The People Who Were Turned Into Paint

less than 1m read

·Nov 10, 2024

There are four people in this painting. Three of them are made out of paint. The fourth is the paint.

The interior of a kitchen was painted in 1815, and like many paintings from that time, one of the colors used in it was mummy Brown, a pigment literally made from the ground up dried flesh of ancient mummies.

Today, we hollow mummies as fragile time capsules, but in the 1700s, there was a thriving mummy trade between Egypt and Europe. Ground up mummy was believed to have mystic healing powers, and the oil paints that could be made from it were highly valued.

So, mummy Brown was used in countless paintings for hundreds of years. It wasn't until the late 1800s that people began to really question its use. The dwindling supply of mummies didn't help either, and so it began to fall out of fashion.

The people who were turned into paint didn't ask to be. What they wanted was immortality, and they may have got what they wanted, but they also got an afterlife they didn't expect. Not one for their personal souls, but one for the anonymous beauty of the rotten, tari darkness.

Anyone can become… [Music]

Banking Explained – Money and Credit

Strategies for eliminating variables in a system examples

View All

Trip to Trap | Live Free or Die

[Music] When I’m traveling through the forest in the river swamp, I like to keep a good idea where I’m at. This really old, uh, pine stump that’s full of pine resin—I stripped a little bark off of it about 20 years ago as a landmark for me. Very valuable …

How to learn Japanese FAST? Tips from a native speaker 🇯🇵📚✨🌎✈️

Hi guys, it’s me, Judy. Today we’re going to be talking about how to learn Japanese. Since I’m a native speaker in Japanese, I’m going to be sharing you guys my perspectives as a native speaker, and I’m going to be talking about the mistakes that most of …

For Martha Raddatz, This is a Deeply Unique Story to Tell | The Long Road Home

I have, you know, been in the back seat of an F-15 on a combat mission. I’ve been in the streets of Baghdad. I’ve been a moderator at presidential debates. There is nothing that has been more meaningful in my career than this. When I first met all these …

Khan Stories: Shrey

It was amazing! I don’t think I’ll ever forget in my life. “Mom, I made it to Harvard!” I mean, it was like a Bollywood Hollywood kind of a sentence. I’m Srey. Um, I’m a freshman at Harvard, class of 2022, and I’m from New Delhi, India. I’ve been using …

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors | Cosmos: Possible Worlds

OK, just for argument’s sake, suppose we’re nothing more than the sum total of our genetic inheritance. It’s not as bad as it sounds. There are passages in our DNA that are every bit as heroic as anything ever written in any epic saga. [low growl] [gentl…

What's Inside The Forbidden Pentagon?

This is the Forbidden Pentagon. It is illegal to enter this 3 square mile area of forest in Northern California because somewhere inside, Hyperion grows the tallest living thing on Earth. Hyperion’s exact location is officially kept secret to protect it, …

The People Who Were Turned Into Paint

More Articles