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...
A bas relief depicts Isis kneeling on a stool in the shape of the Nebu or gold symbol in hieroglyphs, goddess of motherhood, magic, healing, and rebirth. In addition to her traditional roles as wife, mother, healer, and protector of the dead, Isis was worshiped as the goddess of good fortune, the sea, and travel....
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...
The discovery of the tomb of Akhethotep, overlord of the 5th dynasty, in 1941 was and will forever remain one of the most spectacular discoveries in the history of Egyptology. Hassabollah Taieb recorded the moment for posterity modestly, as he considered the wooden figures to be his own ancestors. Akhethotep’s titles included that of a...
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...
Gleaming and delicately incised, this slender gold plaque once rested upon the embalmed body of king Psusennes I, positioned directly over the visceral incision, that necessary but vulnerable breach made by the embalmers to remove the internal organs during mummification. In both symbolism and execution, this exquisite object exemplifies the deeply spiritual and ritualistic concern...
The shrine of Hathor and the cow’s statue were retrieved from under heaps of debris south of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. The shrine is from the reign of Thutmose III. Its roof is painted blue with yellow stars to imitate the Vault of Heaven. The statue of Hathor as the divine...
