The Oseberg ship burial contained two human skeletons, both female. One of the skeletons belonged to a woman who was about 70 or 80 years old when she died. Investigations suggest that the woman probably died of cancer. It is unclear who this woman actually was, and some have speculated that she may have been Queen Åsa, the grandmother of the first Norwegian king.

The second skeleton belonged to a woman in her 50s, though it is not known how she died. In Ibn Fadlan’s account, dead chieftains were accompanied in their graves by some of their slaves. It seems that the slaves are not forced, however, as they were first asked by the family of the deceased whether any of them would accompany their master in the afterlife. Perhaps this offer was accepted by some slaves, as the alternate treatment when they died, as Ibn Fadlan reports, was to be left “as food for the dogs and the birds.” It is plausible that the two women were mistress and slave, though their relationship is still not entirely known. Perhaps future research will be able to solve this mystery.

- (Dhwty, 2015)

Hagia Sophia was beautifully decorated with mosaics within the centuries during Byzantine period. These mosaics depicted Virgin Mary, Jesus, saints and emperors or empresses. The history of the earliest mosaics is unknown as many of them were destroyed or covered during Iconoclasm. The known ones start from the reestablishment of orthodoxy and reach its height during the reigns of Basil I and Constantine VII.

During the fourth crusade in 1204, Latin Crusaders sacked many Byzantine buildings including Hagia Sophia. Many beautiful mosaics were removed and shipped to Venice. After the Ottoman occupation of Constantinople in 1453, with the transition of Hagia Sophia into mosque, the mosaics were covered whitewashed or plastered. With Fosatti brothers’ restoration in 1847, the mosaics got uncovered and were copied for record. But they still remained covered until 1931 when a restoration and recovery program began under the leadership of Thomas Whittemore.

In 1934, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk ordered that Hagia Sophia would become a museum, the recovery and restoration expanded then. However, many of the great mosaics that Fosatti brothers recorded had disappeared probably with the earthquake in 1894.

- ("Hagia Sophia Mosaics")

• Saririka – the physical relics of Buddha 
• Uddesika – the religious symbols that include the image of Buddha, stupas, Dharmacakra (Wheel of the Dharma) 
• Paribhogika – the articles used by the Buddha

The Victory is wearing a long chiton, or tunic, of fine cloth, that falls in folds to her feet. To shorten the skirts, the cloth is gathered by a belt, hidden by the folds which hang over the hips. The chiton is held in place by a second belt beneath the breasts.

The garment’s flowing lines are portrayed with great virtuosity. The fabric over the stomach and the left thigh is shot over with wrinkles that seem to skim over the skin underneath. The light cloth is bunched in narrow folds on the figure’s sides, while the front of the left leg is carved with surface incisions to create an effect of light fabric drapery.

The handling of the chiton is in striking contrast with the thick, deeply carved draped folds of the cloak or himation, which covers part of the chiton. The sophisticated form of the folds of the cloak becomes clear when the outside and inside are highlighted in blue and red, following the folds of the cloth.

The himation, worn wrapped in a roll round the waist, has worked loose at the figure’s left hip. A large gathering of folds have slipped between the figure’s legs, leaving the left hip and leg uncovered. The right hip and leg are covered to half-way down the calf. The cloak has swept open, with a fold of cloth streaming out behind the figure, so that we see the inside of the cloth. The unfastened cloak is held against the Victory’s body by the sheer force of the wind.

- ("A closer look at the Victory of Samothrace")

The Winged Victory of Samothrace is considered to be one of the greatest sculpture during the Hellenistic period. Sculptors during that time were able to portray softness in their sculptures, as can be seen in the garment the goddess is wearing. The nude female body is revealed by the transparency of the wet drapery, much in the manner of classical works from the fifth century B.C.