacus. The earliest known counting board is the Salamis Tablet, dating from 300 BCE, but may have been used more for gaming than for calculating. There are few surviving counting boards due to the materials used for construction and their use in daily life.
Nok Terracotta Sculptures
Nok terracotta sculptures are the earliest-known sculptures from sub-Saharan Africa, created by the Nok culture of which little is known except their ironworking and terracotta sculptures that flourished circa 1500 BCE to 1 BCE. The sculptures are figurative, with the heads or figures of humans represented, as well as animals, each unique.
Huaca Pucllana, Ancient Pyramid in Peru
Huaca Pucllana is a pyramid site built around 500 AD by the Lima culture of Peru. The pyramid was built with seven platforms made from adobe bricks and is around 82 feet (25 meters) high, and has a plaza surrounding it. The pyramid was a site of ceremonial and religious power.
Moche Portrait Vessels
Moche portrait vessels are ceramic vessels that often featured only heads, but some also have full human bodies as well, and most are representations of adult men. The Moche existed in Peru between the period of 100 to 700 AD and are known for their ceramics, textiles, and metalworking practices, and these portrait vessels demonstrate the ceramic skill of the culture.
Cueva de los Manos, Rio Pinturas
Cueva de las Manos, Rio Pinturas is an archealogical site and World Heritage Site in Argentina that features cave art and rock are that dates to around 9500 to 13000 years old. The site is significant for its well-preserved depictions of art that features animals, hunting scense, and human figures, as well as outlined hands painted on the walls that the name comes from.
Map with Many of the Protests in Puerto Rico and the World 2019
An event in Puerto Rico that captured world attention and motivated the interest of many Puerto Ricans in the diaspora to participate was the Summer of 2019 movement. In this event, at least a third of the population of Puerto Rico took to the streets to demand political and economic change.
Shell Pendant or Bead from Ecuador
This pendant or bead was made from a shell and dates back to the 3rd millennium BCE. Found in Ecuador, it was likely made by the Valdivia culture, a people who lived on the western coast and mainly subsisted off fishing and farming and flourished between the years of 3500 BCE - 1500 BCE.
Ceramic Female Figure from Ecuador
This clay figure dates from the third millennium BCE and is evidence of the earliest known ceramic traditions of any ancient peoples in the Americas. This figure, and many others like it, are from the Valdivia culture of Ecuador. The Valdivia produced many stylized representations of human figures that often lack a clear face and were usually female.
Chinchorro Mummies
The Chinchorro mummies, named for the Chinchorro people of current-day Chile and Peru, are the world’s oldest known examples of intentional mummification. predating Egyptian examples by almost 2,000 years. Hundreds of mummies were discovered and radiocarbon dating placed their age around 7,000 years old.
Lapita Pottery from the Santa Cruz Islands
This pottery sherd dates from around 1000 BCE and is from the Lapita culture, the likely common ancestor of contemporary Polynesian cultures. This sherd was found in the Santa Cruz Islands, part of the Solomon Islands.
Zoomorphic Figure from Papua New Guinea
This stone figure from an unknown culture in ancient Oceania may represent an echidna, which is an egg-laying mammal that is related to the platypus. Stone figures from this region were often shaped to represent animals or human heads and could be used as mortars, pestles, club heads, or simply for rituals.
Bird Stone Figure from Papua New Guinea
This stone figure from ancient Oceania loosely shaped like a bird comes from an unknown ancient culture that lived in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Pestle Finial from Papua New Guinea
This image is of a pestle finial in the shape of a bird from an unknown culture in ancient Oceania. Pestles are a tool used for crushing or grinding, often used for cooking ingredients such as spices, and were likely also used with other stone mortars that have been found in the region.
Adding and Subtracting with an Early Modern Counting Board
Before the rise of literacy rates, counting boards such as the one featured in the video were the most common way to perform arithmetic. After pen-and-paper arithmetic replaced counting boards, Arabic numerals also became dominant throughout Europe.
One Voice SOMOS Live! A Concert for Disaster Relief
Several Caribbean public figures (Puerto Rican artists Jennifer López and Marc Anthony and baseball player Alex Rodríguez) served as ambassadors of the Greater Caribbean before the world, to raise funds to address the immediate needs of the 2017 disaster victims in Puerto Rico and many other parts of the regions around th
Solidarity Expressions from the Puerto Rican Diaspora
An event in Puerto Rico that captured world attention and motivated the interest of many Puerto Ricans in the diaspora to participate was the Summer of 2019 movement. In this event, at least a third of the population of Puerto Rico took to the streets to demand political and economic change.
OECS Treaty Publication Fragments
The OECS published in 1988 a booklet explaining the treaty that founded it (OECS 1988). A fragment is included in the photos here. This piece of the document focuses on explaining the integration provisions of the treaty, including the common market.
Transcript of the Treaty of Basseterre of 1981
To capture the diplomatic side of Caribbean economic history from the point of view of the governments, official documents describing economic policies, joint strategies, and related decision-making processes in the Caribbean region could be pursued.
Popular World Development Indicators for Four Caribbean Countries
Raw numerical data may be pursued to track historical behavior through socioeconomic and demographic indicators. This data might be the basis to identify and understand socioeconomic challenges and potential solutions that should be addressed through economic diplomacy.
Harvard Physics Department asserts that investigations threaten national security, 1950
This document is the response of the Harvard University Physics Department to a proposed Congressional amendment in 1950 requiring that the FBI investigate scientists’ “loyalty” before they could receive government contracts. As the Harvard scientists write, heavy-handed attempts to root out the very rare disloyal applicant would be highly damaging overall to the morale of researchers.