With a history of use extending back to Vedic texts of the second millennium BC, derivations of the name Mithra appear in the Roman Empire, across Sasanian Persia, and in the Kushan Empire of southern Afghanistan and northern India during the first millennium AD. Even today, this name has a place in Yazidi and Zoroastrian religion. But what connection have Mihr in Persia, Miiro in Kushan Bactria, and Mithras in the Roman Empire to one another? Over the course of the volume, specialists in the material culture of these diverse regions explore appearances of the name Mithra from six distinct locations in antiquity. In a subversion of the usual historical process, the authors begin not from an assessment of texts, but by placing images of Mithra at the heart of their analysis. Careful consideration of each example's own context, situating it in the broader scheme of religious traditions and on-going cultural interactions, is key to this discussion. Such an approach opens up a host of potential comparisons and interpretations that are often side-lined in historical accounts. What Images of Mithra offers is a fresh approach to the ways in which gods were labelled and depicted in the ancient world. Through an emphasis on material culture, a more nuanced understanding of the processes of religious formation is proposed in what is but the first part of the Visual Conversations series.

In the early twentieth century there was a revolution in board games. Children’s games intended to teach morality were transformed into economic simulations aimed at adults. This book demonstrates how play and games reflect and shape our understanding of money, and explores the history of board games in the twentieth century. Why was a famous psychic so interested in the stock market? How did a feminist campaigner try to undermine capitalism with a game? And why has ‘German game’ become synonymous with a growing number of cafes all across the world dedicated to playing board games? Playing With Money will be published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum, which opens in April 2019, drawing on the Museum’s collection of games and game money. In it Robert Bracey, curator of the exhibition, investigates how we think about money, and asks what mundane objects like games, and the universal experience of play, can tell us about society.