The Five-Fold Gaze
The Five-Fold Gaze, a limestone relief discovered in El-Lahun (ca. 1923), greets the visitors to the Ravensfield Collection's subterranean vault. Its central visage, adorned with a stepped crown denoting divine status, commands attention amidst four identical satellite faces. Ancient hieroglyphic inscriptions frame the composition, their meaning still undeciphered.
The piece's perfect symmetry—four faces orbiting a dominant central countenance—exhibits inexplicable properties that defy conventional physics. Studies by Dr. Helena Frost revealed angles that shouldn't exist in three-dimensional space, while photographic documentation showed the faces shifting positions between frames, though appearing static to direct observers.
The Five-Fold Gaze represents something beyond mere mortuary art - it's a doorway between worlds, carefully disguised as a simple relief. The symmetrical arrangement isn't decorative; it's mathematical, precise, almost mechanical in its purpose.
- Dr. Amara Blackwood (Archaeomathematician)
During her cataloging work, Dr. Frost reported seeing quintuple reflections of herself arranged in the relief's pattern and experienced dreams filled with ancient voices delivering cryptic messages. During a lunar eclipse, she arranged five mirrors to match the relief's pattern. The central face reportedly emanated an otherworldly light, transporting her to what she described as "a space between spaces," where she communicated with entities using the relief as an interdimensional anchor.
Security footage shows Dr. Frost vanishing for exactly five days, though a duplicate of her continued working normally. Upon return, she had no memory of the time passed, believing only moments had elapsed. The mirrors used in her experiment were found shattered.
The Five-Fold Gaze remains on permanent display in the vault. Visitors report unsettling experiences—the sensation of being watched from impossible angles, whispered conversations in extinct languages, and moments where time seems to slip. Museum staff are forbidden from arranging reflective surfaces near the relief, particularly during astronomical events.
