A line of barefoot girls in headscarves and long patterned skirts carry large clay water jars on their backs past a brick wall. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 50 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; published in The Living Races of Mankind (1901) as "Armenians water-carrying (Nestorians)" and by D'Allemagne (1911) as "Jeunes filles Nestoriennes faisant le métier de porteuses d'eau" (young Nestorian women working as water carriers).

Nestorian (Assyrian) girls carrying water jars

Page of twenty of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, painted as busts in a red and gold star-pattern grid, from a Syriac lectionary copied at the monastery of Mar Mattai near Mosul in 1219-20 (Vatican Library, Vat. sir. 559, fol. 93v).

Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, lectionary copied at Mar Mattai, 1219-20

Page from British Library Add MS 7170 (fol. 21r): two columns of Estrangela Syriac script above a crowded painted scene with angels and figures in a gold-and-red frame. Made in northern Iraq about 1216 to 1220.

Text and miniature, folio 21r of a Syriac lectionary, about 1220

The Crucifixion from the Syriac gospel lectionary British Library Add MS 7170, with mourners and soldiers in contemporary dress against a deep blue ground, made in northern Iraq about 1216 to 1220.

Crucifixion, Syriac lectionary, about 1220

Miniature of the women arriving at Christ's empty tomb, met by a seated angel, with soldiers asleep and stylised trees above, from the Syriac gospel lectionary British Library Add MS 7170, made in northern Iraq about 1216 to 1220.

Holy women at the tomb, Syriac lectionary, about 1220

Full-page miniature from a Syriac gospel lectionary (British Library Add MS 7170, fol. 156v) showing the risen Christ with a cross, raising Adam and Eve from broken gates, inside a patterned border. The manuscript was made in northern Iraq, probably in the Mosul region, about 1216 to 1220.

Christ's descent into hell, Syriac lectionary, about 1220

A gospel book bound in repoussé silver, showing the Resurrection, propped up at the Syriac Orthodox church of the Virgin (Meryem Ana) in Diyarbakir. Bell's caption: "El 'Adra"; May 1911.

Silver gospel cover at the Syriac church of the Virgin, Diyarbakir, 1911

An elderly priest with a long staff sits beside an open illuminated manuscript gospel resting on a carved stone with an inscription, at the monastery church of Mor Philoxenos in Midyat. Bell's caption reads "Mar Philoxenos"; 21 May 1909.

Elderly priest with an illuminated gospel at Mor Philoxenos, Midyat, 1909

Pages from a 1524 copy of the Syriac-Garshuni glossary by Elias of Nisibis, the Church of the East scholar and metropolitan of Nisibis (1008-46), copied by a scribe named Daniel. Held by the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo.

Elias of Nisibis, The Book of the Interpreter, manuscript of 1524

Pages from a Syriac manuscript dated 1360 containing the Book of the Dove, Bar Hebraeus's guide to the monastic life, with rubrics in red. Held by the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo.

Bar Hebraeus, Book of the Dove, Syriac manuscript of 1360

Opening of an early copy of the Book of Theology by Maphrian Basileios Shem'un (1670-1740), a Syriac Orthodox writer from Tur Abdin, in the Garshuni translation by Athanasius Aslan, bishop of Amid. The right page has a coloured ornamental headpiece with crosses.

Book of Theology by Maphrian Basileios Shem'un, decorated opening

Page from a Syriac gospel lectionary of 1588 with a coloured table of readings set in interlocking red, blue and green circles, written in Serto and Estrangela. Held by the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo.

Illuminated table of readings in a Syriac gospel lectionary, 1588

Opening spread of a Syriac manuscript of the Life of Mary copied in 1567-68 by the scribe Slibona, with a large interlaced cross drawn in ink on the left page. Held by the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo.

Syriac manuscript Life of Mary with interlaced cross, 1567

Consecration of the Virgin Mary church in Paramus, 1968

Faces, places & memories of the Assyrian people.