A bronze Naṭarāja from Tamil Nadu and a painted one from Kerala share no single face, yet no one mistakes him. In Śilpa Śāstra the identity of a sacred figure lives in its lakṣaṇa: the gesture, the emblem, the headdress, the measured proportion. We remake ancient scenes the same way. Hathor keeps her horns, sun-disk and menat across every version, and the people who carry them change from Nile to Nubia to the Aegean. Here they are, side by side.
The science of making. Śilpa means art, craft and skill; śāstra means a systematic teaching. Stella Kramrisch read śilpa as spanning "art, skill, craft, labor, ingenuity, rite and ritual, form and creation." Śilpa Śāstra is the body of treatises that governs how images, paintings, bronzes, carvings and crafted things are made, measured and consecrated. (source)
We are testing these features and looking to develop them. This is Hathor's alpha work, made on our own servers — the images and videos she makes next are expected to be much better and more accurate. Tell us what works and what doesn't: every video page has 👍/👎, comments and timestamped notes.
The full gallery, every scene in every look: https://hathor.soapbox.community/remakes · Shilpa Shastra gallery: https://hathor.soapbox.community/gallery
La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 — 'the Old Man', Neanderthal — several possible faces
Source: c. 60,000–50,000 years ago · La Chapelle-aux-Saints, Corrèze, France · skull image: Skull of La Chapelle-aux-saints Man (Mousterian) Wellcome M0015765.jpg · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · 
Original: 
Realistic — sheet · face1 · face2 · face3 · face4 · face5
La Ferrassie 1 — Neanderthal — several possible faces
Source: c. 70,000–50,000 years ago · La Ferrassie, Dordogne, France · skull image: Ferrassie skull.jpg · 120 · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons · 
Original: 
Realistic — sheet · face1 · face2 · face3 · face4 · face5
Qafzeh 6 — early Homo sapiens — several possible faces
Source: c. 100,000–90,000 years ago · Qafzeh cave, near Nazareth · skull image: Qafzeh 6 cast.jpg · Velatrix · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons · 
Original: 
Realistic — sheet · face1 · face2 · face3 · face4 · face5
The plastered skull of Jericho — several possible faces
Source: c. 9,000–8,000 years ago (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) · Jericho · skull image: Plastered skull from Jericho, British Museum.jpg · APK · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · 
Original: 
Realistic — face1 · face2 · face3 · face4
Achilles and Ajax playing a board game
Source: Exekias, Attic black-figure amphora, Vatican Museums 344 · photo/scan: Daderot · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · cropped to the scene
Original: 
Realistic — Greek · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Achilles slays the Amazon queen Penthesilea
Source: Penthesilea Painter, Attic red-figure kylix, Munich Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2688 · photo/scan: Penthesilea Painter · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Original: 
Realistic — Greek · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Herakles leads Kerberos from the Underworld
Source: Andokides Painter, Attic bilingual amphora, Louvre F204 · photo/scan: Andokides Painter · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Original: 
Realistic — Greek · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Odysseus and the Sirens
Source: Siren Painter, Attic red-figure stamnos, British Museum E440 · photo/scan: Siren Painter (eponymous vase) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Original: 
Realistic — Greek · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Theseus kills the Minotaur
Source: Attic black-figure kylix (tondo), Louvre F83 · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · cropped to the scene
Original: 
Realistic — Greek
The king offers wine to Anubis
Source: Tomb of Horemheb (KV57); facsimile by Lancelot Crane, Metropolitan Museum · photo/scan: Creator:Lancelot Crane · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Original: 
Realistic — Egyptian · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
The singer Nany before Osiris and Isis
Source: Funerary papyrus of the Singer of Amun Nany, Metropolitan Museum · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons · cropped to the scene
Original: 
Realistic — Egyptian · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Userhat kneels before Osiris and the Goddess of the West
Source: Tomb of Userhat (TT51); facsimile, Metropolitan Museum · photo/scan: Norman de Garis Davies · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Original: 
Realistic — Egyptian · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Canario hombre
Source: Leonardo Torriani, 1592. Public domain
Original: 
Realistic — Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Canarios
Source: Leonardo Torriani, 1592. Public domain
Original: 
Realistic — Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Carthage
Source: William Linton, 1825. Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0
Original: 
Realistic — Punic (Carthaginian) · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Carthage, Byrsa hill
Source: Noomen9, photograph, 2021. CC BY-SA 4.0
Original: 
Realistic — Punic (Carthaginian) · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Carthage, the Punic ports
Source: Unknown author, before 1958. Public domain
Original: 
Realistic — Punic (Carthaginian) · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Citadel of Sidon
Source: David Roberts, 1839. Cleveland Museum of Art. Public domain
Original: 
Realistic — Punic (Carthaginian) · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Dido building Carthage
Source: J. M. W. Turner, 1815. Public domain
Original: 
Realistic — Punic (Carthaginian) · Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
Half vaporwave — Punic (Carthaginian) · Nubian
Efequén (Torriani)
Source: Leonardo Torriani, 1592. Public domain
Original: 
Realistic — Nubian · Libyan (Amazigh) · Levantine · Pale
All 20 scenes in this set, and every other remake, are in the gallery: https://hathor.soapbox.community/remakes. Made on our own servers in Hathor Studio; each scene links to its place in the gallery.