On: 1.5-Inch Hand-Carved Agate from 1500 B.C. Shows Su...

[ch4s3]

The impression is even cooler imho[1].

[1]http://www.griffinwarrior.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Hes...

[lostlogin → ch4s3]

What is that? An impression would be inverted. If the impression was filled (used as a mould) it would match the original. Is the image reversed?

[cercatrova → lostlogin]

You are seeing an optical illusion that causes one to think that the impression was actually facing outward, rather than inward.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow-Face_illusion

[SamBam → lostlogin]

Unsure what you mean. It is inverted. It's been pressed into something. The frame is pressed inward, and the bas-relief figures come outward.

[lostlogin → SamBam]

I think I’m not seeing either the original or the copy correctly, both look to me to have figures that come outward, and the copy is also flipped left to right.

Surely a straight copy made by pressing the original into something would have the dead body on the left, with their features going into the medium, not coming out?

Edit: I think I’m seeing the original wrong, I just can’t see how the figures stick in, rather than out. Part of it might be because All the photos appear to have been altered to allow you to see the figures, as the true colour version is much harder to appreciate. See the true colour version here:

https://aristomenismessinios.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-combat...

[Someone → lostlogin]

Could be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow-Face_illusion (“an optical illusion in which the perception of a concave mask of a face appears as a normal convex face.”)

[jdmichal → lostlogin]

You can see from the small spherical artifact that the light is in the upper-right of the picture. So shadows on the upper-right mean that area is indented. We can see such shadows on the leg of the sword fighter and on the shield. So both those areas are indented.