Userkhaure-Setepenre Setnakhte came to the throne at a moment of uncertainty; a king without clear ancestry who nonetheless restored order and re-established divine kingship after the troubled close of the Nineteenth Dynasty. His reign, brief but decisive (c. 1189–1186 B.C.), marked the founding of Egypt’s 20th Dynasty, the final great line of the New Kingdom....
This luminous broad collar, fashioned from glazed composition, is a jewel of colour and meaning. Its three openwork rows bloom like the gardens of Amarna, with the upper ring bearing yellow mandrake fruits, beneath them unfurl green fronds of date palm, and below, a fringe of yellow, white, and mauve lotus petals. Between each pendant...
Delicate as a blossom and radiant as moonlight, this exquisite vase takes the form of a pomegranate, its rounded body swelling with natural grace. It once held perfumed oils or unguents; sweet offerings for eternity, and was discovered among the treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The fruit itself, newly introduced to Egypt during the 18th Dynasty,...
Before Egypt’s first kings unified the Two Lands, local cultures along the Nile were already producing works of remarkable grace and imagination. The Predynastic Period (spanning roughly from 4500 to 3100 B.C.) was a time of experimentation and regional identity, when communities from Upper Egypt, particularly around Naqada, Abydos, and Hierakonpolis, evolved the symbols, rituals,...
Carved in lustrous ivory, this remarkable statuette represents a beardless king wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, its weight seemingly pressing down upon his prominent ears. Cloaked in the short, stiff robe of the Heb-Sed festival, his posture conveys not youthful vigour but a striking sense of age; his shoulders stoop, his neck thrusts...
Discovered in a communal tomb at Medinet Gurob, near the lush margins of the Faiyum, the wooden statuette of the “Lady of the House, Tuty” offers a glimpse into the refined world of Egypt’s late 18th Dynasty, during the reign of Amenhotep III. Shimmering with detail of glittering gold, she stands poised and slender, her...
Across the sun-soaked civilisations of the ancient Mediterranean, few fruits captured the imagination quite like the pomegranate. Known to the Ancient Egyptians as “ḥnmt”, with its ruby skin and hidden constellation of seeds, the pomegranate became a living metaphor for fertility, abundance, and eternal renewal. To taste it was to share in nature’s secret of...
This finely painted fragment comes from the tomb of Sobekhotep, “Overseer of the Seal“; the highest treasury official under king Thutmose IV. It forms part of a grand tribute scene in which foreign envoys bring precious offerings to Egypt’s court. The men shown here are Asiatics from Syria–Palestine, known to the Egyptians as Retjenu or...
Discovered among the celebrated Drovetti Collection and now preserved in the Musée du Louvre, these two wooden female figures are remarkable survivals of Egyptian furniture craftsmanship from the Late Period, likely the 25th Dynasty (c. 760–656 B.C.). Their form finds close parallels in the elegant bed and couch supports unearthed in the tomb of Tutankhamun...
Ever seen an ancient meme? This limestone sketch (Musée du Louvre Museum. E 32954) from Deir el-Medina might just be one! Drawn over 3,000 years ago (c. 1295–1069 B.C.) by an artisan of the royal tomb-builders’ village depicts a cat standing upright, holding or offering a vase and a lotus flower to another seated cat,...
