If it was ancient, its dark wooden frame made it an anachronism in its own time or in the present. And the colors are too vivid to be ancient, but they are genuine colors - lapis lazuli, ochre gold. The papyrus is dark, darker than anyone ever remembers seeing in Hollywood, but that means it’s older, because it was years before anyone realized one could bleach paper and make the ink on it more visible, legible, stark. A woman in a dress that looks like fish scales kneels on a tiny pedestal that’s barely long enough to support her legs from knee to toe, and her arms are up, unfurling her lovely wings of white, red, silver scales. So many scales for a woman so like a bird. Hieroglyphics litter the wall behind her, the panel beneath her. One day someone will be able to read them.
(146 words)
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