A single granite prism set in 900 BCE, still vertical in its gallery when every empire around it has fallen and risen twice.
No paint, no inlay — the figure is built entirely from light catching incised contour at the angle the torch was meant to hold it.
The deity bisects the prism along a true vertical axis; depart from it and the gallery’s alignment — and its air — stops working.
Fangs, serpent brows, and the broad mouth are higher relief than the surrounding scrolls — they are where weathering announces itself first.