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...
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...
Pharaohs are rarely shown in close companionship with Seth, let alone flanked by him in statuary. Most kings preferred the reassuring embrace of Amun, Ptah, Horus, or Osiris. Yet, the Ramesside kings stand out strikingly. In several monuments; especially at Avaris/Per-Ramesses, Qantir, Sehel, and parts of Abydos, Seth appears alongside them with a sort of...
Upon the west bank at Thebes, in the Tomb of Menkheperraseneb, High Priest of Amun, a vivid procession unfolds across the plastered wall. Here, emissaries of Amurru, a vassal land of Syria-Palestine, approach the Egyptian court bearing tribute to the conquering Thutmose III. The men are rendered with striking individuality: pale-skinned figures in patterned tunics,...
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...
Exploring the origins and evolution of the word Pharaoh, from the ancient Egyptian pr-ˁˁ (per-ah) meaning “Great House” to its later Greek and modern usage. Once a term for the royal palace, it came to symbolise the living embodiment of kingship itself.
