Dating from the first quarter of the 2nd century A.D., this piece depicting a woman’s head and chest section, is what remains of a cartonnage coffin, which would have been fitted over her mummy prior to burial. The woman has black curled or tousled hair with a flower crown garland adorning her head. She is...
The Book of the Dead of Nakht is one of the most beautifully preserved and spiritually rich funerary papyri to survive from Ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom. Dating to the early 18th Dynasty, around 1400 B.C., it was created for Nakht, a scribe and astronomer of the Temple of Amun at Karnak, who held esteemed religious...
The faïence mask of Hathor was discovered in what is now known as Timna Valley Park, in the southern Aravah (Arabah) desert (Wādī ʿArabah), about 25 km north of modern Eilat. It comes from an Egyptian-style shrine erected near the great copper mines worked during the Late Bronze Age. Hathor, revered as the radiant “Lady...
The Nile was far more than a ribbon of water through Egypt’s deserts: it was a living larder, brimming with silvered scales and darting fins. From its depths and from the quiet marshes at its edges, fish provided nourishment, inspiration, and mystery to the Egyptians for thousands of years. To the farmer in his reed...
The Red Chapel of Hatshepsut (often called the Chapelle Rouge) is a small temple constructed of red quartzite to house the sacred barque of the god Amun of Karnak. Erected within the precinct of Amun at Karnak, the largest religious complex in Ancient Egypt, the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut was not secluded; rather, it was...
Sennedjem (“The one who pleases”) lived during the late 18th Dynasty through the 19th Dynasty, working under Seti I and Ramesses II (c. 1290–1250 B.C.). He held the title “Servant in the Place of Truth” (sḏm-ʿš m st-mꜣꜥt), which means he was a craftsman of the royal necropolis, living at Deir el-Medina. His work involved...
Both in life and death, the Ancient Egyptians adorned their world with plants whose meanings reached far beyond the garden. Flowers and fruits were not merely decorative, they were potent symbols, bearing associations of love, fertility, regeneration, and eternal life. In the imagery of tombs, such flora carried a language of their own, one that...
Ornaments of the King Beyond the gilded colonnades and perfumed courts, within the hidden chambers of Ancient Egypt’s royal palaces, lay a world that was both political theatre and domestic intrigue. Far from being merely a place of idle indulgence, the royal harem was a stage upon which Egypt’s foreign policy, dynastic anxieties, and ideals...
This pylon, or gateway, was discovered at Tell el-Amarna. It is related to the cult of the royal family, which has been noticed in steles found in private houses at Amarna. It was believed that the royal family acted as intermediaries between the gods and the people. This example is a household altar, or shrine,...
This delicate conical vessel, carved from translucent quartz crystal, dates to the reign of Khufu during Egypt’s Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4 (2551–2528 B.C.). Measuring a mere 4.2 cm in height and 4.3 cm in diameter, the cup bears a small nick along its rim and traces of yellow-brown staining upon its side and base, the...
