Carved from luminous elephant ivory, this wonderfully animated mechanical dog is shown in a vigorous, full-stretch leap, every muscle carved in lively tension. Beneath its chest sits a discreet lever mechanism: when pressed, the dog opens and closes its mouth, revealing a pair of tiny teeth and a red-painted tongue. Originally, the jaw was operated...
This finely made bronze axe-head was crafted as an ornamental piece rather than a functional weapon. Its blade is pierced with an intricate openwork scene of two bulls locked in combat, their horns interlaced in a moment of tense, sculptural energy. Both sides show carefully tooled internal detail, revealing the high skill of the metalworker....
This magnificent red-granite lion, carved in the reign of Amenhotep III, shows the animal in a graceful recumbent pose, forepaws crossed and tail curled neatly around the rump. Its modelling is a masterful blend of stylised elegance and striking naturalism: a circular mane frames the head; raised fur textures mark the chest and shoulders; the...
Beneath the quiet lights of the Brooklyn Museum rests the head of a tomb statue, carved in limestone and once painted in warm honey-brown tones: a complexion both lifelike and luminous, as though the gentleman had only just stepped out of Egypt’s Old Kingdom sun. His wig, fashioned in the familiar tiered “helmet” style of...
Fashioned from the thinnest sheets of shimmering gold, these delicate sandals were never meant to grace a living foot. Instead, they were lovingly crafted to adorn the body of the deceased, guiding her in gilded splendour into the afterlife. Beautiful though they are, one imagines they would have been dreadfully uncomfortable for earthly wandering, and...
A tender and unexpectedly gentle vision of Akhenaten greets us here; not the exaggerated, long (almost lion-like) faced king of the Amarna reliefs, but a softer, quieter sovereign in painted limestone. A faint flush of red still clings to his lips, a ghost of the colours that once enlivened his courtly presence. Upon his brow...
In the long reign of Ramesses II (between 1279 and 1213 B.C.), devotion could be as grand as a temple façade or as humble as a handheld shrine. This charming fragment, now housed in The Met (90.6.1), once formed part of a larger votive statue crafted by an official of the king. In Ancient Egypt,...
Among the loveliest relics of the Amarna Period are a handful of carved slabs, now scattered across the world (from the Kestner Museum in Hanover to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Brooklyn Museum of New York) showing Akhenaten as a human-headed sphinx. He crouches in the classic pose, forepaws extended, muscles taut...
The “Prosthetic Toe of Tabaket-en-Mut,” commonly called the Cairo Toe or Cairo Wooden Toe, is one of the oldest known functional prosthetic body parts in the world. The Cairo Toe is a wooden and leather prosthetic big toe discovered on the mummy of an Egyptian noblewoman named Tabaket-en-Mut, likely the daughter of a priest. Although...
In the late 19th century, when Cairo’s streets were a swirl of dust, donkeys, perfumed coffee, and antiquities hawkers. It was among these souqs (markets) which Sir Flinders Petrie, the legendary British Egyptologist, acquired a small, rough-hewn limestone head, scarcely 10–12 cm high. These markets were, at the time, half curiosity-shop and half archaeological gamble,...
In the days when Akhenaten’s sun-drenched court shimmered beneath the desert sky, jewellery was never merely adornment, it was theology in colour. This broad collar, formed of technicolour faience beads of oval shapes, feels as if it were crafted from the very rays of the Aten itself, caught mid-beam and coaxed into beads. Measuring just...
Pharaohs are rarely shown in close companionship with Seth, let alone flanked by him in statuary. Most kings preferred the reassuring embrace of Amun, Ptah, Horus, or Osiris. Yet, the Ramesside kings stand out strikingly. In several monuments; especially at Avaris/Per-Ramesses, Qantir, Sehel, and parts of Abydos, Seth appears alongside them with a sort of...
Upon the west bank at Thebes, in the Tomb of Menkheperraseneb, High Priest of Amun, a vivid procession unfolds across the plastered wall. Here, emissaries of Amurru, a vassal land of Syria-Palestine, approach the Egyptian court bearing tribute to the conquering Thutmose III. The men are rendered with striking individuality: pale-skinned figures in patterned tunics,...
