Ancient Egypt is renowned for its rich and diverse collection of artifacts, which provide valuable insights into the civilization’s history, culture, and daily life. These are just a few examples of the vast array of artifacts that have been unearthed in Ancient Egypt. They provide invaluable insights into the beliefs, practices, and achievements of this remarkable civilization.
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...
There is something curiously moving about leather; the way it warms to the touch, takes on a soft lustre with age, and carries the faint memory of its maker. And so, amid the gilded splendour of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, it is not the golden mask nor the bejewelled sandals that capture the breath...
This elegant gold signet bears the young king’s throne name, Nebkheperure, identifying him as the earthly manifestation of the sun-god Ra. Each tiny sign, crisply cut into the oval bezel, would have impressed the royal name into clay or wax, sealing decrees with divine authority. When you look closer, one sees the sun disc of...
Among the most personal treasures found within the Tomb of Tutankhamun, were his sandals; over eighty pairs of them, discovered neatly stored in a wooden trunk and immortalised in Harry Burton (1879-1940)’s evocative black-and-white photographs. As expected, several pairs were in remarkably delicate condition, and yet, through painstaking modern restoration, their splendour lives again. Some...
