Time(table) travellers

Sure, French, German and Spanish are pretty useful. But what about learning a language that's a little more left-field?

Cuneiform is not a language. It's actually a script, and as far as we know, it's the oldest form of writing in the world. It was invented in ancient Mesopotamia, what is now Iraq, before 3,200 BC, and was first used to record the Sumerian language – and later on Babylonian and Assyrian as well as other languages such as Hittite and Old Persian. This means that by learning to understand the wedge-like script (which you can do with curator Irving Finkel's handy guide) you're some of the way towards understanding the languages of some of the ancient civilisations of the Middle East.

In the 1860s a twenty-something-year-old banknote engraver named George Smith, who had taught himself cuneiform, began to visit the British Museum on his lunchbreaks to pore over Mesopotamian tablets and piece them together. He went on to become a world-famous Assyriologist working at the Museum. He was the first person to translate cuneiform tablets with the oldest surviving long poem, the 3000-year-old Epic of Gilgamesh, which includes a story about a great flood just like the biblical story of Noah. His story shows how a personal passion for languages, and deciphering the scripts that record them, can connect people today with ancient peoples, their stories, beliefs and ways of life.

If you're studying history, you're probably used to being reminded about checking your references. This portrait from the 1500s is a good reminder of why...

This drawing of a woman from the Tudor court by the German artist Hans Holbein has long been thought to depict Henry VIII's most enigmatic queen, Anne Boleyn.

Holbein first travelled to England in 1526 seeking royal patronage and quickly found favour at the court of Henry VIII. His exquisite portraits were in high demand by both the King and high-ranking members of his court, and they continue to really bring the Tudor court to life. Holbein prepared his papers with a pink coating, as in this drawing, which functioned as a flesh tone and allowed him to draw his sitters from life relatively quickly. He used portrait drawings like this one to develop painted versions.

The woman in this drawing had been thought to be Anne Boleyn, based on the inscription on the left side of the artwork: 'Anna Bullen de collata / Fuit Londini 19 May 1536', which means 'Anne Boleyn was beheaded in London 19 May 1536'. While the date of Anne's death may be correct, her identification as the lady in this portrait must be wrong. Portraits of Anne Boleyn are quite rare, but unlike the sitter depicted in our drawing, Anne was described as having an olive complexion, a long neck, wide mouth and, most notably, 'eyes which were black and beautiful'. Look closely at the drawing. Do her eyes look deep brown or light blue?

Further research has revealed that the inscription cannot be traced to earlier than 1649, possibly when a print was made after this drawing, which also bears the same questionable inscription.

Nowadays we think of 'geography' as oxbow lakes and international development, rock formations and tectonic plates. But being able to navigate the earth and follow the path of the sun must be the oldest 'geography' skills in the book.

This object is part-compass, part-sundial. However, rather than pointing true North, it points towards the holy city of Mecca. For prayers, Muslims face an orientation known as qibla, which is the direction towards the Ka'aba in Mecca. Today, mobile apps and GPS can make figuring out the direction easier, but before their invention, qibla compasses were used to locate the prayer direction accurately. A sundial component indicated time and was a help to faithful Muslims to do their prayers at the correct time.

This 18th-century pocket compass made in Iran is densely engraved with degrees and names of many Islamic cities to aid travellers to find the qibla in the region. It has two engraved brass hinged plates with a magnetised needle and a sundial (the triangular blade) inside.

If you're studying Drama or performing arts, you may be learning about how the ancient Greeks used masks as part of their theatre. But masks are an important part of entertaining, educational, ritual or spiritual performances all around the world.

The sea, the sky and the land are all important parts of the spiritual world of Torres Strait Islanders, whose Country is the 247 islands of the Zenadh Kes, or Torres Strait, between the northern mainland of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Traditional performances often reflect this deep connection to place.

Before Christianity was introduced in 1871, elaborate funeral ceremonies were held involving masquerades and ceremonial dances. Dancers often wore masks made of turtle shell and feathered head dresses, known as dhari. The dancers often wore chest pendants made of pearl shell and used drums to accompany the dance. Different materials and forms are used in contemporary masks and head-dresses but are still inspired by ancestral beings and stories.

This mask is by the artist Alick Tipoti, who is from Badhu Island in the Torres Strait. Tipoti's mask represents an ancestral shark whose tail fin stirs up an underwater sand trail that forms the Milky Way, or Kaygasiw Usul. The small masks on top represent ancient dancers and the mask inside the mouth symbolises the main dancer.

It was made from materials including fibre glass, plastic, resin, wood, bamboo, pearl shell, chicken feathers and cassowary feathers and is based on a similar mask in the collection made by Mabuiag artists in the 1880s, which Tipoti has said is his favourite out of all the ancient Torres Strait Island masks he has seen.

Of that mask, Tipoti said: 'I'm obsessed with the concept of bringing masks to life through performances and spiritually connecting with the totems [objects or animals adopted as spiritual emblems]. I immediately thought of the Kaygasiw Usul when I saw this mask... the chants, dance and rituals that came with it.'

Tipoti composed and choregraphed a specific dance to accompany the mask he created. One dancer leads the performers out; he wears the shovel nose mask and is followed by three to four dancers with headdresses and stars. Another two follow at the end with the lightning apparatus. The songs describe how the Milky Way was created in the beginning of time and the reasons for the movements of the constellation. The chants describe how zugubal (spiritual ancestors) travel down to earth from the spiritual world to the human world.

Sometimes it can be hard to understand how poetry connects to the wider world. But poetry doesn't exist in isolation – sometimes poems are the secret stories that shape the world's paintings too. Poetry can create vivid images in the minds of its readers, and there's a long tradition in many cultures of visual art illustrating poetry's vibrant words.

This painting forms part of a Barahmasa series, an Indian genre portraying lovers against a background of the 12 months. Each season captures different romantic moods. This example depicts the monsoon season, Shravana. Peacocks and birds abound in the lush foliage, while a black sky swirls with threatening thunderclouds and gold curls of lightning. In the building on the left sits Krishna, the Hindu god and cow-herder, and his lover, Radha. They gaze into each other's eyes lovingly and she offers him a sweet treat. In the foreground, a group of women head towards a pond filled with lotus flowers as part of the festival of Teej.

The inscription in Brajbhasha by the poet Keshavadasa (1555–1617) evokes the mood of the season: 'The rivers meet the sea making a pleasant scene. Creepers, fresh after the rains cling to trees. There are lightning streaks in the sky and peacocks cry out happily. All lovers meet their beloveds in the month of Shravana.'

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