“His leopard skin is upon him… this king is unharmed with his flesh, perfect it is for this king with his name…”— Pyramid Texts, Utterances 224–225, 338a–b The leopard skin held a profound and enduring place in Egyptian thought. Attested from the earliest dynasties, with roots reaching back into the Predynastic period, it functioned as...
Known as “The Wilbour Plaque“, named after American Egyptologist Charles Edwin Wilbour (1833–1896), who purchased the piece in 1881. It currently resides in America at the Brooklyn Museum (16.48) in NYC. It is thought this piece was originally part of a larger scene, and was used as a reference piece for royal artisans. There is...
The Festival of Nehebkau reminds us that, in Ancient Egypt, renewal was not only written in the stars or carried by the Nile,but enacted at the table, among companions, in acts of offering and care. Through the evidence left behind of the festival, we see that the re-binding of life was not distant or divine...
There was no single, named “Spring Equinox festival” in Ancient Egypt in the way we might imagine today… but the equinox sat within a deeply meaningful seasonal and cosmic framework. The Ancient Egyptians did not divide the year into four seasons like we do. Instead, they followed a three-season cycle tied to the Nile: Akhet...
This small wooden statuette represents Taweret, whose name means “the Great One,” a powerful household deity revered for her protection of women and children. Her composite form (hippopotamus body, crocodile back and tail, and leonine limbs) draws upon some of the most formidable creatures of the Nile, each known for its fierce defence of its...
Irynefer was a workman of the royal necropolis at Deir el-Medina, the famous village that housed the craftsmen responsible for cutting and decorating the tombs of the kings in the Valley of the Kings. His title, “Servant in the Place of Truth” (Egyptian: sḏm-ꜥš m st mꜣꜥt), was the formal designation given to these elite...
This fragment of wall painting, often known as the “Princess Fresco”, formed the lower portion of a larger decorative scene from the royal palace at Amarna, the city founded by Akhenaten. The scene depicts the king and his queen, Nefertiti, relaxing informally with their daughters within the palace residence. Two of the princesses are shown...
When acquired in 1834, this mummy rested within a gilded cartonnage case and a wooden coffin adorned with a luminous gold face and inlaid glass eyes. Painted deities and hieroglyphic inscriptions name the deceased as Djedkhonsiufankh, son of Pennestytawy, grandson of Nesamun; a lineage carefully recorded to secure remembrance for eternity. Radiographic examination reveals a...
Hes-ewers were used for pouring ritual libations. It is not known how it came to be in the tomb of Psusennes I in Tanis on the east bank of the Nile in Lower Egypt. Ahmose fought against the Hyksos, and it is possible that it came from a monument of his reign in the eastern...
This remarkably preserved Old Kingdom mummy offers a rare insight into early Egyptian burial practice, revealing a period when the body was arranged not in rigid formality, but in carefully composed repose. Through its posture, materials, and craftsmanship, it preserves a fleeting moment of ancient ritual, belief, and human care. He was laid down as...
Irthorru was a man who once rose each day not to fields or markets, but to the presence of a god. Living in Akhmim near Thebes around c. 600 B.C., Irthorru belonged to Egypt’s quiet elite; not a king, not a warrior, but a priest entrusted with one of the most intimate sacred duties imaginable;...
The Mummy of Bashiri is one of the most arresting survivals of Ancient Egyptian funerary art, not because of what has been revealed, but because of what has been deliberately left untouched. Now displayed in the Musée du Louvre, the mummy dates to the Ptolemaic Period, roughly the late fourth to first centuries B.C., a...
This finely carved limestone relief once adorned the tomb chapel of Horemheb, at a time when he was still a general serving under Tutankhamun. It records a moment of high ceremonial theatre, showcasing Horemheb’s huldiging, or formal honouring, for military and diplomatic success. At the centre, attendants place heavy gold collars around Horemheb’s neck. This...
