In December 1823 the English fossil hunter Mary Anning found the first complete plesiosaur skeleton near her home in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Two letters she wrote that month to the antiquarian Sir Henry Bunbury, now held by the Wellcome Collection, show her as a shrewd dealer. She describes the skeleton, offers it for £110, and justifies giving him first refusal over a rival buyer, Colonel Birch, who had offered 100 guineas unseen. The letters reveal her as a businesswoman whose income depended on negotiating with men of higher social class. The specimen went to a Duke, then to the British Museum, and is now on display at the Natural History Museum in London. The letters also show how little of her writing has survived.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.