Museum catalogue photograph of an artifact from a civilisation that never existed: a corroded bronze mechanism the size of a book, its face crowded with concentric toothed rings and engraved glyphs of an unknown script, one quadrant broken away revealing gear teeth inside. Neutral grey seamless with raking light, scale bar and printed accession card. Archaeological documentation style

Museum catalogue photograph of an unknown civilisation's writing system: a hanging record made of dyed cords, a thick primary cord from which dozens of thinner strands descend, each knotted at intervals in different patterns and colours, some strands frayed and incomplete. Neutral grey, even museum lighting, scale bar, accession card

Museum catalogue photograph of a funerary mask cast in translucent cloudy blue-green GLASS, not metal. Light passes through it and internal air bubbles are visible. The face is abstracted into three smooth flat planes with NO MOUTH AT ALL and only two narrow horizontal eye slits. Edges chipped and iridescent from burial. Steel stand, neutral grey, backlight showing translucency, scale bar, accession card

Museum catalogue photograph of an unknown civilisation's folding map: a set of thin hinged metal plates, unfolded flat into an irregular fan, each plate etched with coastlines, contour lines and symbols that do not match any real geography, the hinges green with verdigris. Neutral grey, even lighting, scale bar, accession card

Museum catalogue photograph of a ritual sounding stone from a civilisation that never existed: a flat slab of dark banded rock, deliberately carved with a series of tuned tongues of varying length, worn smooth and polished at the striking points from centuries of use. Neutral grey seamless, raking light emphasising the wear, scale bar, accession card

Museum catalogue photograph of ceramic seed vessels from an unknown civilisation: three squat sealed jars of unglazed reddish clay, each with a different pattern of small pierced holes around the shoulder, stamped with a repeating symbol, one cracked open showing a cavity lined with dried plant fibre. Neutral grey, scale bar, accession card

Museum catalogue photograph of a tattooing kit from a civilisation that never existed: a fitted wooden case laid open, containing a row of bone-handled needle combs of graded widths, small stoppered pigment horns with residue still inside, and a tapping mallet worn shiny at the grip. Neutral grey, raking light, scale bar, accession card

Museum catalogue photograph of water clock fragments from an unknown civilisation: several curved terracotta shards laid out in a partial reconstruction on a grey surface, the interior surfaces marked with graduated horizontal lines and glyph labels, one shard retaining a small bronze outlet spout. Gaps between shards left empty as is standard in reconstruction. Scale bar, accession card

Museum catalogue photograph of a child's toy from a civilisation that never existed: a small jointed figure carved from pale wood, one arm missing, the surface darkened and smoothed by handling, a faded painted pattern barely visible on its torso. Photographed with the same neutral grey background, raking light, scale bar and accession card as any other artifact. Plain and unsentimental