[Rebelbase]

Cool! I guess the difference in quality of the murals vs. what is visible in Egyptian tombs is the difference between a humid and arid climate?

[SunkenCiv]

That’s part of it. Also, the Egyptian sites sometimes appear to be bare stone, but their ancient appearance was characterized by bright colors, since flaked off. The water table has had an impact on subterranean sites (most tombs in Egypt are below ground), and in the case of the pyramids, moisture wicks up. And the Aswan High Dam has caused the water table to rise, and salts to leach up from below, damaging (and eventually will destroy) even carved surfaces.

[aruanan]

Cool! I guess the difference in quality of the murals vs. what is visible in Egyptian tombs is the difference between a humid and arid climate?

Though I was told the murals in Mitla, near Oaxaca, Mexico, were the original paint. It was pretty dry there.

In the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, I was looking at objects in a display case in the Egyptian wing. The wood and leather looked really clean and fresh. I asked a curator who made their models. He said those were the original artifacts and that the climate was such that they were preserved in that pristine a state. He pointed out some mud building blocks that still had a legible cartouche stamped in the mud.