This is a large collection of vector illustrations in which we have placed various patterns that can be considered historical.
Throughout history, many different tribes, peoples and civilizations have emerged, and in their time they all developed their distinctive art forms. In most cases, various forms of artistic expression served for decorating products, glorifying the rulers or for religious purposes. Books on history and art history have become a real treasury of images of artworks that are suitable for tracing in 2D CAD or vector software. In this way, new life can be breathed into these historical illustrations, which can also serve your craft and graphics projects very well. In addition to the historical illustrations, in this category we will also publish a variety of interesting decorations seen on artifacts at archaeological sites, mainly representing peoples who used to play a major role at a certain time in history and who developed an interesting culture.
As with all other categories, all the works published in this one will also be under Creative Commons Attribution licenses, and there will be 2D CAD (.dwg) and vector (.svg and .eps) file formats at your disposal. We have invested a lot of time in digitizing, so it cannot be too much of a bother for you to follow the license conditions prescribed? And one more thing: we would be glad to see how you have applied these beautiful historical illustrations, so do not forget to share the results of your projects. Send us a picture or two, and we will enjoy them together!
Of all the patterns we have drawn over the years, only the part that we consider historical has been selected for this category. However, if you can’t find what you are looking for, check out the other categories as well, as there are many other ‘historical’ patterns in them. As you can see in the pictures, this is a very diverse collection, which makes it particularly interesting. That is why we hope it will attract not only history buffs, but also people of various other interests.
On this page you can download an ornament that is more than a thousand years old and we named it Abstract ancient Greek ornament.
All lovers of medieval art can download here a precisely drawn artwork of the famous German painter Albrecht Durer (Dürer) called “The Third Knot”.
On this page you can download vectorized illustrations of the Ancient Egyptian gods named Horus, Toth and Maat.
A set of four Ancient frieze patterns created in Inkscape vector editing software.
Here you can download an ancient Macedonian royal symbol (Vergina, Vergina Sun, Macedonian/Argead Star, Star of Vergina or Macedonian Star).
Here you can download a digitized version of an Ancient Egyptian symbol – the Ankh (also known as breath of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata (Latin: cross with a handle)).
Black and white vector portrait of the famous Greek mathematician, physicist, inventor, and astronomer Archimedes of Syracuse.
The scroll saw pattern in the picture comes from an old magazine, and since the caption below it read ‘Brass Door Plate’, we named it that way.
Square ornamental designs taken from the ceiling of the Parthenon. Both ornaments are stencils and feature the palmette motif.
On this page you can download 3 Celtic zoomorphic designs found in the images of scanned pages of illuminated manuscripts.
Here we have a well-known illustration from Chinese mythology - the Chinese dragon with a snake-like body and 4 legs, chasing the flaming pearl of wisdom and truth.
If you need free patterns inspired by Celtic culture, this large collection of 39 Celtic knot patterns may satisfy all your requirements.
On this page you can download a collection of 22 ancient Egyptian frieze patterns.
These are four of the Assyrian patterns that we drew from an illustration in an old book.
On this page you can download a collection of 16 Egyptian repeating patterns (mostly ceiling and wall decorations).
In the collection which you can download here, there are 16 Fleur-de-lis designs, a popular design element, motif and historical symbol.
This is a large collection of Native American designs.The collection contains 76 designs that can be used in many ways in graphic projects as well as in handicraft.
On this page you can see an example of decorative art of the tribes that lived in the area around the Amur River.
On this page you can download 9 patterns of medieval hinge plates that you can easily make at home.
This is a set of two Egyptian repeating patterns (Egyptian tessellation). As you can see, both of these patterns are simple in appearance.
This is an Etruscan ornament seen on a vase artifact discovered at a site that belonged to the Etruscan civilization.
On this page you can download a decorative design whose main motif is the Fenghuang bird.
Here you can download a large collection of simple design elements called “Gothic Tracery Design Elements” as they consist of gothic tracery patterns.
In the collection which you can download here, there are 12 Haida designs of exceptional beauty and originality.
Just looking at the picture tells you that here you will be able to download a vectorized old illustration of a Native American chief.
The collection contains 12 interlaced ornaments and all come from ancient Russian manuscripts.
This is an Italian Gothic fabric pattern (1200 A.D. - Saracenic influence), a fine example of medieval decorative art.
On this page you can download a design whose main motif is the Japanese ornamental dragon.