Some ‘hawk’ mummies are the remains of birds who were bred and lived in captivity. Many hawk mummy bundles contain only partial skeletons, or none at all. Most animals, however, may have been seen rather as heralds who entered the Afterlife grateful to the sponsor who paid for their care and feeding and embalming. They...
Rising from the sun-dappled ruins of Heracleion, the black granite statue of Arsinoë II, now housed in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum, stands as a resplendent emblem of divine queenship and cultural fusion. A masterpiece of Ptolemaic sculpture, it reflects the dynasty’s conscious interweaving of Ancient Egyptian tradition and Greek elegance. Arsinoë steps forth in...
This silver winged scarab is inlaid with lapis lazuli, red jasper and green feldspar. It seems to have been fixed to a larger object since there are fasteners on the back side. The winged scarab was a powerful image of solar rebirth for the deceased. Amulets in the form of scarab beetles had become enormously...
This mask would have covered the head of the mummy of a an Egyptian man. It is highly decorated with images of protective amulets and gods to aid in the journey towards becoming a glorified spirit in the afterlife. Over the head spread the wings of a vulture while a winged sun disc, symbol of...
In this statue King Ramesses II appears in the Blue Khepresh Crown or war helmet, grasping the heqa scepter. The sculpture is world renowned as the Turin masterpiece portrait of Egypt’s longest reigning and most famous king. Breaking with traditional royal portraits, the great general wears a long full robe that is asymmetrically draped to...
This andesite porphyry jar with handles for suspension was found in a tomb dates to the Old Kingdom (ca. 2686-2181 BC), it is an object handed down from generation to generation: the wavy handle is in fact a decorative motif typical of the Predynastic Period (ca. 4400-3100 BC). Considering the technology available at the time...
This colossal sandstone statue depicts king Seti II and is over five meters high! The statue was originally placed on the religious path of the sacred boats of the Theban triad (Amun, Mut and Khonsu) and it was essential that, also by means of a statue, the king presented himself to the entire population engaged...
This statuette is of a servant girl probably the best known of all the Egyptian objects in the Oriental Museum’s collection. It is reputedly from the tomb of Meryptah, High Priest of Ptah at Thebes. It is famous both for the quality of the craftsmanship and for the natural pose of the girl’s body. The...
The back of this wooden chair, which belonged to the scribe Reniseneb, is handsomely veneered with ivory and embellished with incised decoration showing the owner seated on a chair of identical form. It is the earliest surviving chair with such a representation, and it is the only non-royal example known. The scene and accompanying text...
Originally Egyptologists at the museum thought that the mummy of Ankh Hor was untouched, but recent x-rays found modern pins and clips. A re-examination of the cartonnage revealed that it had been cut, re-sealed and painted over. Although no one knows why it was opened, it is possible that Victorian researchers started to unwrap Ankh...
