This necklace was discovered in a cartouche-shaped box that was found on the floor of the treasury and likely worn during Tutankhamun’s life. Pectorals attached to necklaces and decorated with figures of deities and the symbols that were associated with them formed a high proportion of the jewelry found in Tutankhamun’s tomb. In this example...
This colossal statue of Amenhotep III and Tiye is a group statue and three of their daughters. It is the largest known Ancient Egyptian family group ever carved. The almond-shaped eyes and arched eyebrows of the figures are of typical late 18th Dynasty style. Amenhotep III wears the nemes headdress with the uraeus or royal...
The braided beard and the flat cap with remnants of double plumes identify this head from a statue god as Amun. His small eyes are separated by a curved depression from the rounded brow ridge; his broad face shows full lips with sharp contours, and, from the side, a slightly drooping chin. These features closely...
This wooden Ka statue is one of two statues that stood guarding the entrance of the burial chamber of Tutankhamun. The King is wearing the Khat headdress and in one hand the king is holding the hedge mace, as the traditional weapon of a victorious king; and in the other, a staff in the form...
In this gold statuette, Amun-Re stands in the traditional pose with the left leg forward. He is identified by his characteristic flat-topped crown, which originally supported two tall gold feathers, now missing. He wears the gods’ braided beard with a curled tip and carries an ankh emblem in his left hand and a scimitar across...
A fine limestone statue of king Amenhotep II depicted in the form of the god Ptah-Tatenen from the Karnak Cachette. Tatenen (or Tanen) was the god of the primordial mound in ancient Egyptian religion. His name means “risen land” or ‘exalted earth’, as well as referring to the silt of the Nile. Both Tatenen and...
The deceased Kha and his wife Merit worship Osiris, Lord of the Underworld and Judge of the Dead, detail of a vignette from the Book of the Dead of Kha. The deceased needed all the help he or she could get on his or her long journey to the afterlife, a place full of evil...
As a sphinx, Hatshepsut displays a lion’s mane and a king’s beard. Hatshepsut ruled as a man, not as a woman, and for this reason her royal protocols and titles are always written without the feminine qualification, which is the “T” letter in hieroglyphs. This is the case in the text inscribed on the base...
Maatkare Mutemhat was the daughter of Pinedjem I, the powerful High Priest of Amun, who, in his reverence for the past, bestowed upon his children the names of Egypt’s greatest rulers. To his daughter, he gave the throne name of Queen Hatshepsut, linking her legacy to that of one of the most formidable women to...
This exquisite funerary shroud, woven and painted in 2nd century A.D. Roman Egypt, presents a compelling fusion of cultures: where Pharaonic faith endures beneath the veneer of imperial Rome. Now housed in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, the textile is a testament to how Egypt’s ancient religious identity was never entirely eclipsed...
