In this fragment painting from the Tomb of the Dancers, the girls are performing to the accompaniment of of clapping and finger-snapping, under the supervision of two male overseers. The occasion is perhaps a festival dance in honor of Hathor, goddess of music and dancing and also protector of the tombs of Western Thebes. “The...
A gilded, wooden statuette of King Tutankhamun stands on a wooden boat that is painted to represent a papyrus boat. Its details are picked out in gold leaf. The king, wearing the Deshret Red Crown of Lower Egypt, holds a harpoon poised to strike an unseen enemy. According to the myth of Osiris and Isis,...
This bust head belongs to Mentuemhat, the Fourth Prophet of Amun, Mayor of Thebes and Governor of Upper Egypt. He was the greatest man in Upper Egypt during the 25th Dynasty and at the beginning of the 26th Dynasty. The head depicts him as an old man who is bald. He has narrow eyes, well-defined...
This statuette of a hippo was molded in faience, a crushed quartz glazed and fired at a relatively low temperature. Copper salts in the glaze impart the bright blue or blue-green color so characteristic of faience objects. Over the animal’s naturalistic shape, the craftsman painted lily plants that appear as a giant tattoo. Small sculptures...
The statue depicts Ranefer, standing and is wearing an overlapped kilt of medium length. His hair was cut short and the eyes are painted. This splendid statue was found together with another statue, almost identical, in two niches in the chapel at his tomb at Saqqara. This one shows him in an old age while...
The Wadj amulet (also known as the papyrus column or scepter) is an Ancient Egyptian amulet in the shape of a papyrus stem. These amulets were made out of turquoise feldspar, as is indicated in the Book of the Dead. This faience amulet represents a papyrus column. Incised lines on the umbel delineate the leaves....
Ancient Egyptian hollow and smooth gold snake bracelet. The scales and details of the snakes’ head were chased after casting. Snake bracelets were very popular in antiquity. This type of bracelet was worn coiled around the wearer’s arm, the continuation of a fashion known earlier in the Greek world in the Classical and Hellenistic periods....
Vignette from the funerary papyrus of the scribe Djehutymes. In ancient Egypt, jackals and dogs were very common in the land between desert and urban areas, so they were associated with the world of necropolis and the dead. Specifically, their wandering among the tombs was interpreted as a perpetual guard service to the deceased. The...
This magnificent wooden chest of Tutankhamun is painted on all its surfaces with hunting and war scenes. On one side of the lid, King Tutankhamun is depicted in his chariot, hunting gazelles, deers, ostriches, and other desert animals. On the other side, he is shooting arrows at lions. The short sides shows the king is...
“If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to read and understanding hieroglyphs, this book is the perfect guide. This book will teach you all you need to know about deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs, with the help of hundreds of the most commonly used hieroglyphs arranged in easy-to-use tables, with translations, plus examples from monuments, ancient documents...
