The treasures described and analyzed here come from a wide range of different contexts; in terms of geography and culture as well as historic--or prehistoric--period. The treasures range from Ice-Age figurines of central and eastern Europe to African gold, from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the sensational discoveries of Egyptologist in the tomb of Tutakhamen. Many of the most well-known treasure troves were originally put together as burial furnishings, and for this reason they tell us much of what our forebears believed about death and the afterlife, and how provision was mde for the wellbeing of the dead in their journey onwards.