This colossal limestone bust depicts a female figure wearing what is known as the ‘Hathor wig’, which has wide lappets on either side of the face that curve at the ends and a very broad lappet at the back. This sort of wig has been named after the goddess Hathor because it resembles her hairstyle,...
Yuya and Thuya are the parents of Queen Tiye, the beloved Great Royal Wife of king Amenhotep III. The pair were buried at the famous Valley of the Kings, within their tomb known as KV46, which was discovered in February of 1905 by by the British Egyptologist James E. Quibell, during excavations funded by the...
This gilded cartonnage mask shows Yuya wearing a long wig. His eyebrows and eyes are inlaid with blue glass, marble and obsidian. He wears an elaborate collar that goes beneath his wig. It consists of eleven rows of golden beads and it ends in teardrop-shaped pendants. The inside of the mask is covered in bitumen....
These limestone fragments were originally part of a scene in which royal hairdressers attended Queen Neferu. The relief on the right represents Neferu, referred to as “The King’s Wife,” wearing a magnificent beaded usekh collar. Behind her, Henut, the hairdresser, has already pinned one strand of hair and twisted another. The relief on the left...
“Paddle dolls” got their nickname from their likeness to modern Ping-Pong paddles. They all include exaggerated images of female genitalia. Some are painted with crude representations of couples having sexual intercourse, while others have pictures of birth-gods. The motif of birth and reproduction shows that “paddle dolls” increased fertility for both the living and, most...
Head of a woman (momie de femme), discovered at Thebes in 1799. Little is known about the identity of the woman, but she dates from between the New Kingdom Period and Late Period (when the last Native rulers of Ancient Egypt held power), c. 1550–332 B.C. Mummified head of a woman (momie de femme), discovered...
This glazed tile of a Nubian is from the remnants of a palace built by Ramesses III in Tell el-Yahudiyeh. This tile is only surviving in shards and has lost most of its former colour and gloss. Tell el Yahudiyeh is a city in Egypt’s Eastern Delta. The site has remnants dating from the Second...
This silver diadem was thought to have come from Nubkheperre Intef’s Dra’ Abu el-Naga tomb. Nubkheperre Intef (also known as Antef, Inyotef, and Intef VI) was an Egyptian ruler of the 17th Dynasty of Egypt who reigned in Thebes during the Second Intermediate Period, when Egypt was divided into rival dynasties, including the Hyksos in...
This limestone striding figure of Nefertiti was unearthed in the archaeological remnants of the sculptor Thutmose’s workshop, within the remains of the same room (Amarna House P 47.02. Room 19) where the famous bust of the queen was discovered in 1912 by Ludwig Borchardt, at Tel el-Amarna. The figure was discovered in several fragments and...
This family portrait features Nebseni, chief of the royal stables alongside his wife Baket, and their son named Imen, whose face has sadly been destroyed, but it appears the boy stands before an altar. Finely carved from limestone, the piece measures at 87cm tall and 35cm wide, with a depth of 33.5cm. It was discovered...
