I saw an archaeology account post this carving and remembered, suddenly, that id seen it in person myself while researching Beyond Measure in Egypt and been completely awed. It’s a limestone relief depicting birds and a butterfly amidst papyrus plants, carved around 4,500 years ago to adorn the walls of the funerary temple of king Userkaf of the Fifth Dynasty. the naturalism is stunning and there’s something about the look of the bird in the first picture (a kingfisher perhaps?) that makes the millennia between its carving and the present day collapse. I’ve seen that look before, those eyes, and perhaps it’s something to think about in sad times - the continuity of birds, darting about the rushes