This remarkably preserved Old Kingdom mummy offers a rare insight into early Egyptian burial practice, revealing a period when the body was arranged not in rigid formality, but in carefully composed repose. Through its posture, materials, and craftsmanship, it preserves a fleeting moment of ancient ritual, belief, and human care. He was laid down as...
Irthorru was a man who once rose each day not to fields or markets, but to the presence of a god. Living in Akhmim near Thebes around c. 600 B.C., Irthorru belonged to Egypt’s quiet elite; not a king, not a warrior, but a priest entrusted with one of the most intimate sacred duties imaginable;...
The Mummy of Bashiri is one of the most arresting survivals of Ancient Egyptian funerary art, not because of what has been revealed, but because of what has been deliberately left untouched. Now displayed in the Musée du Louvre, the mummy dates to the Ptolemaic Period, roughly the late fourth to first centuries B.C., a...
This finely carved limestone relief once adorned the tomb chapel of Horemheb, at a time when he was still a general serving under Tutankhamun. It records a moment of high ceremonial theatre, showcasing Horemheb’s huldiging, or formal honouring, for military and diplomatic success. At the centre, attendants place heavy gold collars around Horemheb’s neck. This...
This article below is a summary for a novice reader to grasp, for the full study, read here. The Genome of NUE001, an Old Kingdom Egyptian from Nuwayrat For centuries, the story of Ancient Egypt has been reconstructed from stone, art, and text. Temples, tombs, reliefs, and inscriptions have long been our primary witnesses. In...
Crafted from sycamore fig wood, a timber long associated in Ancient Egypt with rebirth and divine protection, this coffin was carefully gessoed and painted, allowing its richly symbolic decoration to gleam with colour and meaning. Measuring 208 × 68 cm, its surface becomes a canvas for theology, memory, and hope for eternal renewal. The coffin...
Carved from deep-hued jasper, this finely worked ram’s head amulet embodies the divine authority of Amun, the supreme god favoured by the Kushite rulers of Ancient Egypt’s 25th Dynasty. For the kings of Nubia, Amun was not merely a patron deity but the very source of royal legitimacy, worshipped above all at Napata and the...
This limestone relief fragment (Met Museum. 36.3.239) once formed part of a statue niche in the offering chapel of Senenmut, the influential official of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut. The surviving hieroglyphs above a kneeling woman most likely identify her as “his beloved sister Ahmose,” a reading reinforced by a wooden Osiris figure dedicated to a...
Carved in dark granodiorite, this commanding head of Amun bears features closely aligned with those of Tutankhamun, marking it as a royal commission of his reign. Though acquired in Cairo in 1907, the sculpture was almost certainly created for Karnak, Amun’s great temple at Thebes. The head belongs to the young king’s programme of restoration,...
At the very core of the vast Karnak temple complex lies one of the most restrained yet theologically potent spaces in Ancient Egypt: the Sanctuary of Amun-Re. Hidden deep within layers of pylons, courts, and hypostyle halls, this inner chamber was conceived not for public display, but for divine presence. Karnak was never a single...
