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…
There’s a stale, sour stench: a miscellany of heaped-up vegetables and fruits, cheese, fried fish, sweaty bodies, thighs, urine, and belching drunks. The smell sneaks harsh but titillating into the…