Artifacts

A Syrian man carved into a schist statue base

This fragment of a statue base shows a Syrian man’s head and shoulders. He wears a fringed robe embroidered with rosettes and has long hair and a headband. He also has a beard and a moustache, something that Syrians were usually depicted with. The man’s complete figure was positioned flat on his belly, his back...

18th Dynasty Wig

This wig made of human hair, also referred to as a “double/duplex wig” due to the two contrasting styles in one piece, would have been worn by a male of elite status in New Kingdom Egyptian society and was discovered in Thebes. The wig is made of real human hair, plaited and tousled, and its...

Steatite Tiye

Made of glazed steatite, often known as soapstone, and at 29cm tall, this figurine shows Queen Tiye in full royal regalia. She is pictured wearing the double-plume crown, with a triple uraeus upon a falcon-winged headpiece cascading over her extravagant and expansive wig. A finely detailed usekh collar is worn around her neck and rests...

Lady Tjepu

Lady Tjepu

One of the most remarkable paintings to survive from ancient Egypt, this depiction of the noblewoman Tjepu came from a tomb built for her son Nebamun and a sculptor named Ipuky. Egyptian artists usually did not depict individuals as they truly looked, but rather as eternally youthful, lavishly dressed, and in an attitude of repose....

Nude figure of the Seal Bearer Tjetji

Nude figure of the Seal Bearer Tjetji

Tjetji is shown in the classic pose of a standing official, with his left leg advanced, a long staff in his left hand, and a sekhem scepter (now lost) held horizontally in his right hand. The arms of this statue were made separately and pegged to the body, and the feet tenoned into a separate...

Metternich Stela

Metternich Stela (Cippus of Horus)

The Metternich stela belongs to a group of stelae known as the “Cippi of Horus” or ‘Stelae of Horus on the crocodiles’. The top half of this stela was skillfully carved in the hard dark stone. On the part below the central figure panel, rows of hieroglyphs record thirteen magic spells to protect against venomous...

Karomama Meritmut

Karomama Meritmut (prenomen: Sitamun Mutemhat) was an ancient Egyptian high priestess and “God’s wife of Amun”, during the 22nd Dynasty. She is perhaps the same as Karomama, the daughter of king Osorkon II, who was represented in the king’s sed-hall and succeeded Henuttawy as High Priestess. Furthermore, Karomama, daughter of Osorkon is portrayed in the...

Mummified Dog

This mummy of a dog was discovered besides the mummy of a baboon within Tomb KV50, near King Amenhotep II’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Edward R. Ayrton unearthed Tomb KV50, within the Valley of the Kings, in 1906 while excavating on behalf of Theodore M. Davis. The tomb is part of the...

Nebamun’s pool

Nebamun was a middle-ranking official “scribe and grain accountant” during the period of the New Kingdom in Ancient Egypt. He is thought to have lived ca. 1350 BC and worked at the vast temple complex near Thebes, where the state-god Amun was worshiped. His name was translated as “My Lord is Amun”, and his association...

Mummy Portrait of a Woman

Mummy Portrait of a Woman

A mature woman gazes out from this Romano-Egyptian mummy portrait. The name of the woman, Isidora, is written on what remains of the cartonnage, or linen mummy case. She wears an elegant, braided hairstyle that was fashionable in the early 100s A.D., and she is fully accessorized with a gold hairpin, gold-and-pearl earrings, and three...