as have coin portraits, some of which are considered very realistic as well. Pliny the Younger complained of the declining state of Roman portrait art, "The painting of portraits which used to transmit through the ages the accurate likenesses of people, has entirely gone out [...] Indolence has destroyed the arts." South Asia The first sculptures in India date back to the Indus Valley civilization some 5,000 years ago when small stone carvings and bronze castings have been discovered. Later, as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism developed further, India produced some of the most intricate bronzes in the world, as well as unrivaled temple carvings, some in huge shrines, such as the one at Ellora. The Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, India are rock-cut cave monuments dating back to the second century BC and containing paintings and sculpture considered to be masterpieces of both Buddhist religious art and universal pictorial art. East Asia China Prehistoric artwork such as painted pottery in Neolithic China can be traced back to the Yangshao culture and Longshan culture of the Yellow River valley. During China's Bronze Age, Chinese of the ancient Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty produced multitudes of artistic bronzeware vessels for practical purposes, but also for religious ritual and geomancy. The earliest (surviving) Chinese paintings date to the Warring States period, and they were on silk as well as lacquerwares. One of ancient China's most famous artistic relics remains the Terracotta warriors, an assembly of 8,099 individual and life-size terracotta figures (such as infantry, horses with chariots and cavalry, archers, and military officers), buried in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the First Qin Emperor, in 210 BC. This tradition was carried into the subsequent Han Dynasty, although their tombs contained miniature versions of the soldiers in addition to domestic servants to serve rulers and nobility in the afterlife. Chinese art arguably shows more continuity between ancient and modern periods than that of any other civilization, as even when foreign dynasties took the Imperial throne they did not impose new cultural or religious habits and were relatively quickly assimilated. Japan The eras of Japanese art correspond to the locations of various governments. The earliest known Japanese artifacts are attributable to the Aniu tribe, who influenced the Jōmon people, and these eras came to be known as the Jōmon and Yayoi time periods. Before the Yayoi invaded Japan, Jimmu in 660 B.C. was the crowned