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Idol manufacturing, Thebes, Egypt, 15th century BCE. This is a modern artist’s rendering of a mural from the tomb of the vizier Rekh-me-re. It shows craftsmen making idols, much like the idol…
This basin from Kuntillet Ajrud is much too large to have been used for a practical purpose—it weighs more than 300 pounds (136 kg) and is large enough for two adults to sit in. The inscription…
Photojournalist Lori Grinker has become well known for her photographs of the aftereffects of war and for her photo essays on her brother’s death from AIDS and her mother’s struggle with cancer. In…
This detail appears on the right side of a pithos (storage jar) from Kuntillet Ajrud. The seated figure plays a lyre held away from the body. There seem to be four strings, oriented vertically…
In this detail from the left side of a pithos (storage jar) from Kuntillet Ajrud, two ibexes are eating the flora of a schematic tree, all set above a striding lion. These common motifs are typically…
Papyrus, rolled, folded, and sealed, Elephantine, Egypt, 5th century BCE. See also Papyrus, Rolled and Sealed. The Elephantine papyri provide historical documentation about the members of a Jewish…
Battlefield with prisoners and corpses, on Egyptian cosmetic palette, ca. 3100 BCE. The scene includes bound prisoners being led off and corpses being eaten by vultures, ravens, and a lion. Burial was…
Brickmaking by prisoners. Thebes, Egypt, 15th century BCE. This mural, from the tomb of the vizier Rekh-me-re, shows Semitic (“Asiatic”) and Nubian prisoners of war making mud bricks and repairing a…
Mourning activities, Thebes, Egypt, ca. 1380 BCE. Sitting on the ground and putting dust on the head are expressions of mourning, as in this mural showing a widow with the mummy of her husband…
When it was first built, the Sha‘ar Hashamayim (Gate of Heaven) Synagogue in Cairo was the largest building on the boulevard where it still stands. Built to resemble what was imagined to be the design…
